The task force is headed by Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Jaswant Singh and co-chaired by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and former science and technology minister M G K Menon. Besides them, it has 16 members.

The draft policy will be submitted to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee within three months. The task force will identify, within a month, immediate steps that government needs to take to give a massive boost to India's IT industry.

The task force will prepare a blueprint for making the adoption of IT a national movement and will also draw up a vision statement to "excite and energise" the people about the benefits of IT.

Under the terms of reference, the task force is to develop a strategy for a twenty-fold increase in India's software and IT services exports in thenext ten years. It will suggest measures for expanding use of internet, boosting IT use in Indian language applications and also increase personal computer penetration in the country.

Prominent members of the task force, which has representation from the private and the public sector, include Telecom Commission chairman and telecom secretary, A V Gokak, electronics secretary R Gupta, I&B secreatry P G Mankad, PESB chairman N Vittal and director general of the National Informatics Centre, Seshagiri.

Executive director of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), Dewang Mehta, managing director of Infosys, N R Narayana Murthy, prsident of Wipro Computers, Ashok Soota, managing director of NIIT, Rajendra Pawar and managing director of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS), Ravi Parthasarathi represent the private sector.

In addition, the task force will be guided by an `IT vision group' comprising eminent IT professionals, academicians, non-resident Indians andforeigners. The task force will recommend an "appropriate empowered institutional mechanism" to implement the informatics policy as a "national mission."

The creation of national informatics infrastructure (NII) backbone at an optimal cost by using the railways and Power Grid Corporation will also be recommended by the task force. Designing a comprehensive training and manpower development plan to quadruple the number of IT professionals in the country in the next two years is also included in the terms of reference of the informatics task force.