New Delhi: Software piracy on personal computers (PC) in India dipped to 69 percent for 2007 from 71 percent in 2006, though industry's losses due to the piracy in India shot up to $2 billion in 2007 as compared to $1.28 billion in 2006. Globally the loss due to software piracy rose from $8 billion to $48 billion, says fifth annual global PC software piracy study released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), an international association representing the global software industry.

Of the 108 countries included in the report, 67 reported a drop in the use of pirated software, while only eight countries witnessed a rise in the use of pirated software. However, because the worldwide PC market grew fastest in high-piracy countries, the worldwide PC software piracy rate increased by three percentage points to 38 percent in 2007.

"This report shows that we are making progress in the battle against software piracy, albeit slowly as compared to other nations like Russia, whose piracy rate dropped by seven points in 2007. India, as an IT leader, needs a concrete all-inclusive anti-piracy education, engagement and enforcement plan to effectively lower software piracy year on year," said Keshav S Dhakad, Chairman of the BSA India Committee.

Piracy rates in India have been on a gradual decline since the last three years. Government of India, industry bodies and software companies, while have been taking initiatives and making efforts to curb the menace of piracy, challenges at various fronts still remain.