On Innovation in Indian IT

Innovation is one of the most evocative words in every country

and industry sector today-it holds out the promise of a future that transcends

the mundane act of making money through the most opportunistic means and seems

to beckon its followers towards a more lofty purpose-small wonder then that

every visitor to our companies, from Chambers to Gates to Clinton to Hu, talks

about Innovation being the Holy Grail for all IT firms in the future. And the

industry has taken innovation to heart in all its dimensions.

Looking beyond the hype, innovation is actually not an exclusive

preserve of the global multinationals and a few successful leaders of the

software exports sector in search of a new mantra for winning and retaining

business. It is today recognized as being at the very core of India's global

competitiveness and the recognition of the need to build and sustain an

Innovation Eco-system has seen all the participating entities-large firms,

SMEs, Government and Academia-equally engaged in the process in the recent

past!

In the fiftieth issue of India's favourite IT magazine, it may

be worthwhile to understand the progress Innovation in Indian IT has made in the

same time. In the Fifties, IT itself was almost non existent, in the Sixties it

was dominated by data processing centers that sprouted largely with IBM

technology. In the Eighties innovation started primarily in the hardware

industry with the unceremonious ejection of IBM paving the way for ICL, HCL,

WIPRO, DCM IDM and a few others to bring products into the Indian market. But

the real global boom in IT came about with the innovative creation of the

offshore outsourcing model by the Indian Software Exports industry in the

Nineties. With the Year 2000 sword hanging over their heads, many global

multinationals found that outsourcing their code-fixing problem to Indian firms

was truly expedient and a revolution had commenced.

This revolution has continued relentlessly into this decade with

a few challenges leading to the acceleration of the innovation movement-the

runaway salary bills in IT and BPO companies, the flight to scale resulting in

smaller companies without a "different point of view" being left in

the cold and the continued reliance on wage arbitrage and process quality as the

true motivation for offshore outsourcing have all led to the focus on innovation

across the length and breadth of the industry and the country.

The stellar role that Nasscom has played in creating the vibrant

innovation forum needs to be recognized. The forum's current focus on product,

process and business model innovation has seen a healthy competition emerge

among over a hundred small medium large and global multinational firms to win

recognition in the eyes of their peers and a global analyst and customer

audience-a movement whose time has come!

There are many new horizons to conquer of course-the eternal

debate of labor oriented offshore models versus the more innovative technology

enabled development and migration continues to linger as well as the social

issues pertaining to the digital divide and the increasing clogging of major IT

destinations like Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune as

aspiring IT professionals make a beeline to live and work in these cities.

Innovation thrives in a climate of challenge and creates more opportunities for

the future. These are exciting times for the industry as well as for the

participating firms and their stakeholders-the good news is that innovation

continues to flourish and will be the beacon of hope for the continuing success

of this global industry.