Hewlett-Packard sees domestic IT market expansion opportunity in Digital India

NEW DELHI: Hewlett-Packard (HP) India believes that expanding the domestic IT market will be key to the successful realization of the ‘Digital India’ initiative, and that there are still several untapped sectors that should be brought under the fold of the programme.

"The reason why we see a huge opportunity in the government is because mindsets are changing, the manner in which the government now wants to do more and more in the digital space, than in the physical space," said Rajiv Srivastava, vice president and general manager, HP Printers & Personal Systems (PPS) India.

He added that while a huge amount of work in computerization or automation has already been done in the country, for example in the banking sector, a lot more needs to be done in the areas of education, skills development, citizen services and the healthcare. He also believes that HP's present focus on enterprise mobility will go a long way in accelerating a digitized India.

“Digital India is a way in which services are delivered to the citizen and the way a citizen interacts with the government- it’s easy, its transparent, it’s convenient, and its timesaving,”said Srivastava.

Government IT spending in India is expected to see a 5% increase in 2015, reaching $7.2 billion, according to research firm Gartner, and the spend will be driven in large part by the Digital India initiative, and includes investment in hardware, software, internal IT and telecommunications.

HP has worked on projects with the government for over two decades and with almost all departments of the government including agriculture, communication and information technology, education and finance. The Palo Alto based IT behemoth formally splits into two publicly listed companies in November this year, with the PPS group rolling into HP Inc., while enterprise IT infrastructure, software, and services will be the focus of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise.