Nasscom-India Today woman corporate awards

* Winners of 'NASSCOM-India Today Woman Corporate Awards for Excellence in Gender Inclusivity' announced

Bangalore, December 12, 2007: NASSCOM the premier trade body and the "voice" of the Indian IT industry, today announced the winners of first ever NASSCOM-India Today Woman Corporate Awards for Excellence in Gender Inclusivity at the NASSCOM-IT Women Leadership Summit 2007 being held in Bangalore. The awards honor companies in the IT-ITES industry which have implemented outstanding practices that promote gender empowerment and women leadership development. The eminent jury members felicitated the winners at an award ceremony jointly held by NASSCOM and India Today Woman, in Bangalore today.

The award is being presented to the winning companies in the following categories:

- NASSCOM-India Today Woman Corporate Award for Excellence in Gender Inclusivity: IT Services & Product Companies - Infosys Technologies

- NASSCOM-India Today Woman Corporate Award for Excellence in Gender Inclusivity: ITES-BPO Companies - IBM Daksh Business Process Services

- NASSCOM-India Today Woman Corporate Award for Excellence in Gender Inclusivity: Most Innovative Project in Gender Inclusivity - IBM India Pvt Ltd

- NASSCOM-India Today Woman Corporate Award for Excellence in Gender Inclusivity: Best Emerging Company - Equinox Global Services

Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM said, "The Indian IT industry follows inclusive HR policies at all stages, including recruiting, training, retaining and promoting as a strategic business plan, and not just as part of CSR. Women are a key and vital part of these policies, which promote gender diversity. These awards seek to recognise companies who are doing outstanding work to enable inclusivity and we are hoping that other companies will emulate this, and widen their initiatives. On behalf of NASSCOM and the jury, I congratulate today's winners and on behalf of the industry and thank them for their admirable effort towards promoting gender empowerment."

As the IT-ITES sector moves forward, more women are joining the industry. A previous study by NASSCOM revealed that in the Indian IT industry the percentage of women will grow from 30% to 45% by 2010. The male-female ratio is also expected to improve from 76:24 in 2005 to 65:35 by the year end. As the industry is on course to achieve this ratio, there is a clear trend of more and more educated young women "� including housewives - joining the industry due to its progressive and flexible HR policies. Also, the percentage of women graduates has gone up, which will facilitate a further increase in the number of professional working women across various sectors.

Some of the findings that emerged from the survey on what makes women successful in the IT sector are:

· IT does not require any specific skills that are gender dependent

· Women are intrinsically suited to work within the IT-ITES industry as they are good communicators

· Being present from the nascent years in the industry itself helps them attain an at-par status with their male counterparts

· Women are particularly adept in important skills, multitasking and collaborative team play

This sector provides flexibility in working hours, and hence is more friendly to women employees, who need to juggle career aspirations and home

About NASSCOM

NASSCOM® is the premier trade body of the IT software and services industry in India. Its focus is on ensuring the growth of the IT industry in India, on promoting the use of IT for economic and social benefit, and promoting global trade in IT.

NASSCOM has over 1100 members, of which about 250 are global companies from US, UK, EU and APAC countries. These include the biggest Indian and foreign IT companies, as also SMEs and even start-ups. They are in the business of software development, software services, software products, consulting services, R&D services, ITeS-BPO services, e-commerce and web services, engineering services and animation and gaming. NASSCOM's member companies constitute over 95% of the Indian IT industry's revenues in India and directly employ over 1.6 million professionals.