|
The Computer Society of India (CSI), India’s
largest and oldest body of IT professionals has now achieved the
distinction of being the largest and the fastest growing body for
IT professionals in the Asia Pacific. Founded in 1965 with a base
of 50 members, CSI today has over 25,000 members on its roll. This
is 12 times greater than the Chinese Software Professionals Asso-ciation
(CSPA).
Amongst the other national computer societies,
while the Australian Computer Society has over 16,000 members, Pakistan
has 2,000 and Philippines Computer Society has mere 700 members.
The Singapore Computer Society has a membership of more than 17,000.
“This growth in members reflects the growing
strength of IT in India,” says Anand Pathak, president of CSI.
“We are also taking major initiatives to steer IT to the rural
areas, corporates, and academic institutions,” added Pathak.
CSI has entered into an alliance with the Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers Computer Society (IEEE-CS) to bring new
products and services to India’s computer scientists and information
technology professionals.
Commenting on the various membership initiatives
undertaken by CSI, Pathak said, “Special membership packages
have been designed to attract all these sections, for e.g. corporate
members get the benefits of subsidised IEEE Computer Society membership.
For educational institutes there are discounts given to student
members on IEEE educational programmes. Besides these there are
discounts on the subscription of some of the popular IT journals.”
According to International Data Corporation (IDC),
the number of IT developers in Asia Pacific will increase to 13.3
million by 2006 from 7.8 million in 2001. While North America remains
the region with the most developers worldwide, IDC forecasts that
will change in 2005 when Asia/Pacific will become the region with
the most developers. Growth is expected to be much stronger in Asia/
Pacific than in North America over the next five years, particularly
in the world’s largest countries, China and India.
|
