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India can be manufacturing hub too, says Gates

Fakir Chand in Bangalore

Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates commended India to turn into a manufacturing hub as it had the required skills, low-cost labor, good sense of technology, and advanced software expertise.

Addressing about 100 CEOs at Infosys campus on the outskirts of Bangalore on Wednesday during his maiden visit to the city, Gates said India and China were the two countries which would define the future of world business.

"I wonder why India is behind China in manufacturing, including electronic hardware. It (India) has to find its areas of opportunities in improved government policies and superior infrastructure," Gates stated.

At the one-hour interactive session, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Gates focussed on the importance of technology in realising the potential of India.

"If 1990-1999 was a great decade for the pesonal computers, when the standardisation of software in the form of MS-DOS, Windows and Internet Protocol empowered the masses, the current decade (2001-2009) will be the digital decade.

"The basic trend in this decade will be towards allowing complex business processes and activities to be conducted digitally through a combination of hardware and software," Gates disclosed.

Lauding the contribution of the India IT industry, Gates said the new trend in converging technologies would mean creation of millions of high-paying jobs in the Indian software and other knowledge-based industries.

"India can achieve this feat by furthering education and by improving the communications infrastructure, leading to better prices and options for millions of its users," Gates declared, adding that software would reduce the problems of distance, and Indians would be able to capture more outsourced offshore work.

The software scenario of the digital decade, according to Gates, will comprise:

• Digitisation of Reading: whereby on-screen reading, writing, annotation and note taking will be digitised.

  It will also mean the digitised use of ink and voice. Displaying a Tablet PC at the session, Gates mentioned that the tablet form factor increases the number of hours one can spend reading on the screen and brings the use of ink into the PC experience.

• Digital Media: wherein any form of media could be easily organised, edited and shared.

• Trustworthy Systems: which will mean systems will always work, be fault tolerant, have auto back-up and synchronising capabilities, and will be self repairing.

• Streamline Communications: It will include features such as one address for contacting, voice video, screen call, and information management. In short, the screen world and voice world will come together.

Gates also explained Microsoft's philosophy behind the digital business processes. The philosophy behind the XML and Web Services Foundation is letting computers find each other and exchange information meaningfully.

"Today, collaboration between computers is a rare and cumbersome process," he admitted.

Gates also cited three Indian organisations which had effectively used the .NET technology: ICICI Bank for enabling complex business transactions, project Bhoomi by the Karnataka government for effective governance and the Central Depository Services for securing information.

Gates committed that Microsoft would adopt a shared approach with India through education, research and innovation to create a vibrant economy.

The exclusive session of select CEOs with Gates was chaired by Anand G Mahindra, vice-president Confederation of Indian Industry.

Infosys' chairman. and chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy was also present on the occasion, besides Digital GlobalSoft managing director Som Mittal, and others.

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