Smt R. Rajalakshmi, Director, STPI, Bangalore

Smt R. Rajalakshmi,
Director,
STPI, Bangalore

Cloud is a cloud, it is available for everybody to use. If you look at it from the government of India perspective, we are trying to promote the IT industry for the past two decades. We are more concerned with the growth of small and medium business segment. We have seen over the last two decades that the industry has grown from a very small number to almost about 9 to 10 thousand units at STPI itself. When you look at the data, it is very clear that across the nation, more than 50-60% or rather around close-to 70% of the IT industry segment belongs to the SMB or SME category. What I am trying to say is that they have a high potential for growth, provided they are well supported. 

That is the support they expect from the STPI schemes to help them out in various forms - cost or tax benefits. What I want to define is that SMBs would be less than 20 million US dollars. There is a great opportunity for SMBs when it comes to moving to cloud. But it is important to see what kind of cloud is used. Also, what we have to take into consideration is the affordability factor. During the next decade, SMBs will be playing a very important role. Any help - be it from the Government of India or technology providers - will enable them to be slim and trim and be more efficient and effective.