NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 21: India will press for a `Totalisation Agreement' during US president Bill Clinton's forthcoming visit in order to avoid double taxation faced by the software professionals working in the USA. The US administration has already entered such pacts with several other countries.According to Union Minister Pramod Mahajan, the Ministry of Information Technology (MIT) has decided to ask the External Affairs ministry to take up the issue with the US administration so that more software professionals could look forward to working in the US.
Besides, a high-level team, comprising representatives from MIT and the industry, will visit USA for 10 days to make presentations on the Indian IT industry and opportunities. ``The idea is to build the entire country as a preferred IT investment destination overseas,'' he said. The Minister is also slated to lead an important IT industry delegation to Singapore in March-end.
Speaking at a press conference after a meeting with the high-powered 11-member National Advisory Committee on IT on Monday here, Mahajan also announced that the Ministry had agreed to the committee's suggestion that 43 engineering institutions, including Regional Engineering Colleges and some private colleges, should be upgraded to IIT standards. Mahajan added that a decision had been taken to set up a sub-panel of the advisory committee to look after IT education.
MIT has also decided to convene a meeting of the chief ministers of all states for propagating IT within government offices. The meeting, to be chaired by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, will also be attended by captains of the IT industry, he stated.
In a move towards boosting IT, the Ministry intends to make presentations to Members of Parliament during the Budget session so that they adopt IT in their constituency's development-related activities.
In response to the advisory committee's demand for a mechanism to monitor the implementation of the three IT task force reports, Mahajan said he had formed five different expert groups within MIT for monitoring the implementation on a day-to-day basis.
The Minister once again hinted that the duties on IT hardware may be brought down in Budget 2000. ``The hardware sector has to survive and progress and we will consider some scheme to give a boost it as suggested by the committee,'' Mahajan said.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.