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India seeks US help for IT growth, curbing cyber crime

Information Technology Minister Pramod Mahajan has sought US investment and technology to carry forward India's information technology revolution, which will be responsible for putting the country on a higher growth path.

Addressing a press conference in Washington on Thursday night, Mahajan said that he also met officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, to forge cooperation between the United States and India in dealing with cyber crimes.

He was all for sharing US expertise in the field. Arrangements could be made for the training of Indian officials in the United States. Seminars could be organised in India where US experts could go come for exchange of views. It was a new problem and India would like to benefit from the US experience.

He also saw officials of the United States Small Business Administration, or SBA, and exchanged views on how small industry people could be used in advancing India's information technology sector.

Mahajan said he had asked some of the leading Non-Resident Indians, or NRIs, engaged in the computer business to submit a report in 30 days on the changes they could like in the telecom sector in India to help the country's information technology revolution take off.

Mahajan said NRIs engaged in information industry would be treated as VIPs in India and would be made state guests when they visit in New Delhi.

He said India was keen on expanding the capacity of its engineering school to double the output of computer experts from 100,000 a year at present to 200,000 in a decade to meet the computer industry's trained manpower demand at home and abroad.

He said Cisco president John Chamber had shown interest in India's technical education and promised to finance a few thousand information technology institutions. He would be visiting India later this year.

The minister said he had urged Yahoo.com to extend its operations to India. It was the only major computer firm that had not opened its shop in India, he added.

Mahajan also visited the New York Stock Exchange where only two Indian companies had been listed so far. He expressed hope that about 100 Indian companies would be on its roll in few years time.

He declined to comment on the expansion of the HIB visa that allows highly skilled foreigners to come and work in the United States. Most such visa holders are from India.

UNI

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