Information Technology (IT), the ‘sector of destiny’ for India, has changed the country over the last two decades and can change it much more, according to R. Chandrashekhar, President of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), who participated in a round-table discussion with journalists from The Hindu and The Hindu Business Line in Chennai.
The discussion touched upon a range of topics relevant to the IT industry, including the importance of leveraging the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem in India, improving government procurement and payment processes, and ensuring that the workforce had the right kind of skills and education to maximise the promise of the sector.
The entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystem in India, Mr. Chandrashekhar said, was magnifying the existing strength of the IT sector and creating a set of people who no longer necessarily aspired to get the ‘best job in the country’ but wanted to change the country using the power of technology and innovation. This, along with the existing IT strength and the proliferation of mobile phone access across the country, had brought India to the next phase — high speed connectivity via broadband and smarter devices, a phase that would make services and innovations accessible to people, according to him.
He also said he believed the government had at least articulated policies that were designed to make the most of these opportunities. The discussion brought up areas that needed improvement.
Regarding government procurement processes, Mr. Chandrashekhar said the process was designed for goods procurement and for the procurement of a few basic services but had to be modified to support the procurement of IT services. His comments come a few days after software giant Infosys’s founder N. R. Narayana Murthy said his company had lost money on every project, “when dealing with governments.”
In response to a question on the single largest obstacle to government’s Digital India vision, Mr. Chandrashekhar said, “Something as ambitious and far-reaching as Digital India, needs, I believe, a focused group of people who are able to develop that vision, articulated and communicated well, and then strategise the implementation [sic],” adding that he was optimistic the government would do this. The industry was also putting forth suggestions, according to him.
Using the example of a fibre network being extended to rural areas, Mr. Chandrashekhar said impact was not simply a question of connectivity, but had to be looked at holistically with other aspects like applications of the technology, regulatory impediments, and the decision making process for instance.
