Computer Society to vend India’s e-gov model

India’s oldest IT body — Computer Society of India (CSI) — will take the country’s e-governance model to emerging economies such as Bangladesh and Nepal and to countries in Latin America and Africa, its president S Mahalingam said.

“We are working with the South East Asian Regional Computing Confederation (SEARCC), of which CSI is a prominent member, to take our e-governance model to some of the emerging countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

“We have developed a bouquet of case studies of successful e-governance projects in India that we would share with governments of countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and others to start with,” Mahalingam, who is also CFO of Tata Consultancy Services, told DNA Money.

The body is initiating steps to develop a complete ecosystem for development of IT professionals in India.

Mahalingam said development of such an ecosystem needs greater focus from the computer bodies in India, given the requirement of such professionals in the upcoming government to citizen services.

“Take the Unique Identity (UID) project, for instance. When it takes off in a big way, the kind of database it will have will need IT experts in huge numbers. Thus, professional development is important,” he said.

So far, India’s more popular IT body — Nasscom — has focused on the business side of IT.

However, the IT industry has been demanding more industry-ready IT professionals for some time.

“Nasscom is more business driven. We had left the professional development to educational institutes. But along the way, we thought there has to be greater focus on IT professional development, on accreditation and so on, and that has to be done with a greater zeal. So, some of us thought of reviving that in CSI. When India is developing standards for e-governance, Nasscom cannot play as big a role as CSI,” said Mahalingam.

The body is now creating an ecosystem that will allow IT professionals to build local language interfaces, promote research and development for technology usage for mass development in the country, assist various government bodies for better governance through usage of IT systems and expand greater use of IT by firms in India.

In January, CSI signed an agreement with the British Computer Society (BCS) to share services, publications and qualifications for their respective members.

Some BCS courses, such as those on business analysis, software testing, green IT and the EU code of conduct for data centres, will be introduced in India.

“One of the concerns we have is how we should keep upgrading the capability of members. Not just their qualifications, but on an ongoing basis, how do we introduce them to new areas and technology changes?

So education activities are a very critical component of professional development of CSI,” added Mahalingam.