The 2004 Business Software Alliance - IDC study of global trends in software piracy puts India in the list of the top 20 software pirating countries in the world.

Ranked at 20, with a software piracy rate of 73 per cent, India also makes it to the list of countries with the greatest dollar value of pirated software. India is poorer by about $367 million due to software piracy losses, the study estimates.

It is not surprising that a concerned Government of India is taking increasing interest in assessing the contribution of software and other piracy-susceptible industries to the economy.

The human resource development ministry has commissioned the Indian Institute of Management (Lucknow) IIM (L) to study how much 'Copyright and Related Rights Industries' contribute to the Gross Domestic Product and employment of the country.

The study which was commissioned about four months back will map the publishing, software, music, film and television industries and sectors allied to them.

"While there might have been studies of the organised sector in the software industry, there are no figures available for the unorganised sector especially in the film, music and television industries," said Professor Ravi Sunder, heading the study team from IIM (L).

The study will look at the five core areas mentioned above and about 40 to 45 allied sectors. The film industry for instance, has artists, choreographers, the distribution chain, the theatre owners and others.

The model used by the IIM team comprising four faculty members and research assistants is to compute the aggregate GDP for the entitle set by using the value-added GDP formula to compute the income of one company.

According to estimates of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), India has incurred a loss of more than Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion) in 2002-2003 due to copyright breach in software.

The figure for losses due to software piracy have been growing.  In 1999-2000 the figure was Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion), in 2000-2001 it was Rs 11,000 crore (Rs 110 billion).

The numbers are likely to get even more bothersome if losses from music and film piracy are also taken into account.

A saving of Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion) for instance would be enough to fund part of the Government's ambitious National Employment Guarantee scheme.