India is all set to have server farms. This means that the government will facilitate the setting up of networked servers in India.
"Most of the Indian companies have their servers in the United States, as the costs are very high in India. The Department of Information Technology is looking at this, and soon companies will be able to set up server farms in India itself," Dayanidhi Maran, Union Minister for IT and Telecom said, while delivering the inaugural address at the two-day Digital Summit 2006, organised by the Internet & Mobile Association of India in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Server farms (a group of networked servers that are housed in one location and maintained by an enterprise to fulfil server needs beyond the capacity of one machine) will have international standards and will offers services at rates that at par with international standards.
This move will ensure good connectivity speed and reduce costs benefiting Indian companies tremendously, said Maran.
The minister also announced that the government is working with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) to create an Indian language browser to increase Net usage in India. "In India, only 5 per cent of the population can read and write English. We have done little to reach out to the larger section of the population. The Department of Information Technology is working on setting up an Indian language browser," Maran said.
"There is a need for an Indian language translation browser. DIT and CDAC are working together to come under one umbrella and create an Indian language browser," Maran said.
"Preliminary work for the project has already started and we expect to complete it within two to three years," he added.
About 100,000 kiosks will be set up in rural areas to help villagers access any information: be it weather, land records or even payment of taxes. Touch-screen information kiosks will enable a large section of illiterate population also to access these services.
The government has already invested Rs 3,300 crore (Rs 33 billion) in several e-governance projects, Maran said.
"The New IT Act is being formulated. Stricter laws for dealing with cyber crimes will come into force. The new Act will address most of the issues plaguing the IT sector. The government will also provide total support to the IT sector," Maran assured.
The e-commerce sector is booming and there is a need to change the Indian mentality to it, the minister said. He, however, added that transactions should be more secure.
"Last year, we succeeded in launching a Rs 10,000 PC. The content should also grow to meet the needs of a varied set of customers. PC-penetration in rural areas will grow with the launch of the Rs 10,000 PC," Maran said.
Content is developed by private players all over the world. Private firms should develop content and the government will be the catalyst to propel growth, he said. "We must now look forward to low-cost laptops," he added.
Photograph: Jewella C Miranda
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