PREAMBLE

Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, in his first address to the Nation on the March 25th, 1998 observed that " ... This [Information technology] is one area  where India can quickly establish global dominance. India can be fully  competitive in this area and with tremendous pay-offs in terms of wealth creation and generation of high quality employment ...". Recognizing the tremendous opportunities that IT could provide the nation, the Prime Minister of India declared that the promotion of IT would be one of the five top priorities of the Government. Accordingly, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) issued a Notification on the 22nd May 1998 constituting a National Task Force on Information Technology and Software Development.

The Prime Minister has given the Task Force five main tasks and 15 terms of reference to work on and submit its recommendations to the Government within 30 days of the Notification. The task force completed its deliberations on the ways and means to remove bottlenecks in the path of rapid development of IT in India and give a big boost to Indian IT & Software industry and submitted its Information Technology Action Plan (ITAP) on 4th June 1998.

The Information Technology Action Plan contains 108 recommendations covering both the steps for the removal of bottlenecks and broad promotional measures crucial for boosting IT in India.These recommendations cover a wide spectrum of issues relating to banking, commerce, defence, finance, electronics, human resource development, revenue, rural development and telecommunications.

The Task Force (TF) recommendations address the critical national needs in the areas of information infrastructure, Internet access, software development and exports, hardware manufacture, electronic commerce, R&D in IT, manpower training and education.

THE PRESENT CONTEXT

Information Technology entails such convergent technologies as computer technology, telecommunication technology, audio-visual technology and reprographic technology applied individually or in combination for the generation, recording and storage, processing and organization, dissemination and exchange of data and information in magnetic, electronic and audio-visual media. It also covers the interface between human beings and machines as well as the associated social, economic and cultural matters.

Information Content is an important aspect of the enabling IT and the dependent Information Industry. In a global access, the content further determines the value and the volume of revenue that people generate. Prevalent pointers are that information content should meet both the business and community needs of people. In a developing country, social needs like delivery of health care, education, community information are of utmost importance. In a global network, the task of content creation is likely to be left to a number of small entrepreneurs who are in the best position to create value for the users. For instance, Internet allows content providers to supply street maps to databases / information for medical care, treatment of various diseases and so on.

The thrust of the National Information System for Science & Technology (NISSAT) is to promote development of Contents. In pursuance, NISSAT organizes an annual Meet of the Information Contents Industry - Users -Promoters in India to

1  keep a watch on the national and international trends in the information industry

2  provide a forum for the exchange of experience among the information providers, suppliers and the users.

There is no such forum, meeting, conference, or seminar organized in India, which has an exclusive focus on the content aspects of information industry. The ITT Meet is therefore an opportunity to provide for collective expressions of the user needs, expert opinions, end user expectations, and experiences of the funding agencies.

The Information Today & Tomorrow 1998 (ITT98), with the theme Gateways to Information, was organized at the Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai during Aug. 31- Sep. 3,1998. The emphasis of the meet was on the Content Development with its widest    possible connotations. The Meet also devoted sufficient time to an appreciation of the Information Technology Action Plan and the new opportunities for the Information Content Development Industry. Reprints of the Information Technology Action Plan were made and distributed to peers, industry representatives, and also participants (a heterogeneous group of industry representatives, service providers, end users, library / information managers, and funding agencies ). Inputs from the peer groups, industry, infomediaries and also users were consolidated into an ITT98 Meet Recommendations to the National Task Force on Information Technology and Software Development in order to draw the attention of the Task Force and also caution on the need to give due priority to the Indian information content development aspect.

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

* Terms of Reference No. 5 regarding Development of Indian Content reads as

... Suggest measures for achieving a massive expansion in the use of the Internet by all sections of society, especially in business and education and development of Indian content on the Internet...

needs greater attention. India has the potential to become a major content development industry in the next century.

* Information Content and the content development are not given a prominent and sufficient importance in the IT Action Plan, as there is no industrial association to represent the information content industry. Whereas there are associations like MAIT, NASSCOM, and CSI strong enough to represent their focus and interests of the hardware & software industry.

* The Task Force does not cover anywhere the views of the Science & Technology Information (STI) which forms a greater quantum of research output in the country. Nor it appears that the Task Force cared to elicit any view from those concerned with STI provision.

* Presently, there is a very strong need to bring to the forefront the importance of information content and content development at national level. (CD)

* While it is important to promote computer literacy, software development, networking, etc., due importance needs to be given for content development, because without content (or information) to access, what could one do with an information infrastructure alone?

