The Hindu : Business : Life goes on for the IT industry, say top executives

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 14, 2004

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Business

Life goes on for the IT industry, say top executives

By Harichandan A. A.

BANGALORE, MAY 13. Senior executives in various IT firms feel the election results will have little impact on their industry. Even the "noise about outsourcing'' had "reached its crescendo and is dying down,'' making it an unlikely plank for the elections in the U.S. So, no matter which government comes to power in Delhi, in the `IT-friendly' States such as Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and later in the U.S., the IT industry would continue to grow they said.

Nandan Nilekani, CEO, President and Managing Director of IT bellwether Infosys Technologies Limited, said, "There is a broad consensus that reforms in India are irreversible. We are confident that whichever party comes to power, the process of reforms will continue. Indian economy is poised for growth and we are sure that this will be endorsed by whoever forms the Government.''

Mr. Nilekani said the IT industry had reached a "fairly self-reliant" stage. The IT and the BPO sectors have a unique competitive advantage and "we are certain that the new Government will provide all the necessary support,'' he said.

Sam Iyengar, a senior vice president at Sonata Software, a Bangalore based IT firm, put it nicely when he said, "Life will go on.'' The reason, Mr. Iyengar said, was that IT was private industry driven and in some cases had thrived "despite governments.'' There was also substantial infrastructure in place to support IT enterprise in India, he said.

No implications for the IT sector should be read into S. M. Krishna and Chandrababu Naidu's governments losing the mandate of the people, said Subroto Bagchi, Chief Operating Officer of MindTree Consulting. The work they have done in promoting IT and bringing global respectability to their States cannot be undone,'' he said.

Also, the use of IT in making things more efficient in many other sectors and in e-governance will only increase, he said. So the defeat of the governments of Mr. Krishna and Mr. Naidu was not a setback for the IT industry in their States, he said.

Investors would see if they would get similar help, said Sudip Banerjee, president of enterprise solutions at Wipro Technologies said.

But, "the results have not changed our plans in the two States in any way,'' Mr. Banerjee said.

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