Nasscom to also focus on internet and mobile

About 24 years after its formation, the information technology (IT) industry body, Nasscom, is realigning its focus to expand the scope of opportunities, looking at the broader market and the evolving nature of technology.

Based on the recommendations made by an expert committee headed by N R Narayana Murthy, the industry body has expanded its focus on the industry segments by including internet and mobile (content and commerce) software products. The domestic IT industry, including internet and mobile products, is expected to grow to $300 billion (Rs 16.5 lakh crore today) by 2020. The internet and mobile segment alone is estimated to expand to about $100 billion by that time from $14 billion in 2012.

Earlier, Nasscom was predominantly focused on IT services, business process management (BPM), engineering and research and development (ER&D) and global in-house centres (GIC) of multinational corporations in India.

Besides, Nasscom is planning to add around 3,000 new members to its existing base of 1,303 by 2020. It will also focus on enhancing skill development of the professionals employed in the IT sector by facilitating 100,000 certifications in specialist skills and domain areas.

The industry body will set up five centres of excellence in the next five years in areas of software engineering, emerging technologies, vertical solutions and e-commerce.

In July last year, Nasscom set up the expert committee under the chairmanship of Murthy, co-founder of Infosys, to address the key needs of the industry in order to help realise its vision for 2020.

Nasscom's initiatives come at a time when voices of dissent within the association are growing louder.

Recently, some software product companies such as Tally Solutions and InMobi, along with a few industry veterans, formed a separate body called the Indian Software Product Industry Round Table, or iSpirt. Though Nasscom as well as the founders of iSpirt had clarified that the new entity would work as a "think tank", many in the industry believe it could be reflection of the fact that software product firms were not getting their due share of attention from Nasscom.

"We realised we had only four focus areas in Nasscom-IT services, GICs, business process management and ER&D services," said Murthy.

"If we have to get to $300 billion, there is considerable need to focus on other opportunities, as well as strengthen existing areas. So we have expanded the charter to include internet and mobile content commerce, products... and if we want IT to make a difference, then we also have to focus on the domestic IT market," he added.

As a part of the recommendation of the committee, Nasscom said it was taking seven new initiatives that would help it achieve the 2020 vision.