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT — IPR

* A clear strategy to be developed for content creation in organizations which includes both conversions from print source and also creation of new content in electronic from. (Strategy)

* Development of Indian content and making it available through networks are two separate activities. Indian content developer should decide which network could handle their data effectively, have reach to the end users and should make their decision based on this. They have opportunity to license Indian content to national and international agencies too. (Delivery)

* Standard and structure is a serious issue in building a database. How to represent the data? One has to use the existing guidelines available nationally and/or internationally. (Standards ...)

* By purpose, Content Development may be for entertainment, for education, or for preservation as culturally important material (Nature of contents).

* The task force has not explicitly recognized content as an intellectual property whose intrinsic value is independent of the medium on / through which it is stored or distributed (IPR).

* Copyright & IPR problems as related to the collection of information and integration into a workable product (IPR)

* Proper thought needs to be given on security aspects of content and to nurture this newborn infant industry (IPR)
 

ISSUES RELATED TO LIBRARIES

* Various aspects of library are totally missing. (information resource locations)

Information Services — Content Development — Training

As NII takes shape, we may expect a massive amount of electronic information to be created and made accessible. If relevant information has to be found quickly, adequate care needs to be given in proper structuring, categorization, indexing and classification of information. Library and information professionals have traditionally handled these tasks in the print environment. Content creation strategy needs to recognize this and suggest incorporation of Library & Inform- ation Science (LIS) professionals in content creation teams of organizations.

It is imperative that our equipment needs to be strengthened but to have a multiplier effect, our trainers need to be trained. We have infrastructure, but it is difficult to find manpower to train the people in LIS schools. Strengthening of students is more important than strengthening the equipment in LIS schools. Development of HRD & LIS school is slow.? Universities needs to be strengthened. One or two centers may be identified for training of trainers (Manpower Development & Training).

If Library & Information professionals are expected to play a significant role in content creation, quality of training imparted in LIS schools in Indian universities need to be improved drastically. IT needs to be made part and parcel of LIS school curricula and the teachers also need to be trained in a major way in this direction. LIS schools need to be provided with adequate IT       facilities, including Internet connectivity.

It is necessary to advise (from UGC) to incorporate IT Content in LIS schools curricula, emphasizing the need of practical training with a score to it. Working librarians should also be provided with intensive training.

Observations on IT Action Plan

On the basis of the collective expressions of the panelists and participants, the observations of the Meet on IT Action Plan are as follows:

Monopoly — Internet Access

TF Recommendation No. 8: The monopoly of the VSNL on International Gateway for Internet shall be withdrawn and authorized public/government organizations will be allowed to provide Internet Gateway access directly without going through VSNL Gateways. Private ISPs are allowed to provide such Gateways after obtaining Defence clearance. Suitable monitoring   mechanisms will be put in place to take care of security considerations.

Recommendation 8 deals with removing monopoly of VSNL on Internet Access. On the other hand, a new monopolistic role is given to NIC on Information content. While NIC has a definite greater role to play in the game, the user needs to be provided several choices of access and these are best left to the users alone.

Information Product — Definition

TF Recommendation No.19A: (a) Definition: "IT Software means any representation of instructions, data, sound or image, including source code and object code, recorded in a machine readable form, and capable of being manipulated or providing interactivity to user, by means of an automatic data processing machine falling under heading IT Products but does not include    non-IT Products.

The definition of `IT Products' as per recommendation No. 19A needs to be redefined as `Information Product' to include information in its all possible manifestations including databases and the knowledge base.

Customs Duty on Media

TF Recommendation No. 21:. Customs duty on import of CD-ROMs or optical disc media or magnetic media containing text,  data or multimedia as content shall be charged only on the media and not on the contents The custom tariff on information content on magnetic media still remains ambiguous and irrational and therefore needs appropriate amendments.

Regulatory Inspections — Exemptions

TF Recommendation No. 23: IT Software and IT Services companies, being constituents of the knowledge industry shall be exempted from inspection by inspectors like those for factory, boiler, excise, labor, pollution/environment, etc.

Like the IT Software and IT Services companies, content development and creation industry is a concomitant part of the knowledge industry and therefore warrants exemption from regulatory inspections.

Webservers, Websites

TF Recommendation No.53: mega websites shall be created on Internet for promoting marketing and encouraging Indian Software products and packages under multiple initiatives. Creation and hosting of web sites on servers located in India will be encouraged.

Recommendation No. 53 only talks about software packages and does not include information content.

TF Recommendation No. 73: A specialized sub-committee of this Task Force shall coordinate the setting up National and State level Digital Libraries Projects.

