India is about to witness an explosion in the spread of personal computers and Internet connectivity, visiting Minister of State for IT and Communications Sachin Pilot said on March 30.
"An exponential growth will happen in PC penetration and Internet penetration" in the Asian giant, which is already a major player in global information technology and outsourcing, the Indian official told the Indian-American Chamber of Commerce.
The service sector currently accounts for 57 percent of India's gross domestic product, most of it involving information technology (IT), which over the past few years has been growing at an annual pace of nine percent, said Pilot, 34.
In 2010, India's IT sector is expected to hit double-digit growth, said India's ambassador to Washington, Meera Shankar.
Between now and 2014, Pilot said, the IT sector in India will be needing hardware equipment worth an estimated 400 billion dollars. "We need semi-conductors, simple factories to feed the domestic market," he added.
At present only eight percent of Indian households have access to a PC, he said, while mobile telephones have experienced enormous growth, going from 1.4 units per 100 people in 1995 to 51 per 100 in 2010, including 140 percent in big cities.
India is also working to extend broadband to 250,000 villages - out of more than 600,000 - and to provide widespread banking services via mobile telephones, Pilot said.
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