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The India-Japan roundtable on 'ICT Environment: Opportunities and Challenges' was held at Aamby Valley in Maharashtra on January 8, 2010, to provide a platform to business leaders from both the countries to discuss the opportunities and challenges in IT and telecommunication.

The roundtable was organized jointly by India Center Foundation, with support from the Confederation of Indian Industry, with an aim to find out ways to harness the potential of ICT applications in improving the performance of goods and services as both India and Japan have a growing ICT market. Between the two countries there is a great possibility of joint ventures and standalone projects in the areas of broadband, mobile communication, e-governance, information security, and research and development.

The event was graced by Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama and the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communication, Haraguchi Kazuhiro. The event saw top business leaders and decision makers from both the countries brainstorming on ways of harnessing information and communication technologies for the improvement of business environment; overcoming digital divide by providing low cost access to the Internet; learning from Indian mobile operators in areas like infrastructure sharing; etc.

Business leaders from India, who participated in the discussions included Harsh Manglik, vice chairman, Nasscom; Ramanathan Ramanan, CEO & MD, CMC; Dr P Raja Mohan Rao, MD, United Telecom; Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia; Madan Mohan, CEO, NABCOM; Vimal Wakhlu, director, technical, TCIL; Vipul Kant, CEO, IAP Company; Girish Paranjpe, joint CEO, IT business & member of board, Wipro; Sunil K Goyal, CEO, Beetel (Bharti) among others.

Roundtable discussion on ICT & environment: Opportunities and Challenges	Delegates attending India-Japan roundtable on ICT challenges and environment: Opportunities and challenges at Aamby Valley City

Representatives from leading companies from India and Japan like NTT DOCOMO, Tata Teleservices, Accenture, KPIT Cummins Infosystem, Canvas M, ISPAI, KDDI, Kyocera, SOFTBANK Mobile, WiMax Forum, Communication and Information Association of Japan, etc, graced the occasion. The event mainly focused on how ICT can contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions; how to make effective use of ICT applications in tackling global warming; and how to harness ICT's innovation potential for clean economic growth.

Rayuji Yamada, president & CEO, NTT DOCOMO expressed his environmental concerns. "We are focusing on the prevention of global warming, efficient use of resources, collection and recycling of used mobile phones. DOCOMO started the collection of used mobile phones in 1998. In 2001, the initiative was broadened to collect and recycle all mobile phones regardless of carrier or manufacturer. Through the collection of used mobile phones, DOCOMO has promoted the reproduction and recycling of rare metal resources," he informed.

Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia India addressing the gathering	Yamada Rayuji, president & CEO, NTT DOCOMO, giving presentation on NTT'S group's activities

Talking about the focus areas and investment plans, Tetsuzo Matsumoto, senior executive VP, SOFTBANK Mobile pointed out, "We are looking at Asia, especially China, and positioning ourselves as the biggest Internet company in Asia. Investment in Indian start-up companies is definitely our interest in the near future."

Japan's Internal Affairs and Communication Minister, Haraguchi Kazuhiro said, "Our country wanted stronger relations between India, particularly in the field of ICT. For strengthening the relationship between Japan and India in the field of ICT, I would like to see implementation of activities in a concentrated manner. These include joint projects around Delhi and Mumbai."

Arpita Prem
arpitap@cybermedia.co.in

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