In order to create `Operation Knowledge' under `IT for all by 2008', Training facilities need to be set up for content creation including electronic and web publishing, preservation, distribution and access.

Recommendation No. 73 referring to setting up of Digital Library projects needs more attention. Keeping the limited resources available, the country cannot afford every organization doing R & D on methodologies for content creation. There is therefore a strong need to develop guidelines for information content creation.

Government Tradable Information

TF Recommendation No. 84: The Cabinet has approved NIC's proposal to make government Information, other than that having a bearing on security, available to the public. This decision shall be implemented by suitably empowering NIC to do so. This recommendation addresses the felt need for easy availability and extensive transparency of government information.

Recommendation No. 84 empowers only NIC to make non-classified government information, available to the public. Significant investments are made by Governments (States & Central) to collect information of various kinds such as population census, industrial statistics, macro-economic indicators, company information, etc. For developing any industrial or social project, it is essential to make use of such information. It is therefore essential that such information should be readily    accessible at large to the public, entrepreneurs, investors and so on.

World over is to privatize the provision of non-classified, government held tradable information and facilitate effective access. This concept enables the government to be responsible for collection, validation and basic processing of data. These data sets  are the provided at a price to private and public sector operators for value addition and marketing. Therefore, it would be more  productive to rest the responsibility of delivering government held information to the public through and by a number of  government outlets than an exclusive government agency like NIC/Planning Commission.

TF Recommendation No. 88: 1-3 % of the budget of every Ministry/ Department shall be earmarked for applying IT in the Department/sector; this investment will include not only the purchase of IT products, IT software, but also for training and IT services; Re-appropriation of the Department's budget for the IT sub-budget head shall be within the delegated powers of  the Head of the Department.

TF Recommendation No. 89: NIC, at the national level, and technology service organizations at the State level, shall establish Framework Contracts with reputed suppliers to provide a wide range of IT consultancy, specialist services and IT products to  Government agencies to reach the benefit of lower costs through bulk purchases.

Recommendation No. 84 read together with 88 & 89 will empower NIC to become a super agency having centralized control on the Information flow and between government departments. This arrangement may not operate in a decentralized and democratic society.

This arrangement would only work well in a dictatorial or a totalitarian environment.

Recommendation No. 88 & 89 read together empowers NIC to have a say in the expenditure to the tune of 1-3% of total budget of Government of India by way of centralized purchase procedure / rate contract. It is important that the task force lays faith in the capabilities of other government functionaries. Much of retardation in IT application in government has been and is still due to the regulatory role played by NIC, and also by tempting government departments with offersof free computers.

Nurturing the Information Industry (...How to Promote...)

Jobs for the Educated and Unemployed Youth

* Given the massive educated manpower the country has (particularly unemployed and under-employed graduates), there is the tremendous scope for India to get data creation projects, on the lines of software projects. For this to take off, there is a need to recognize content creation as a business activity, and as part of database publishing and IT industry. This activity needs to be explicitly recognized and special incentives given in terms of soft loans, etc. to give the necessary push for this industry to take off.

Tapping the New Potential

* There is a very large untapped potential in our educated housewives who can participate in content creation activities. Just as students, schools and teachers who are now recognized beneficiaries of the options to purchase computers under easy financial terms, educated house wives should also be enabled to avail such options and participate in approved content creation projects.

Catching Pupils Young

* The development of being environment friendly taking place, it is necessary now to introduce the information culture amongst school children and their environs.

Wired Villages...

* Government should act as facilitator by giving connectivity to industrial village.

* Some motivation and awareness programs are required in rural development. For instance, the concept of wired villages is being developed in Kolhapur District and there is an immediate need to implement similar efforts in the East and South of India.

International Data — Royalty

* The current rules for royalty payment restricts one to 15% for international data licensing. No international company would agree to license any worthwhile content for this level of royalty. Even Indian companies, who license their data to international    companies, get better royalty terms for the Indian data.

* Information may be accessible freely but not free. And this entails a barrier for exchange when the access is on payment. To facilitate easy access, it is necessary to ensure easier remittance of foreign exchange for subscribing/ downloading information on / through Internet.

To enable mutually beneficial exchange, these rules require immediate change.

The Virtual Discussion Forum

The task force has also established 27 virtual discussion forums on the website (http://it-taskforce.nic.in) to obtain feedback in a comprehensive and structured manner. The website does not include anything related to the Information content development,   Information industry and the traditional service providers like libraries and information centres.

It is therefore important to enable people and organizations to share and contribute their experiences, ideas and needs through    discussion forum.
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