INDIAN ECONOMIC REFORMS
The Government of India's liberalization and economic reforms programme aims at rapid and substantial economic growth and integration with the global economy in a harmonised manner.

The Government of India's liberalization and economic reforms programme aims at rapid and substantial economic growth and integration with the global economy in a harmonised manner. The new policies have made governmental procedures transparent, eliminated licensing in almost all sectors, provided encouragement to entrepreneurship through market-friendly systems and facilitated easy access to foreign technology and foreign direct investment. In line with its mission of formulating a transparent investor-friendly environment, the Government has done away with the complex pre-entry approvals. Clearance for all foreign direct investment proposals relating to the Electronics and Information Technology hardware manufacturing, software development and ITeS sector, with the exception of Business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce are under the automatic route.

With the spread of Information Technology (IT) and IT Enabled Services, the Minister felt that the time is ripe to make India a preferred destination for the manufacture of semiconductors and other high technology IT products. To achieve this goal, the IT Ministry proposes to announce shortly a draft policy for investments for setting up semiconductor fabrication and other micro and nana-technology manufacturing industries in India. India looks forward to countries like Singapore, which has necessary experience and expertise in the sector to come and invest in India.

Dynamic telecom market
The Minister pointed out that the telecom market continues to be the most dynamic of markets in India. India has over 150 million lines and has recently joined the club of 100 million mobile connections. It has added over the past 6 months, 4.5 to 5.5 million lines every month. It is like saying that in February India added Singapore to its telephone line population. In March, it added Finland. In some months, it might add Malaysia. Yet India's tele-density is only 13%. The hunger for both broadband and telephone connections is almost insatiable. A fast growing wire line network, boosted by a lowering of bandwidth prices, is also enabling the country and its citizens to be linked by one common, readily accessible thread.

Opportunities for investment
The minister informed that the government has set a target of 250 million telephone connections by 2007 taking tele density to 22%, covering 70% of the landmass. Broadband and internet users are expected to reach 9 million and 18 million respectively. These targets envisage an investment of USD 15 billion in the next three years. By 2010, there will be telecom equipment requirement worth USD 40 billion. In addition, the Asia Pacific region offers a huge export opportunity since it is one of the fastest growing regions for telecom services. The combined domestic and export volumes can offer a tremendous potential for telecom manufacturing.

The Asian comity of nations, both South Asia and South East Asia needs to increase IT collaboration, promote trade among member countries and build win-win partnerships. This is where the very special relationship between India and Singapore can act as the catalyst for bringing all the nations of our great continent together to take care of the knowledge needs of the entire planet.