Curtain Raiser: NASSCOM Leadership Forum 2009

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The 17th edition of NASSCOM India Leadership Forum, the flagship event of NASSCOM, is being held at a very critical juncture in the short yet exciting history of Indian IT/BPO industry.

Recession in US and downturn in India is exerting lot of pressure on Indian IT/BPO industry, to devise a calibrated strategy to come out of the uncertain times unscathed.

Add to it the situation of mistrust emanating from unfortunate Satyam scandal, which has cast serious aspersions on the structure of corporate governance for Indian IT/BPO industry, a industry which hitherto were seen among the most trusted and transparent industries.

These uninvited incidents has put an added onus on the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum that apart from helping Indian IT software and services industry stay on track to touch $60 billion in exports during FY 2009-10, the forum has to imprint the thought that partnering with Indian IT/BPO industry is the best bet for countries to get out of recession.

NILF 2009 also finds itself bagged with additional responsibility of assuaging the fears of world community regarding security, not only of data but also people, property and IT investments in India following the recent Mumbai terror attacks.

This year Leadership Forum will mark NASSCOM’s 20th year and will be bringing under one roof industry leaders, thought gurus, analysts, Government decision makers, academia and IT users from across the world.

Sangeeta Gupta, vice president, NASSCOM in an interaction with Idhries Ahmad of CIOL is confident that NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2009 will be successful in assuaging the concerns of both Indian and international community both in terms of recession and security.

“NASSCOM will put strongly put forward its point that Indian IT/BPO industry has very strong fundamentals and industry views downturn as an opportunity to emerge as leaders going forward”, says Sangeeta..

Sangeeta who is responsible for organizing and facilitating NASSCOM events in India and overseas, gives a detailed preview to the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2009 and shares key highlights, spotlight speakers and key attendees expected at the forum.

Excerpts from the interview

CIOL: Recession in US and Europe and slow down in India is posing huge challenge for Indian IT companies. Do we have special sessions and discussion at NLF 2009 to provide a guide lines to companies to help them pass through these uncertain times. How is NASSCOM using this platform to assuage the feelings of Indian IT industry.

Sangeeta Gupta: NASSCOM India Leadership Forum (NILF) 2009 is important event as it not only coincides with 20 years of completion of NASSCOM (NASSCOM was founded in 1988), but also, it is being held at very interesting and challenging times in midst of global recession that has swept different sectors, different economies and job market and is having large impact on who will grow and who will not.

This forum will provide opportunity for participants to hear from customers, analysts, leading consultants, CEOs in the industry and overseas who will talk about and how they are gearing up for economic crisis and what opportunities that will define the path ahead are. In February, most of the technology budgets are available and people and companies will get an idea as where they need to spend and what needs to be  avoided.

The forum will showcase how global organisations are reorganising and realigning themselves in response to current times and these learnings can provide participants platform to understand and move forward from there.



We have lot of sessions being planned around the reality of downturn and what it means for different stakeholders. We have all spoken about globalisation and flat world but the current crisis has changed lot of that scenario, so how will different economies play a role and what will be the growth path ahead will be talked about in detail.

CEO, Cisco, John Chambers who is the spotlight keynote speaker will set the ball rolling by talking about how the current scenario is going to reshape the global economy. Then, we will have  debate between top industry CEO’s  like Nandan Nilkini,  Ramadurai,Vineet Nayar, who would be deliberating the really of recession and the way ahead

We have got lot of analysts, customers and others who will talk about where is off shoring moving,  and with that what is going to happen to BPO, ,what will happen to outsourcing and also what about happening to engineering services.

This year we have specialised track around different vertical segments and two focussed sessions on Banking and Financial Services with one interesting session on will BFCI continue to bank on IT.We also will have related sessions around how leaders need to realign their strategies internally to tackle the external market condition and also internal issues of how you would manage talent and employee engagement.

CIOL:In view of unfortunate Satyam story what sort of message will go out from NASSCOM to the international community that Satyam saga is one of kind and doesn’t reflect Indian IT industry as such? Are there any special sessions being planned on this issue and also on the need for having stringent corporate governance in place to prevent such episodes in future?.

SG: The issue will come up in most of the discussions. We have created a specific session Managing Risk, which will talk about risk. It will be risk related to governance and compliance that have come up with Satyam issue.

Actually, we are addressing whole issue of risk together and not look only at Satyam issue only, because if you look at Satyam it is an isolated incident. An incident of deliberate fraud and not to do anything with the weak laws in this country.

CIOL: NASSCOM has again selected Mumbai as the venue for the 2009 event. Do you feel this will act as a deterrent to a more healthy participation? How are you assuaging the misgivings of the international community who are wishing to come to this forum?

SG: Most of people recognise that Mumbai was a victim of terror attack as much as London or New York  or  other world cities. However at NASSCOM, we have been strongly communicating with the State and Central Governments, with the hotel and other bodies to ensure that security is definitely enhanced multi-fold.

Initially, we had seen lots of questions on why Mumbai and not any other city but last couple of weeks, people have understood this better. People understand that Government of India is more proactive and steps are being taken to ensure that their visit to India is safe.

CIOL: Last year we had IT delegations from Egypt, Pakistan among other countries. Which countries are expected to represent themselves at this years forum ?

SG: We have almost sixteen countries that are bringing in delegation which include 8 African countries, all the BRIC countries. We have lots of people coming from eastern-European countries from Poland and places like that; we have got also people from development market from Australia, UK, Belgium, and Germany.

We have got a good representation of developed as well as developing countries. Many of the emerging countries who will be working or partnering with India in the whole IT and BPO sector.

CIOL: Who will be the major speakers that are expected this time round? What sort of participation is expected from the government? How many delegates are expected this year at the Leadership Forum?

SG: We are expecting 1100 people which will include people from India, overseas, government and other stakeholders.

We will have a galaxy of speakers gracing the event.We have C.K Prahalad, Professor of Strategy from University of Michigan,  John Chambers, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from Cisco Systems, Nandan M. Nilekani, CEO and Managing Director , Infosys Technologies, Ltd,

We also have Shashi Tharoor , Former UN Under Secretary General, fellow USC Center on Public Diplomacy, Vineet Nayar, CEO, HCL Technologies, Rosabeth Moss Kanter , Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor from Harvard Business School, Pankaj Ghemawat, Professor Global Strategy ,IESE and Harvard Business, who has written book on world is not flat among others.

From government side we have Minister for Commerce and Industry, KamalNath. In addition we have got analysts from Gartner, Froster, IMR, CEO of Everest and customers like JP Morgan, UBAF, HDFC, Standard Charter.

CIOL: What is the message that NASSCOM as a parent body of Indian IT/BPO industry will give out to the outside world and even to the audiences within the country.

SG: Our message is that we are in a a challenging environment as an industry. NASSCOM will be putting forcefully its point that Indian IT/BPO industry has  strong fundamentals and Indian IT/BPO  industry views downturn as an opportunity to emerge as leaders going forward.