Sarabjit Kaur
India’s IT industry association NASSCOM on Thursday signed an agreement with China’s top internet hub to co-develop a collaborative technology platform which is expected to provide a major opening for Indian IT-SMEs.
The NASSCOM and Dalian Municipal People’s Government signed a joint investment agreement in Dalian to co-develop a collaborative technology platform called the Sino-Indian Digital Collaboration Plaza (SIDCOP).
Top Indian IT firms have big presence in China servicing multinationals and the IT corridor at Dalian will provide a gateway to the Indian IT-SMEs, Gagan Sabharwal, senior director, NASSCOM who signed the MoU told PTI from Dalian.
IT firms from India and China can come forward and co-develop global markets leveraging their respective strengths in hardware and software, he said.
Though, India is widely regarded as ahead of China in software development, top Indian IT firms struggled to gain access to Chinese commercial IT market prompting New Delhi to press Beijing to open-up the vital sector for Indian firms to bridge over USD 50 billion bilateral trade deficit.
NASSCOM hopes that if successful, the Dalian experience can be replicated at various other Chinese provinces which are setting big data centres to attract investors.
Powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT), the co-created Dalian platform will operate in both online and offline modes to enable matchmaking between the two ecosystems to leverage each other’s strengths in technology, Sabharwal said.
China is currently investing big in AI as it seeks to end its dependency on manufacturing and enlarge its presence in IoT. Top Chinese firms like Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu are investing heavily in AI technologies. Alibaba has announced plans to invest about USD 15 billion in AI-related technologies in the next three years.
Dalian, a bustling port city and major industrial hub with presence of top Chinese and multinational firms, could provide a big platform for Indian IT-SMEs, Sabharwal said.
“In this digital era of convergence, hardware and software lines are merging because consumers today demand solutions that are IoT ready. And through this partnership for cooperation that we have formed with the government of Dalian will help us create a platform for firms in both the countries to collaborate,” he said.
The agreement provides tax concessions as well as number of other logistical benefits like access to banks, school admissions for wards of workers in Indian SME firms.
“The arrangement that we have carved out with the BEST city will serve as a launch-pad for the Indian companies to partner with Chinese enterprises and get entry into large Chinese market. We are committed to creating an ecosystem here with help from government of Dalian that will make Chinese market an attractive proposition for the Indian companies and this joint initiative of setting up of this collaborative platform is a step in that direction,” he said.
Sun, an official at the Dalian BEST City administrative committee said, “We at Dalian BEST city are delighted to reach this understanding with India’s NASSCOM for developing the NASSCOM IT corridor. We strongly believe this is the innovative step in enhancing and mutually benefiting Chinese and Indian companies in software and services sector.”
Earlier this year, an MoU was signed between NASSCOM and the Dalian government to promote IoT collaboration between Chinese and Indian IT companies. Pursuant to this, subsequent discussions at a local level converged on the idea of setting up the first NASSCOM IT corridor within Dalian BEST City to promote IoT and AI cooperation between the two nations.
This dedicated IT park will be an exclusive place for interested Indian IT providers of all sizes to begin operations and avail special policy benefits and incentives provided by Dalian BEST City administration, a NASSCOM press release said.
NASSCOM and the Dalian government agreed to set up collaborative platform that could work online and offline mode to help establish partnerships for Indian and Chinese companies.
Zeta-V Technology Solutions Ltd, an Indian start-up with a local presence in Dalian, will be deployed as the operator of the SIDCOP platform.
