Hannover (Germany): India is supposedly an IT superpower, a global leader in the software industry. Well, that is not the impression one is likely to get from the Indian presence at CeBIT 2007, one of the world's biggest annual Information and Communications Technology (ICT) expo at Hannover in Germany, which got under way on March 15. This huge weeklong showcase for the ICT industry worldwide is organised by the German Centre of Office and Information Technology (CeBIT) and sponsored by Deutsche Messe AG.

The figures speak for themselves. Of the total of 6,059 exhibitors, spread over an area of 256,551 sq. m., 3,311 exhibitors are non-German from 77 countries all over the world and Asia, with 1,600 exhibitors, accounts for the largest foreign contingent. While Taiwanese exhibitors, numbering 602 and occupying an area of 18,320 sq. m, account for the largest Asian contingent, China is the next biggest with 475 exhibitors (9,849 sq. m), followed by South Korea, with 215 (4,610 sq. m), and Hong Kong, with 197 (4,198 sq. m). The listed number of Indian exhibitors is just 50, occupying an area of 643 sq. m. But, according to the available information on March 15, only 38 seem to have finally turned up. This is a clear indicator of the position of the Indian IT industry in the world in terms of product development, its capability in the upper levels of the software value chain and software solutions and services that it is able to offer.

New actors

The expo also provides evidence of emerging new actors in the ICT scene worldwide — Eastern Europe accounts for the biggest increase in exhibitors and Latin America too has registered a 126 per cent increase in its presence. China, Hong Kong and Taiwan have maintained their customary high degree of presence at CeBIT.

What is the reason for this unimpressive Indian presence at CeBIT? "Indifference and lack of initiative to participate as a country at these fairs," points out Radhakrishnan Nair, General Manager of Megatech Power Equipment Pvt. Ltd., a Pune-based small enterprise providing software solutions to power equipment and plants. Interestingly, Megatech was occupying a stall in the pavilion meant for `Telephony' and not in the pavilion where it ought to have been. Moreover, the stall had been booked in the name of The Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) of India, a Government undertaking. Like in the case of Megatech, ESC has organised space for many small companies but all of them distributed arbitrarily in the 26 pavilions at the fair.

"Lack of vision"

"While ESC has provided financial assistance for small companies like ours to participate, they have no vision for the country as a whole and how to project the country at such exhibitions," points out Mr. Nair. "There is a large government contingent from countries like China to project their countries. For ESC it is enough to put down in its records that it participated in CeBIT," he added. In fact, there was no official from ESC at the exhibition.

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