Nasscom 2000 gets underway in Mumbai

MUMBAI: Information Technology (IT) represents a completely new stage of human existence on earth and in a digital world; speed would determine the winners and losers said Mr Gururaj Deshpande, founder of Sycamore Networks.

Delivering the keynote on Nasscom 2000, the first IT-related event of the millennium in India, Mr Deshpande said, "The difference between the industrial revolution and the IT revolution is the ‘speed’ factor. Moreover, the financial markets have a significant impact on this revolution, which was not the case in the industrial revolution."

The four-day event, Nasscom 2000 is being organised by National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) in Mumbai. Nasscom president Dewang Mehta emphasized on the need to improve the literacy levels in the country for the emergence of India as a superpower in the future. It kicked off in a grand scale with bigwigs attending from the IT as well as the government fraternity.

Mr Mehta said, "With the unfolding of this new revolution, India is not in an advantageous position by not merely being a by-stander in the next revolution (the Internet revolution) that is set to redefine our lives. India stands to gain immensely from this revolution since it is blessed with abundance talent and a disciplined and motivated workforce. With Internet, the role of IT has a tremendous impact at a break-neck speed." He added," Its role would not merely end by transferring information at a rapid pace, but it would empower consumers and bring them together regardless of geographical distances. It represents an exciting and daunting challenge for the organizations and individuals. For the organizations, it is speed, the ability to compete, strong backbone for the network and reinventing of business are some of the key factors. This revolution is a global phenomenon and India has an excellent opportunity to surge ahead of the other nations."

Speaking to a packed audience, brimming with enthusiasm, Minister of Information Technology and Parliamentary Affairs Pramod Mahajan spoke about the need to take IT from the classes to the ‘masses’. "We do not want knowledge islands, but information to penetrate all the islands," claimed Mr Mahajan. He further added that there was a dire need to increase the speed of Internet penetration in India, which at present is below par. For that to happen, the government must earnestly pursue the policy of total literacy, he added. He told the audience that he would immediately take up the issue of reduction of ‘sales-tax’ and asked the ministers from other parties to co-operate with him on this issue. He assured the gathering that the IT ‘sales-tax’ issue would be resolved by the year 2003. "The competition is now between the various state chief ministers to make their state more IT savvy than the other," he said.

IT is not a scientific revolution, but it is a way of life. But currently software exports of our country (which is our forte!) are not evenly balanced. 60 per cent of software exports comes from ‘ten’ Indian companies! The need for more IITs is evident; as a matter of fact our country could do more with Information of Indian Institute technology (IIIT). On the year ahead, Mr Mehta said that more than 203 of the Fortune 1000 opportunities outsourced their requirements to India and it is bound to grow significantly in the future. The key segments that will contribute towards the growth will consist of software applications in the areas of banking, Internet banking, e-governance, healthcare, defence and Small Office, Home Office (SOHO) added Mr Mehta.

"Maharashtra is one of the largest users of Internet and e-commerce, which is picking up the most in Mumbai," said Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, chief minister of Maharashtra. He added that expanding the infrastructure and expanding in other areas like Aurangabad and Nagpur is the core focus for the state government in the near future.

Nasscom 2000 aims to provide an impetus to India’s efforts in moving up the value chain in IT services and in the creation of new technology in high growth segments including e-commerce, IT enabled services and Application Service Providers (ASPs). The event will also focus on the areas where faster decisions and quick implementation are required from the government in the issues like cyber laws, the national Internet backbone, physical bonding of equipment, continuity of tax policies, the telecom policy and the need to remove the ceiling on overseas mergers and acquisitions.

A lot of high profile speakers are on the agenda for the next four days of the conference. Among them are Prof. Krishna Palepu, Harvard Business School, and Mr. Nandan Nilekani, managing director, Infosys Technologies, Pawan Kumar, president, IBM Global Services India, Kanwal Reikhi, president TiE, Steve Wildstrom, editor, Business Week USA and a whole gamut of hot shots in the IT industry.