IT's business as usual - Nasscom chief

By Anand Parthasarathy

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 26. In spite of the dotcom downtrend and the temporary setback in the U.S. after the terrorist attacks, it is - or should be - ``business as usual'' at the Indian end of the information technology (IT) business, feels Mr. Kiran Karnik, President of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM). But he adds a rider: It might have to be a new kind of business.

There is increasing interest in the U.S. and other Western countries in getting their IT-related tasks done in an ``offshore'' mode - and India is ideally poised to source such services here and thus turn crisis into business opportunity, Mr. Karnik said here today delivering the inaugural keynote at the India Internet World-2001 conference and exhibition. It was his first public role since taking over as NASSCOM's head a week ago.

The steps being taken in India to bridge the ``digital divide'' between the haves and the have-nots were ``small but scaleable'', he said. He mentioned laudable initiatives - like the M.S. Swaminathan Foundation's work in rural technology at Pondicherry, similar projects of the Madhya Pradesh Government, the market information systems in interior Maharashtra and the e-nabled primary health programmes in the hill districts of Himachal Pradesh.

Mr. Karnik offered a 4-D ``mantra'' to achieve the national goal of ``IT For All'': democratise-decentralise-digitize-demystify. But he told the assembled industry leaders not to ignore the untapped domestic market. Taking the benefits of IT to the villages was ``not just dreams and philanthropy but sound business,'' he said.

He did not agree with the general perception that the Indian Government was a slow mover when it came to unshackling IT. ``They too have gone the `e' way...and the classic response on file, `not approved', more often than not, reads `note approved', these days,'' he quipped.

From `curious' to `committed'

While this year's Internet show saw a halving in the number of participating agencies, to around 70, the organisers, Microland, say this is to some extent a planned development. ``Last year it was Internet for the curious, this year it's for the committed,'' said the Microland Chairman, Mr. Pradip Kar.

In his remarks at the inaugural function, Mr. Frank Foster, Deputy Counsellor at the U.S. Department of Commerce - the U.S. is the `partner country' of the three-day show - said 20 leading American companies were participating.

Another national focus this year is on South Korea, which has a country-specific display where six leading IT vendors are showcasing their products. Mr. Chul-Jeung Hwang, Director of Internet Division at the Ministry of Information and Communication of the Republic of Korea, told The Hindu that the participation in strength of the Korean IT industry was a prelude to government-level interactions with India, scheduled for next month.

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