Promises To Keep

It was the next day to the Indian Republic Day. And the patriotic fervor was intact. The
air at the inauguration ceremony NASSCOM'99 rendered with national pride and a sense of

belonging. The tenth annual conference of National Association of Software and Service

Companies opened with the telecast of the soul-filling rendering of Lata Mangeshkar's

Vande Mataram album, composed by music maestro AR Rahman. Bharat Bala, who conceived the

album, was there to share the 'timeless idea' of the national song and its ability to make

us 'realize our inner strength' as one community-the Indian community.






With a turnaround of more than 500 delegates from the software industry, the three-day
event organized at Mumbai provided a single platform for interaction among CEOs and IT

professionals from different parts of the country. There was also an equal representation

of people from the financial organizations who were keen on understanding trends in this

sunrise industry. With a broad perspective for the next 10 years, NASSCOM'99 gave

directions to 'Vision 2008', set rigid standards of quality and commitment for the Indian

software industry, backed with guidelines for achieving the targets.






Speaking on the occasion, the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra campaigning for
investments in the state by illustrating its key strengths. He highlighted the fact that

while the total software exports in the country in the last fiscal (1997-98) stood at

Rs6,500 crore, the software exports from Mumbai alone registered an export turnover of

Rs3,500 crore. Touching upon the infrastructural strengths of the state, the CM promised

that the Knowledge Corridor Expressway between Mumbai and Pune will be ready soon. Adding

to the CM's statement, State Industry Minister, Leeladar Dake, announced that Maharashtra

would celebrate 1999 as the 'IT Year'. However, with the change of Government soon after,

how many of these programs and promises will see the light of the day remains to be seen.






The E-3 Mantra


Summing up the goal of the software industry for the coming decade, Dewang Mehta,
President, NASSCOM, declared the E-3 Mantra of Education, Employment and Economy as the

theme of the event. "The target is to create an additional 1.5 million jobs in the

software industry and touch the export revenues of $100 billion by 2008," he said.

NASSCOM is also aiming at $35 billion domestic software market in the coming 10-year

period. The other aspects he addressed were: 100% computer literacy, software industry

working closely with IITs, IIMs and other premier institutes and Y2K.






Raj Jain, Chairman, NASSCOM, shared his dream of placing India on the road to economic
prosperity through IT. "Explore, Dream and Drive," he said would be the catch

words for the industry. While Saurabh Srivastava, Chairman, NASSCOM'99, announced that

NASSCOM has commissioned McKinsey & Co for developing a strategy that would help India

reach a target of $100 billion. The objective of the McKinsey & Co. study would be to

identify key growth opportunities, look at global competition, understand the domestic

market and create a suitable strategy for dynamic growth. The report, which is expected to

be ready in about two months will identify opportunities in IT services, software

products, ecommerce, internet and ERP. Anil Laud, VC, NASSCOM, outlined e-business, ERP,

Euro conversion and creating a global brand equity for Indian companies, products and

services as other major goal.






The 'sarkari angel'


But, the man who really stole the show during the commencement was Ravindra K Gupta,
Secretary, Department of Electronics. Hailed as the 'sarkari angel' by Dewang, he

announced a number of incentives for encouraging software industry in the country. Some of

these include releasing cyber laws, provision of venture capital funds, amendments to

company laws and localization of software. He declared that DoE was setting up a Rs100

crore venture capital fund along with ICICI, SBI etc, to help entrepreneurs in the IT

industry.






The sessions at the NASSCOM '99 were evenly divided into three tracks: Global, Domestic
and Exports. While the Global track dealt with a whole gamut of issues such as the road

ahead for internet and ecommerce, finance for software companies, global brand equity for

Indian software companies, win-win relationship between India and the US in the software

sector and a panel discussion toward making India an IT Superpower. The Domestic track

held discussions on the emerging and established markets in India like ERP, e-governance,

IT in defense, futuristic technologies and the new telecom policy and its impact on the

software industry. NASSCOM '99 saw varied topics discussed by eminent speakers, ranging

from strategy to move up the value chain, export opportunities and emerging markets,

IT-enabled services, issues related to visas and onsite services, to human resource

development in the export track.






Overall, the three-day event ended on an optimistic note with NASSCOM touching upon key
issues such as building a global brand equity for Indian software industry, provision of

meaningful venture capital funds for promotion of products, moving up the value chain in

services, identifying emerging opportunities for India and giving broad outlines to meet

the targets set.