NASSCOM kicks off its first CEO Summit 2008 in Kolkata

Also announces its `Green IT Initiative`

NASSCOM, the premier trade body and ‘voice’ of the Indian IT-BPO industry today kicked off its first ‘CEO Summit 2008’ at Hotel Hyatt Regency, Kolkata. The event has been structured to address key issues in the industry today and evaluate the measures that will position the Indian IT-BPO sector for its next phase of growth.

Speaking about the focus and objective of this event, Mr. Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM said, “The Indian IT-BPO industry has braced several challenge in the past few months and has managed to remain unshaken owing to its strong fundamentals. It is critical for the industry to come together and evaluate, address the problems facing the sector and identify new opportunities to ensure sustained growth going forward. As a step in this direction, NASSCOM is organising its first CEO Summit, which is also its first national level event in Kolkata. We see this event bringing together CEO’s and thought leaders on an array of issues that impact business as well as the overall economic and social environment.”

“We are also pleased to formally announce the launch of NASSCOM’s Green IT Initiative. The first meeting of the NASSCOM Green IT initiative recently took place in Bangalore to discuss and brainstorm NASSCOM’s strategy on Green IT. We expect Green IT to become an integral component of a firm’s business strategy and this initiative will play a critical role in helping the Indian IT-BPO industry to collaborate and become a global leader in addressing environmental issues proactively”, he added.

NASSCOM’s Green IT Strategy is broadly aligned along the following three vectors, and covers the following aspects

 

Make IT Green:, Adoption by industry of Green technologies and practices including Green buildings, Green computing infrastructure e.g. energy efficient data centers, power efficient computers, sharing infrastructure e.g. shared data centres , , addressing issues like e-waste management

Make Green Happen Through IT: Deploy IT solutions  which help firms become Green including like Cloud Computing, video-conferencing, web-conferencing, motion and heat detection sensors etc

Make Green warriors: Encourage the over 2 million employees of the IT-BPO industry to adopt a Green life-style and thereby become change agents to catalyse transformation and create a sustainable impact in the society around themselves. 

NASSCOM also shared an update on its key initiatives and programmes. These include

* Education
Focus on suitability, scalability and sustainability

Drive existing initiatives including national curriculum for IT, national faculty development, PhD capacity building

Scale NAC and NAC Tech (to tier 2 & 3 cities)

Synchronize NASSCOM’s education initiatives with Government’s National Skill Mission

* Security
NSR – to achieve 500,000 registrations by December 2008. Current registrations are 3.65 lakh, as of October 2008 and number of companies registered are 69

Global Trade Development Program (GTDP)

Increased focus on US and issues impacting India

Develop new markets Increased activity and trade agreements with EU and Japan; continue ongoing efforts with US and UK

* Membership Services

Broad-basing engagement with senior leaders in member companies and across industry

Focused attention for specific segments – captives, engineering, products, BPO, RIM

BPO - increased attention, links with labour, state governments, crisis management

Key Highlights of the event
The two day event will see participation from over 200 delegates, 40 plus speakers – CXOs, CTOs, CIOs, Angel Investors, PE firms, Entrepreneurs, Startup incubators etc. Positioned as an exclusive gathering for CXOs with the theme ‘Beyond Horizon’, it will provide a platform to meet, strategize, network and capture ‘out-of-the-box’ ideas.

Some of the main tracks at the conference include:

Leveraging Global Delivery Management: Not so long ago we were talking of organizations who clocked a turnover in the realm of a few hundred crore rupees from software exports and were ably managed with a workforce of 200-300 people. Now, after a couple of decades or so the same companies have grown to be behemoths with a turnover of a few billion US Dollars with a huge workforce of 60000-70000 professionals to match. This session is aimed at exploring this Indian growth story and how we achieved this scalability in such a short span of time.

The Emerging Entrepreneur: Their thoughts, directions, growth plans and the challenges. The session will highlight some of the best practices being assiduously followed by these organizations and chalk out the way ahead, in this fast growing, ever changing world. The discussion would focus on how value & knowledge could compensate scale & create growth.

Looking at tomorrow: Digital divide & digital unison. Is IT creating a digital divide in society or is it bringing people together through multilayer conversions. The session would seek to explore the paradigm of the changing society.

Competency vs Experience: Is it an HR issue: Theme: Competency vs. Experience: This session would focus on whether a niche skill set should justify a much higher salary than experience and if this trend is here to stay or is it just a temporary phenomenon. This new phenomena is throwing open, new exciting challenges. Experts will deliberate and try and arrive at a conclusion – the HR roadmap for tomorrow.

Green IT: In a run up for doing things faster, cheaper and better, are we neglecting the environment? What are the choices we must exercise so as to achieve the desired level of growth without unnecessarily degrading the environment. Is it a legacy we can leave behind for our children? This session aims at creating awareness and the possible pitfalls facing the environment should we choose to ignore the early warning signals.

Influencer’s Roundtable: India the new country of strategic thinkers. Thinking differently. Positioning differently. Encompassing differently. The eminent thought leaders in this final session of the mega event would debate on India’s new global positioning and help chalk out a road map for our great nation for the years ahead.

About NASSCOM
NASSCOM (www.nasscom.in) is India's National Association of Software and Service Companies, the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT software and services industry in India. NASSCOM is a global trade body with over 1200 members, of which over 250 are global companies from the US, UK, EU, Japan and China. NASSCOM's member companies are in the business of software development, software services, software products, IT-enabled/BPO services and e-commerce. NASSCOM has been the strongest proponent of global free trade in India.

NASSCOM is committed to work proactively to encourage its members to adopt world class management practices, build and uphold highest quality standards and become globally competitive. In India and around the world, NASSCOM members are participants in the new global economy and are reputed for their cutting-edge business practices and social initiatives.