Context: India has launched its third IT corridor in China. The corridor will facilitate partnerships between Indian and Chinese companies.

• The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) entered into a partnership with China’s Xuzhou city from Jiangsu Province in China to help develop the IT corridor.
• The primary aim of this IT corridor will be to facilitate partnerships between Indian and Chinese companies.

Background:

The IT industry body has already launched such corridors at Dalian and Guiyang cities to cash in on the burgeoning Chinese IT industry market. Through its previous similar initiatives in China, NASSCOM has brought to the fore opportunities with over 300 companies where more than 10 Indian SME companies have signed deals worth 31 Million RMB (USD 4.5 million).

Outcomes:

Through this partnership, the platform will be launched that will facilitate match-making between Indian companies wanting to collaborate with companies in Huai Hai economic zone looking to adopt digital transformation from verticals such as manufacturing, retail, automotive, healthcare and utilities and help them create innovative product and solutions in the co-create mode.

Way ahead:

India is a world leader in the area of Information Technology and IT-enabled services with annual revenue of over $164 billion and exports of over $120 billion. The country has been demanding China to provide market access to Indian IT and pharmaceutical firms for several years to reduce bilateral trade deficit.

For India, getting access to China’s IT market, valued at over $493 billion in 2013 by the ministry of industry and information technology of China, is important to address the massive trade deficit which has now spiralled to over $51 billion. The Chinese IT market grew exponentially since then.