Update On Aug 12, 04:35 pm ist
There are close to 25-30 such companies currently and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MoS for IT and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship said the growth and potential opportunity is “possible”
Large Indian technology companies can grow from the 25 today, to 500-600 in the next three to five years, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State (MoS) for Information Technology (IT) and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship said.
He was speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Annual Meeting 2021 on August 12 and said, “In India there are 25-30 technology companies that are (each) over Rs 5,000 crore or above. In the next three to five years, these companies can grow to 500-600.”
“I have looked at the arithmetic and potential opportunity for growth and this is possible. For the Indian technology sector, there is opportunity now more than like never before, which they can expand into,” Chandrasekhar added.
Further he said the government is prioritising need for skilled talent by stepping up its reskilling efforts, through the National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT), which is under the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY).
“India must become highly skilled human resources that can cater to not just Indian needs but also global. To achieve this, there is a conscious effort to increase the skill through NIELIT from 10 lakh to 25 lakh,” he stated.
There is also a huge push towards BharatNet, which Chandrasekhar said has moved slower than expected, but “it is a monumental task to get fibre optics network to all the villages”. To accelerate this, the Centre is getting into a public private partnership model for last mile connectivity, he added.
Responding to Tata Consultancy Services CEO Rajesh Gopinathan, on having an integrated framework for research, Chandrasekhar said that as the National Research Foundation takes off, the government will engage with the industry on how to integrate ambitions on research and development (R&D).He added that the IT ministry will also focus on “evolving frameworks” related to data privacy, rather than having something “set in stone”.