<head><title> MAY 01 1999 OPINION ET INTERACTIVE / ‘India is a source of software...’ : The Economic Times Online - India's No.1 Business Newspaper - Companies, Industry, Economy,Politics</title> <meta name="description" content="The Economic Times. India's No.1 and world's second largest financial newspaper. Coverage of Indian economy, corporate, business, politics, stock markets."> <meta name="keywords" content="companies, industry, economy, markets, commodity, politics, world, editorial, opinion, brand, software, merger, partners, venture, internet, results, sector, industry, infrastructure, finance, banks, banking, insurance, India, income tax, budget, parliament, government, policy, stocks, recession, investment, indicators, stocks, scrips, shares, foreign exchange, Dalal BSE, NSE, bombay stock exchange, national stock exchange, infotech , losers, market capitalisation, purchase , coffee, rubber, tea, production, exports, internet, media, newspaper, daily, statistics, guide"> </head> <body background="../dmd/images/tile1200.gif" bgcolor=white marginheight=0 marginwidth=10 topmargin=0><a name="top"></a> <table width=600 border=0 bgcolor=#ffcc99 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr valign=middle><td width=105 align=center> Saturday MAY 01 1999 0059 hrs IST 1429 EST 1929 hrs GMT </td><td 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height=28 alt="" border="0"></a> <img src=../dmd/images/blank.gif alt="" width=92 height=2 border="0"> </td> <td>  </td> <td width=381> <img src="../dmd/images/opinmast.gif" alt="Opinion" width=381 height=31> <img src="../dmd/images/dgreendot.gif" alt="" width=381 height=1> <img src="../dmd/images/blank.gif" width=381 height=1> <table width=381 border=0><tr valign=top><td width=100%> <div align=right> <A HREF="http://economictimes.com/cgi-bin/et/sendmdd.cgi"><img src="../dmd/images/sendit.gif" width=76 height=31 alt="Send this page" border="0"></a> </div> ET INTERACTIVE / ‘India is a source of software...’ India is a priority country for Microsoft with chairman Bill Gates having taken a personal interest in the country. Worldwide, along with China, India is regarded as one of the largest potential markets in absolute numbers. Blas Garcia-Marcos, President, Regional Sales, was in Delhi recently. Mr Garcia-Marcos is responsible for Microsoft’s strategy sales, support and marketing activities in South Asia as well as the Asean countries like Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. He spoke to The Economic Times on Microsoft’s strategy for India. Microsoft started operation in India in 1990 and currently has 100 employees in its offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Calcutta. Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited, operating from New Delhi, looks after the growth of Microsoft’s corporate and original equipment business as well as its distribution channels and the sales and marketing functions for its various products. In India Microsoft has shown fast rates of growth — albeit from a low base — though the company does not disclose exact numbers. Among Microsoft’s major concerns in India, as in China, is to how to stop software piracy. Though practically every PC comes embedded with some version of Windows seven out of 10 PCs use pirated software. Could you tell us about how India’s importance in Microsoft’s scheme of things? India is potentially a huge market. In terms of the sheer population numbers the possibilities are limitless. We have grown very fast in India though from a low base. This potential is more so because of the high prestige which education commands in India. India, for instance, has the second largest number of microsoft certified professionals in the world after the USA. Over 35,000 certificates have been awarded since the programme was launched in 1996. How does it compare with China? The Chinese market is considerably larger than India. It is about five times larger in terms of the number of PCs sold. However, both are important for us. You have recently set up a software development centre in Hyderabad. Would you consider sourcing software from India? India is unusual among developing countries in that it is a source of software itself. The Microsoft India development centre in Hyderabad works directly with the main product development centre in Redmond Washington. We have software development centres in other countries but these are mostly for developing software in language other than English. In India we will also be doing that but we also envisage doing more original software development. Software piracy in countries like India and China have been a major concern for Microsoft. What steps are you taking to combat it and spread awareness? We are working very hard with the government as well as industry bodies like NASSCOM to control and reduce piracy. As much as seven out of ten personal computers sold comes with embedded with illegal software. We are educating end users on the need and usefulness of using legally acquired software. There needs to be a basic understanding that software piracy is wrong. A lot of the piracy is because some people are not aware that in copying software they are doing something wrong. Could the high price of software have something to do with the extent of piracy? I don’t think that the price of software is particularly high compared to the price of the hardware. I believe software piracy is so prevalent because it is easy to do. What kind of a role do you feel that the government has played in the promotion of the software industry? The government has played a positive role. The IT task force and its recommendations indicates the importance which the government assigns to this sector. However the import duties on hardware related items should be reduced. Has the ongoing Department of Justice case against Microsoft had any impact on your business? 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