Budget 2013: IT sector demands sop for domestic companies

The Union Budget for 2012-13 should incorporate policies and measures to develop the domestic software industry and also focus on encouraging software products segment in the country by protecting it from foreign competition in the domestic market.

The Government should promote Indian software products to develop more intellectual property for India. The current ecosystem is designed to take care only of service providers and we are losing out on benefits which can accrue from a vibrant product development industry in the software domain.

Right now the lack of a strong framework in protecting software intellectual property is damaging the overall reputation of the Indian IT industry across the globe. During the tenure of Late Rajiv Gandhi's prime minister ship. A lot of new initiatives were introduced in the software industry. This was done to encourage software services and it propelled the domestic productivity.

India is now been ranked among the worst and awarded lowest scores for copyrights and other intellectual property.

The situation is a lot worse today. India has now been ranked among the worst and awarded lowest scores for copyrights, patents and other intellectual property by the US Chamber of Commerce. Currently, there is a lack of stringent policies and the government perhaps is overlooking the connection between software exports and Indian software products.

India is losing out on the competitive edge because of this situation. A lot can be done to develop an ecosystem in providing strong Indian software products and intellectual property protection. This will not only fortify the Indian software industry but will also create more patents, Trade Mark, Intellectual property and copyrights and increase tax revenues".

(The article has been written by Kailash Katkar of Quick Heal Technologies)

(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)