India must now focus on leadership, innovation

Nasscom and the India Leadership Forum have grown in line with the phenomenal growth of IT and BPO industry. This year's event is the largest so far in terms of delegates and we had to actually close registrations and hence could not accommodate all.

The industry has grown 300 times since 1991 as it evolved from staff augmentation to more value-added services today. With the services sector continuing to increase its contribution to global GDP and increased virtualisation of services, the market to address for virtual delivery of services is immense.

This phenomenon will be further accelerated as we move towards a borderless and inclusive world. India is still catering to only a small portion of the global addressable market.

India now needs to focus on issues of leadership and innovation. While we have made progress on the processes and business models front, we still need to go a long way on the products front.

If India wants to achieve the status of a developed country by 2020, then it has to focus on innovative and competitive products and services. This is the "Century of the Mind" and will belong to countries that demonstrate leadership by leveraging their intellectual and knowledge capital. The industry, government and academia need to work collaboratively towards attaining this goal.

The IT hardware market is also receiving a tremendous boost on the back of the telecom revolution.

The manufacturing sector too is seeing activity build up in almost all segments and India is now being viewed as an option for outsourced offshore manufacturing. Thus the manufacturing and services sector are expected to reinforce each other in India's journey to becoming a developed country.

We also need to reflect how the IT and BPO industry can enable the broader social objectives like removal of poverty, improvements in healthcare, education etc. As Prof. Amartya Sen aptly articulated in his keynote address, the key to the success of IT, namely accessibility, systematisation and the use of information is also very central to social evolution and societal change.

Nasscom's interests are not restricted to Indian companies, as it is also highly committed to making the global supply chain and the global delivery model more efficient.

(The writer is Nasscom chairman)