Smart People

One admires Kiran Karnik for the conviction with which he speaks. It's this conviction that lends the president of NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies) an edge in things he does.

When he says US software outsourcing to India is not as big an issue as it made out to be, one feels convinced.

"US government's outsourcing to India forms barely 1 per cent of the total outsourcing work done here," he says. Karnik is not worried about competition from MNCs either.

"It's the MNCs who are under pressure, given the competitiveness of Indian software companies," he asserts. He is, however, a tad concerned about domestic IT industry's manpower resources.

"Supply of manpower to the industry is abundant but quality remains a concern." NASSCOM plans to work in sync with educational institutions to counter the challenge.

The collaboration, Karnik feels, will enable the institutions to impart quality education and hone students' skills that would make them thorough professionals.

"The challenges that are faced by Indian IT companies mainly centre around maintenance of quality and costs with regards to staff," he says.

His accentuation is mainly on the increasing cost incurred by software companies in employing large number of people and imparting training.

Another issue for smaller companies is to maintain differentiation and concentrate on specialised products and operate in niche markets.

Karnik is clear about NASSCOM's role as an umbrella organisation of domestic IT firms. According to him, the association has an important part in maintaining industry's competitiveness and building the India IT brand. It also helps the industry build a strong human resource base.

A graduate in Physics from the Institute of Science, Mumbai, Karnik went on to complete his management degree from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

His first job was with the atomic energy commission which was followed by a 20-year stint with ISRO. He moved onto educational broadcasting and to Discovery channel before joining NASSCOM in September 2001.

When it comes to reading one fails to gauge his interest in advance - Karnik loves magical realism and is currently reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez's autobiography "Living to Tell It".

The soft-spoken NASSCOM president believes industry leaders ought to be "change agents" with "technology as an element and management as the tool". After chatting with him, one is convinced about how one could bring in change in the industry he or she is in.

ICICI Bank, India's largest private sector bank, is in the limelight once again for the Rs 3,500 crore equity issue it plans to make in April 2004.

According to Kalpana Morparia, the bank's deputy managing director, one of the main drivers for the issuance is the greater-than-expected growth in the economy.

She also expects the issuance to fuel the bank's growing life insurance business and help it expand international operations.

"The internal capital available would not alow us to fully leverage the growth potential," she says. Morparia is euphoric about the life insurance business in the country.

According to her, there is still a huge potential for the industry to grow (India's life insurance as a percentage of GDP is 2.7 per cent whereas it is as high as 14 per cent in the United Kingdom).

Morparia heads the bank's special asset management group and corporate centre. Her responsibilities include risk management, management information systems, human resources, corporate brand and communications, and special assets and projects.

Amid gruelling work, she finds time for holidaying, too. The last vacation she had was in (guess where) Pakistan! "I went there to visit a school friend and had a good time visiting Karachi and Lahore, and shopping," she says and describes at length her experience in a carnival at the Wagah border which she viewed from both the Pakistani and Indian sides.

Morparia started her career way back in 1975 when she joined ICICI and has been with the institution ever since. A graduate in law from Bombay University, she led the ICICI group's major corporate structuring initiative, the merger of ICICI and ICICI Bank in 2001.

She also played a key role in ICICI Bank's ADS issuance of $175 million which was completed in a record time of 65 days. And what does she do when she is not managing India's second large bank? She confesses that she is an avid Hindi movie watcher (LoC Kargil was the last she saw).

Reading fiction and listening to pop music are also her favourite unwinding activities.