INNOVATION IS KEY: Vilas Rao Deshmukh, Chief Minister of Maharashtra (left) with S. Ramadorai, Chairman, Nasscom (right), and B. Ramalinga Raju, Vice Chairman at the Nasscom India Leadership Forum held in Mumbai on Wednesday. — Photo: Paul Noronha

MUMBAI: Cost advantage enabled India to get a foot in the door of the global information technology-enabled services business. But it is innovation that will enable it to kick that door wide open, said National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) Chairman, S. Ramadorai, in his opening address at the India Leadership Forum that opened here on Wednesday. It's flagship annual conference saw the country's nodal IT mouthpiece, stressing quality rather than quantity, the need for new, competitive skills rather than just impressive bottom lines.

While its President, Kiran Karnik, kicked off the three-day summit by announcing that for the first time India was likely to end the fiscal year 2005-06 with IT-related exports crossing the magic figure of Rs. 100,000 crore, he was quick to add that the nation was addressing barely ten per cent of the $300 billion outsourcing opportunity.

To narrow the gap, "the next killer application must come from here," Mr. Ramadorai added, "This will only be possible in an innovation ecosystem where industry, academia and government are equal stakeholders." By 2010, the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry will need 2.3 million pairs of hands — and as things stand, there is likely to be a large shortfall, he said. "We need to convert our demographic surplus into our economic strength — and this calls for a sharp reorientation of higher education," he said.

Competitive skills

But there were signs that the educational scenario was changing: only 30 per cent of IIT graduates go abroad for jobs these days against 70 per cent even a few years ago, Nasscom said. It was actively promoting the idea of integrated townships and urged government and civic agencies to address infrastructure issues that plagued many IT centres.

In fact, Mr. Karnik opened the proceedings with a gentle dig at Mumbai's own record in this respect. Welcoming delegates who had travelled long distances from across India and even from many other countries, he also felicitated local delegates "who had spent long hours in coming from places like Andheri", a remark that drew loud guffaws, since this is an adjacent suburb of the infrastructurally challenged metro.

However Chief Guest Vilasrao Deshmukh, Maharashtra's Chief Minister promised `friendlier policies' and close cooperation with Nasscom to make the state more IT-friendly. "I promise you a different Mumbai, in five years," he said.

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