Tech Influentials Dare India To Grow Software Industry From $1bn to 15bn By 2015

The world of computer software is still largely dominated by localized offerings. You know, the stuff you put on your hard drive. The Microsoft Offices. The Adobe Creative Suites. All those handy utilities. And it?s understandable why they continue to command a great majority. They tap the processing power of our hardware systems very well; they?re there whether or not we have a connection to the Web; and, of course, there?s the very basic element of habitual familiarity that they bring. (People are used to installing stuff.)

Nonetheless, it?s safe to predict that Web-based offerings will eventually take hold in a broad and all-encompassing way, and software companies that currently market their wares as Web-based ?alternatives? will no longer have to do so. It will be taken for granted that they?ve developed ?cloud-based? solutions.

Which brings us to a rather intriguing announcement made by a gathering of influential people in the tech industry at a forum held in the Indian city of Bangalore this week. Well, not so much an announcement as a prognostication. A bet. A dare, if you will.

Their challenge is to the sphere of technology companies presently established in India. (And, of course, those to be born in the next several years) It is, simply put, to try to grow the realm of software in the fast-developing country from one with a general revenue stream of $1bn to one $15bn.

In less than 10 years. Think it can happen? You bet your ass it can.

Though it seems at first glance ?unlikely?, especially within a relatively small time frame (considering the current status of the market in profile, the hill India must climb is quite steep indeed to reach abovementioned goal), I genuinely do believe its far safer to bet on success.

India is, after all, growing at a very impressive rate (slightly behind China as far as expansion of GDP, but its trajectory looks more solid for the long term, as opposed to China?s circus act ? juggling the economic boom with political clashes and environmental catastrophes-to-be), and technology is a crucial component to its continued rise. It?s not difficult at all to envision India transforming sometime in the near future from a destination for outsourced work to one which creates major success stories from the ground up, and if the country?s educational infrastructure improves with the times, it?ll have an ample workforce to conquer similarly complex tasks and devise solutions that the grandest of software engineering houses today elsewhere produce.

Of course, there?s every reason to believe that giants like Microsoft, SAP, and Oracle won?t sit around and wait for Indian companies to steal opportunities the forces from the West wish to take for themselves. But all in all, India is bound to turn out a great supply if ?genius? indigenous scientists (it?s likely doing so as we speak), and, logically, such speculation leads one to expect lots more home-grown gems to walk onto the public stage in the next few years.

And, let?s not forget, a great portion of that new wealth will be generated by the emergence of spiffy Web 2.0 inventions. Which makes us a Profy quite thrilled indeed.

In closing, I?ll leave you with this question: You think those gems will rake in a total of $15 by 2015?

Personally, I definitely do.