NASSCOM today predicted country’s IT sector to grow at seven per cent despite global recession. Talking to newsmen here, NASSCOM President Som Mittal said ”inspite of what is happening, the Indian IT industry is showing a growing trend and the growth has stabilised after September’07 axe on global economy.
“During our interaction with a number of companies in the country and abroad, it was clearly visible that Indian industry has withstood and showing growth trend,” Mr Mittal added.
He said companies expressed their intention of resuming campus selections in January. However, it would be done for Eighth Semester Engineering Students instead of starting from Sixth Semester as it would lead to a two-year gap before actual employment.
He said industry progress was ahead of overall economic growth. “A sort of transformation is taking place and industries are finding new business avenues which may be in cloud computing or in other fields,” he added.
Mr Mittal said there was need to create markets by coming out with innovative products. ”The transition period may exist for next five years. India has potential to take the lead to capture rural market where opportunities are plenty.” He said NASSCOM had opened 300 Knowledge Centres and they were run by NGOs in rural areas to provide information about new avenues available and developments in technology.
NASSCOM has also floated ‘Innovation Fund’ with Rs 60 crore as corpus to help very early stage starters. It was meant only for small entrepreneurs who showed interest in innovating products.
Replying to a question, he said it was very difficult to compete with China as ”we are yet to make a breakthrough.”
Asian economy
Asian economy would overtake Europe by 2025, NASSCOM President Som Mittal said. Speaking on the occasion of a two-day NASSCOM Product Conclave and Expo 2009 here, Mr Mittal said, the economy of the Asian countries, including Japan, would cross that of Europe by 2025.
“Today IT spends in small and medium businesses more than that of fortune 500 companies,” he added.
The NASSCOM Chief said there would be no further talks on labour arbitrage and objections to outsourcing works to countries like India was over. “Larger growth would come from unchartered areas. It can be geographies, verticals such as SMB and healthcare,” he added.
Mr Mittal said there is ample scope for innovations and unless we emerge with new products, survival in the market would be difficult. Climate Change and Health care offers new avenues for entrepreneurs, he added. He said the entry of Multinationals in India would help in building infrastructure.
Mr Mittal said the time is not far for small, medium and product distributors to introduce a new economic system.
Garage Technology Ventures Managing Director Guy Kawasaki said, there is no good or bad time for an entrepreneur before investment.
”If one waits for global recession to end, he will be the great loser. This is the right time to invest and come out with new products,” Mr Kawasaki added. As many as 1000 delegates from 650 companies were participating in the Conclave.
