The newly-appointed National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) President R. Chandrashekhar, on Tuesday, urged a “shift in focus” of the organisation, “from advocacy to one that enables the leveraging of new opportunities.” Addressing a media conference, Mr. Chandrashekhar said that the software and software services industry’s “aspiration” of revenues of $300 billion by 2020 required the Indian industry to hitch its fortunes to the “transformational plans” of its clients worldwide.
Mr. Chandrashekhar said he expected 2014 to be “qualitatively better” than the preceding year, but that “it is unlikely to be a dramatic step-up.”
Observing that the Indian software services industry was “at an inflexion point,” Mr. Chandrashekhar said it needed to “venture seriously” beyond the realm of IT services, to areas such as engineering and research and development services. “The domestic market will also occupy a significant position going forward,” he said. Indian government procurement systems were still not geared for speedy deployment of technology, said Mr. Chandrashekhar, a former Secretary in the Department of Telecommunications. He said a “powerful ecosystem of start-ups” was cause for optimism that the industry was poised for innovation in business processes and services.
Nasscom chairman Krishnakumar Natarajan told The Hindu that Indian IT service companies had in the last few years increased their intake of ‘locals’ at their overseas bases not because this was prudent from a political perspective of avoiding issues related to immigration but because they needed human resources that were consistent with their “moving up the value chain”.
