The IT industry needs to “break the stereotypes characterising Indian industry as merely a bunch of call centres or of stealing jobs in developed markets,” National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) President Som Mittal said here on Wednesday.
He was speaking at the opening event of the seventh edition of the Product Conclave and Expo here.
Mr. Mittal urged Indian companies to “talk more often” about the successes achieved by companies in the software products space. Indian companies were developing applications for the global solutions industry, he added.] “This will break the stereotypes,” he remarked.
Of late, Indian companies have begun to focus on opportunities in the domestic market — in e-governance projects, developing solutions and applications for small and medium enterprises and in rural markets.
Mr. Mittal cited the applications developed for microfinance as an example of the new opportunities in rural and smaller town markets. “It is absolutely essential that the industry goes into Tier III towns if India is to grow at nine per cent,” Mr. Mittal remarked.
Referring to the “promise” of cloud computing, Mr. Mittal said it had the potential to provide opportunities for smaller companies by reducing their cost of operations.
NASSCOM Product Conclave Chairperson Sharad Sharma characterised cloud computing as “a major generational disruption.”
