Nasscom Summit: Include & Innovate

Nasscom's annual summit in Mumbai often acts as a reasonable
barometer to measure the IT health of the country. This year was no exception-the
presence of a galaxy of illustrious speakers ranging from: the prime minister,
Manmohan Singh; Noble Laureate Amartya Sen; the IT minister, Dayanidhi Maran;
Patrick Snowball, group executive director, Aviva; and Bernard Bourigeaud,
chairman and CEO, ATOS Origin-added a special sheen to the three-day event.

Sen-Speak

"IT owes its growth a lot to TI or the Talkative Indian," quipped
Amartya Sen, eminent political economist and Noble Laureate while delivering the
keynote session at the Summit. The "argumentative Indian" was quite
equivocal that it is actually the intellectual altercation prowess of Indians
that have made them a global force to reckon with in IT. The broad theme of Sen's
speech revolved around "inclusion" of all strata of society-an
aspect where the IT industry, according to him, has not delivered up to the
mark.

Sen argued that while it would be presumptuous to assume any
social obligation on the part of the Indian IT industry, the country could very
well expect something from the sector, especially on the principle of 'reciprocity'.
"After all that the country has done for the IT industry, it can very well
expect something in return." "India was not just the first poor
country in the world to adopt democracy, but also the first with grinding
poverty to prioritize development of technical skill and state-of-the-art
education in technology," asserted Sen.

PM's Assurance

The prime minister Manmohan Singh opined that though the government had
played a marginal role in the development of the IT sector in the past, it still
has a facilitative role to play in maintaining and building on its competitive
advantages. "The policy framework will continue to be supportive and
enabling, rather than a barrier to progress and innovation," assured Singh.
He also expressed hope that several large e-Governance initiatives launched by
the government under the NEGP are expected to provide sustained growth in
domestic demand for IT services over the next few years.

To improve physical infrastructure, the premier reiterated on
the National Urban Renewal Mission launched last year to enable states to
develop specialized 'knowledge townships' which can be clusters of
knowledge, innovation and excellence in IT. To ease the manpower challenge, he
advocated a radical reform of the education system as well as additional
investment on the sector-issues that hopefully the Eleventh Plan would
address.

Saluting Innovation

The prime minister also felicitated seven finalists chosen from 18
shortlisted companies for the "Innovation in IT 200" award. Bharti
Airtel and IBM India won for the innovative business model under which Bharti
outsourced all of its IT to IBM. Evalueserve.com was awarded for its BI
services, customized reports and value-added research to clients in different
industry verticals, such as banking, insurance, hi-tech, pharma and biotech,
chemicals, energy, consumer goods as well as discrete and process manufacturing.
The innovation from HP Labs India was its Gesture Keypad, a pen based input
device for phonetic scripts with larger character set.

"India was not just the first poor country in the world to adopt democracy, but also the first with grinding poverty to prioritize development of technical skill and state-of-the-art education in technology"		"The policy framework will continue to be supportive and enabling, rather than a barrier to progress and innovation"		"Indian IT is a problem child of globalization especially as we are on the wrong side of the anti-free trade rhetoric"
-Prof Amartya Sen, Noble Laureate Global Indian Award, Nasscom 2007		-Manmohan Singh, Prime minister, India		-Jerry Rao, VP and GM, EDS, India and Chairman, MphasiS

While Ittiam Systems won the award for its advanced digital
audio and video signal processing algorithms for embedded system design of IP
Video Phone (IPVP) and Portable Media Player Recorder (PMPR) products, Strand
Life Sciences was recognized for its comprehensive and modular data mining and
predictive modeling platform branded as 'avadis' (access, visualize, analyze
and discover). Kale Consultants won the award for its platform based BPO using
its own product REVERA, while Monsoon Multimedia was awarded for HAVA, arguably
the world's first integrated video "time-shifting" and
"place-shifting" product.

"Acquisitions are not a choice anymore for Indian providers. It is no more 'build or buy'; it's build and buy"		Hunger changes business models more than anything else. It's not always about business strategy; it's about being hungry too.
-Sudip Nandy, Chief Strategy Officer, Wipro		-Pramod Bhasin, CEO, Genpact

Collaboration Sparks Innovation

Continuing on the innovation theme, eminent speakers like: Nicholas M
Donofrio, executive vice president, Innovation and Technology, IBM; Jai Menon,
director IT and Innovation, Bharti Airtel; Rajiv Mody, chairman and CEO, Sasken
Communication Technologies; and Lemur Lasher, chief innovation officer and
president, CSC, debated on how to create a culture of innovation across the IT
industry. Some of the drivers of change for 21st century identified included
network ubiquity, open standards, and new business design. Global Innovation
Outlook 2.0, an IBM initiative to identify and harness innovation, was
elaborated and the need for collaboration to spark innovation emphasized upon.

In sync with Nasscom vision to build world class companies
through partnerships, dignitaries from Nasscom's global counterparts
including: Sheryle Moon, CEO, Australian Information Industry Association; Paul
Kent, treasurer, Information Technology Association of Canada; M R Rangaswami,
co-founder, sandhill.com; and Fred Ayala, chairman, Business Processing
Association of the Philippines outlined the importance of partnerships for
companies aspiring to go global.

Last but not the least, the final seal of global approval on the
Nasscom Summit was completed when Kapil Sibal, the minister of Science and
Technology presented the Nasscom Global Leadership Awards at a glittering
sideshow. While Amartya Sen was the Global Indian Award winner, Samuel J
Palmisano, chairman and CEO, IBM was lauded as the Business Leader Award Winner,
and Patrick Snowball, group executive director, Aviva emerged as the Innovative
Business Model Award winner.

Rajneesh De
and Sudesh Prasad

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in