Nasscom meet-up inspires Indian IT to polish its act

It could well be one of the biggest selfies clicked, with more than 1,600 waving to the drone flying across the conference room of the annual 23rd Nasscom Leadership Forum (NLF) in Mumbai on Wednesday.

The 2015 NLF saw one of the highest numbers of delegates registering for the event in two years. The NLF has more than 1,600 delegates from 30 countries, up from 1,400 in 2014 and 1,300 in 2013.

Cross-currency challenges, macroeconomic pressures and disruptive forces are shaking the $100-billion information technology services sector.

The first session summed up that large enterprises could learn from start-ups. The significance to adapt to the digital shift was also evident from the fact that for the first time the Strategic Review 2015 mentioned the break-up of the digital revenue as a percentage of the total exports' revenue. Digital solutions accounted for 12-14 per cent of the sector's revenues for FY15. It was four per cent in FY09.

The Union information technology and communications minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said, "We have 900 million mobile users in India, second only to China. Our internet user base went ahead of the US to touch more than 300 million. Indians have always had a fascination for technology. With an intention to leverage that, the central government has come out with the Digital India mandate."

Rajan Anandan, managing director, Google India, said, "Mobile is not a trend anymore, mobile is how we live. There are more than 100 million smartphone users in India and they spend three hours on the internet daily. On an average, one smartphone has 17 apps and people use only the ones they need. So, there is a good chance all these people engaged in developing apps may not succeed. Mobile is not disruptive. Mobile is a trend most companies around the world are trying to catch up with."

"Digital India has to go hand-in-hand with make in India. There is a huge potential for cheap smartphones in India. I see manufacturing push digital India in a big way. We are in the process of finalising BPOs in smaller cities in India with proper incentivisation," the minister agreed.

Along with a changing industry landscape, companies also acknowledged that there is a need to change the old way of working.

N Chandrasekaran, MD & CEO, TCS, said, "The internet of things is the third evolution of internet. I am a runner and I am visualising a virtual runner running with me alerting me about my speed, my blood pressure, amongst other things. Another dimension having huge transformation opportunity is that of internal social media. The term workflow should be killed. Workflows built hierarchies. Today data is visible real time and hence work should get done at the time it arises. I believe workflows will cease to exist going forward."

But the industry also acknowledged that it needs to address the skill set mismatch on an urgent basis. Paul Hermelin, Chairman and CEO, Capgemini, said, "We will need people with double culture of technology and business. 2013 is the year where machines have communicated more than human beings. E-management of talent is coming. We are living a digital revolution which will impact all dimensions of social life."