Bound by Green

They have been talking about it for almost a year now, but it never seemed to
find its way out of the agenda sheet. However, on November 11, 2008, at the
Nasscom CEO Summit, the words scribbled on the long forgotten agenda sheet
finally found elocution. Some call it a sudden awakening, while others
pronounced it as too late, too little, but when looked at closely, the Nasscom
Green Initiative does seem to have some meat.

It was in Kolkata that the announcement was finally made. Som Mittal,
president, Nasscom announced it and said, We are pleased to formally announce
the launch of Nasscoms Green IT Initiative. The first meeting of the Nasscom
Green IT Initiative recently took place in Bangalore to discuss and brainstorm
Nasscoms strategy on Green IT. We expect Green IT to become an integral
component of a firms business strategy and this initiative will play a critical
role in helping the Indian IT-BPO industry to collaborate and become a global
leader in addressing environmental issues proactively.

While it is apparent that the brainstorming went on for a little too long,
what the announcement didnt explain was how this industry will collaborate in
addressing environmental issues. The announcement seemed little more than
rhetoric. But a talk with Nasscom and Cisco, a strategic partner in the
alliance, served well to dismantle the doubts of it being yet another green
paper initiative.

What its About

According to Rajdeep Sahrawat, VP, Nasscom, the green initiative was in the
tunnel for a long time. He doesnt believe that it has come rather late in the
day but agrees that a lot of homework that had to be done internally, took
more time than expected. But he emphasizes the need for the cautious approach
that Nasscom has adopted vis--vis its Green IT Initiative. Given the brand
equity of Nasscom we had to be very careful, we are constantly watched, and
whatever we do is talked about a lot, he says.

When asked about all the attention green IT has captured recently, Sahrawat
comes up with a very interesting example. There is a difference between knowing
about world poverty and doing something to alleviate it. Similarly, says
Sahrawat, Knowing green IT, and actually implementing it to see the results are
two different things. Nasscom through this initiative plans to make green IT a
practice rather than just a boardroom or conference discussion topic.

The Nasscom Green strategy mainly focuses on three points as of now. They can
broadly be summed up as: how to make IT Green, how to make Green happen through
IT and how to make each employee of the IT industry (which employees over 2 mn
people in India) a Green Warrior. Sahrawat calls the first point defensive play
but it is the second point which he claims to be the most powerful vector. How
to make Green happen through IT is what is called as the proactive approach by
Nasscom. They plan to focus a lot of attention in this area and through this
drive home the business sense behind Green IT.

Some measures that Sahrawat hinted as being part of the green promotional
campaign included increased softwarisation of hardware and helping
organizations who are looking at Green seriously to find hotspots via the use of
IT. Nasscom also intends to lay stress on power savings and energy efficiency.
They want to bring into play a parallel to the Price Performance Index (PPI);
something that Sahrawat calls Price Performance Power Index.

Education about green practices is also a part of this agenda and Nasscom
hopes to uncover and emphasize the business opportunities that come with the
buzzword Green. Nasscom predicts a smooth adoption of the green initiatives, as
the readiness is already there in the industry.

Being a part of Nasscoms green initiative is a great opportunity for Cisco to reach out to the Indian industry and ecosystem, and evangelize our environmental commitment and leadership Varghese M Thomas, VP, corporate communications, Cisco India and SAARC

Partnering the Initiatives

On the choice of partners, Sahrawat adopts a cautious approach. According to
him, Nasscom has never aligned itself solely to a single partner. There are
definitely other partners but Cisco happens to be the most visible and
strategic. Cisco, which has been moving aggressively on the Green front for
sometime now, has been working closely with Nasscom for this Green initiative.

According to Varghese M Thomas, VP, corporate communications, Cisco India and
SAARC, Being a part of Nasscoms Green Initiative is a great opportunity for
Cisco to reach out to the Indian industry and ecosystem, and evangelize our
environmental commitment and leadership. Varghese also sees this initiative as
bringing some of the best green practices to the Indian IT industry, and
bringing together all individual efforts and ideas under one umbrella. He says,
Almost all companies, especially within the IT industry, have instituted some
form of Green initiatives within their organizations, and we see this committee
as an ideal platform from which to gather the best from across the industry and
make the knowledge available more widely.

Cisco sees youth involvement as very crucial to the health of this initiative
and considers youth as the most potent forces and also vocal champions of
environmental causes. Another critical area which Cisco wants to drive together
with Nasscom is that of data center efficiency. According to Varghese, This is
an area that is close to Ciscos heart, and with the huge proliferation of data
all around us, it is only natural that power-hungry data centers increase. Our
goal is to drive home the significance of virtualization, and work with the
industry to identify viable and relevant alternatives.

Although, the policies and steps outlined seem to contain some substance, it
is yet to be seen how well it is translated into actions. Nasscom also hopes to
work closely with the government for the policies related to Green IT. That
seems to be good news for an industry which doesnt have any concrete Green IT
policy as of yet. Though e-waste has been seen coming for around a year now, it
hasnt arrived even yet. e-Waste, infact is another issue, which Nasscom wants
to address through its green platform.

All said and the green initiative announced and flagged, what remains to be
seen is how justified is the optimism and the enthusiasm revolving around green,
especially in times when the industry is reeling under the pressures of a
meltdown. In cost saving times, like the ones we are witnessing, how keen are
businesses to invest in Green technologies which are still priced on the higher
curve? Sahrawats optimism however, has an answer to this question. He says that
businesses will employ Green seeing its long-term benefits. It will not happen
as CSR now, because CSR happens in good times, not in bad ones.

For now, the atmosphere is full of hope swirling in a green cloud over us.
For who knows someday we might see a section called green results in the
annual report of the companies. Till then, as Sahrawat says, we can and shall
dream, and hope that this green cloud which seems to have surrounded us, will
not burst at just a prick.

Mehak Chawla

mehakc@cybermedia.co.in