India preferred destination for IT enabled services: Ahamed -(CALIBER 05)

India preferred destination for IT enabled services: Ahamed

KOCHI: Union Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed stressed the need to use Information Technology for the country's overall development.

Inaugurating the third international convention on Automation of Linraries in Education and Research Institutes (CALIBER) on multilingual computing and information managemen in networked digital environment here, he said e-learning was a new area in distance education. It offered a wide range of opportunities, especially in accessible areas.

E-learning courses were also a new opening, both interactive and innovative and provided learners with invaluable tools in every way, Ahamed said at the convention organised jointly by the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) and Technology and INFLIBNET Centre (UGC), Ahamedabad.

India's had become one of the most preferred destination for software and IT enabled services and the IT industry accounted for 2.6 per cent of GDP and 21.3 per cent of exports during 2003-04.

This was projected to grow to seven per cent of GDP and 35 per cent of exports with an export potential of 60 billion US dollars by 2008, Ahamed said.