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A debate has started today over an agreement signed 28 years ago. Some big economists and experts say that an agreement signed with the US in 1997 broke India’s backbone and left it behind countries like China and Taiwan in the computer hardware manufacturing race forever.
This is the story of the ‘Information Technology Agreement’ of 1997. At that time, the Bill Clinton government was in America.
According to this agreement, taxes and trade restrictions on everything related to IT were removed between India and the US. It sounds great, but there are allegations that a big game is being played here.
How was hardware deprived by showing ‘software dreams’?
Experts say that at that time the Indian industry wanted there to be taxes on computer hardware, which could help computers and other parts manufactured in the country to compete with foreign companies. But the Clinton administration convinced the then Indian government that India’s real strength was not in hardware but in software manufacturing. America had convinced India to focus only on software development and services like call centers. He further alleged that the US-sponsored media in India had misled Indians by calling India a “software superpower”. Newspapers and channels were telling us day and night that we were the kings of software.
But we don’t even have our own email platform. Our IT sector is completely dependent on America for its profits. Hundreds of our engineering colleges are churning out computer science graduates whose jobs will soon be taken away by AI (artificial intelligence).
NITI Aayog member also supported
Divya Kumar Soti’s statement was further strengthened when NITI Aayog member and economist Dr. Arvind Birmani replied to his post, saying that he was perhaps the only economist who opposed the agreement at that time.
