Govt to spend more on e-governance

Calcutta, Feb. 25: The government is expected to increase its outlay on e-governance in the coming budget to Rs 1,500 crore from around Rs 1,300 crore last year.

IT majors such as IBM, Cisco and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) are betting big on e-governance in India.

“India is one of the most important markets for IBM globally. The country will be on a par with Thailand and the Philippines and ahead of Vietnam,” said Stephen Braim, vice-president (government programmes) of IBM India, Asia Pacific, on the sidelines of Infocom 2007-08 here today. At present, 73 per cent of IBM’s revenue come from software and 53 per cent from services.

According to R. Srinivasan, head of pre-sales (global government industry group), TCS, the focus is on centralising workable models instead of launching pilot projects.