Joydeep Datta Gupta of PriceWaterHouseCoppers said that investments in information and communication technology could catapult India into a higher IT orbit. Shekhar Dasgupta, country manager, Oracle said that internet would help spreading education. "India is a land of differences and we have to start not from dismal position, but from where we are ahea of others", he said.

Dasgupta warned that India had got to be careful as other developing countries were catching up fast. It can act as an effective tool for disaster management and reduce the loss of resources and lives, he said.

The all-pervasive internet is going to pose imperatives on countries becoming `e-power', he said. The driving force behind transforming IT into a key infrastructure is the emerging power and potential of internet and its all-pervasive nature. The convergence of IT, telecom, media, content creating industries will make companies rethink the way they do business because the paradigms, environment in which business is being done will change.

Williams has outlined a 10-point infostructural imperatives of building an e-nation and having e-vision, e-governance, e-business, e-culture, e-learning, e-entrepreneurs, e-infrastructure, e-innovation, e-image and e-economy.

Regulation, telecommunications, financial systems and skills are the four main enablers of an internet economy and governments must look into these four areas and address the needed changes or improvements quickly, said Williams. It will otherwise be almost impossible for an e-economy to emerge as electronic commerce or e-business would be impossible without the necessary support mechanisms.