THRE’s A NIP IN THE AIR...

It is probably appropriate that after an unusually cold winter, the beginning

of spring sees a budget that will undoubtedly put the spring back into the

software exports industry in India. The trepidations that had been caused by the

Kelkar committee report were put to rest by the very positive statements made by

the Finance Minister where his words gave even more cheer than the simple act of

continuing the tax benefits and paving the way for demergers and amalgamations

in the Information Technology industry. This coupled with the reduction of

import duty on IT related imports and the treatment of software loaded on

computers, put the smiles back on IT faces all over.

Ganesh Natarajan

The other big benefit of the budget is its emphasis on infrastructure. The

completion of the golden quadrilateral, the internationalization of airports in

Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad and of course the extension of tax relief

to the telecom sector–all these will benefit the software exports industry in

no small measure and also make the country a more attractive place for our

brethren overseas to return with their families and strengthen the skills pool

in the IT industry.

There are still some expectations that we have and which the sagacity of the

Shourie-Singh team will surely address in the not so distant future—elimination

of the Softex forms, simplification of the customs bonding procedure,

elimination of double taxation impact on the employee stock option plans and a

few more, but the intention is there to build a solid government—industry

partnership that will keep the $50-billion export dream alive. A little more

emphasis on government spending would also provide a much-needed boost to the

domestic sector.

Now that the concerns with the external environment have been laid to rest,

the industry can renew its commitment to the agenda of growth. One step in this

direction was an industry delegation consisting of the Chiefs of Infosys, Satyam,

Zensar and Polaris that did the rounds of Munich, Stuttgart and Frankfurt as

part of an initiative to explore a relatively untapped market and educate the

German CIOs about the capabilities of the Indian Offshore. As Narayana Murthy

repeatedly pointed out, a country like Germany, which is the third largest

economy today accounts for less than two percent of Indian Software Exports and

there is tremendous scope for growth if Indian companies are able to address the

specific needs of the market.

Investing in the German market is of course not just a matter of setting up a

sales office in Essen or Bavaria (read Frankfurt or Munich), but a real

investment in developing German language skills, understanding the culture of

the country and making progress one step at a time. With the traditional markets

of USA, UK and Japan continuing to be sluggish, this is the time when a

concerted effort by companies as well as the industry itself can open up new

opportunities for product and service vendors.

Another encouraging feature of the recent Germany tour was the proactiveness

and enthusiasm shown by the Indian Ambassador, Rangachari and his eminent Consul

Generals, Ravi and Topden in Munich and Frankfurt. The research and preparedness

for the visit, the presence of the Ambassador himself at each one of the dozen

meetings and presentations of the Indian delegation and his willingness to go

through Airport security checks as part of us rather than flash his diplomatic

passport–all this was another example of the Indian government-industry

partnership at its best, a fact that was not lost on the Prime Ministers of

Essen and Bavaria–who went out of the way to make us welcome in their

countries.

The dangers of the digital divide, which had receded as a topic of discussion

in the last year of economic and industry downturn will soon resurface as the

industry resumes its accelerated path to success, and it is surely the

responsibility of each one of us as individuals and each one of our companies to

do their bit for developing the efficiency of Indian corporations and the

capabilities of Indian communities and societies to march forward into a higher

level of civilization. All the developments that are planned, of road, airports

and infrastructure will come to naught if millions of people remain below the

poverty line and remain illiterate in a rapidly changing world. But then can IT

be the panacea for all the ills that prevail in our nation? Maybe not, but every

little bit can help!

Ganesh Natarajan



The author is the global CEO of Zensar Technologies