Nasscom inks MoU with SII

* Aims to support, promote and further develop SII qualifications for Indian IT industry

Bangalore, December 4, 2007: NASSCOM the premier trade body and the "voice" of the Indian IT industry, today announced the formal MoU signing with Securities & Investment Institute (SII). The partnership will be launched at an industry gathering in Mumbai on 4th December, 2007 and will come into play beginning January 2008. The MoU aims to support, promote and further develop SII qualifications to the Indian IT-BPO industry, in particular to NASSCOM members in India and globally.

This unique partnership, the first of its kind for SII with NASSCOM, will see a set of recommendations for its membership, in the securities and investment industry. Through this association NASSCOM is looking at providing insights and inputs to its members as part of its commitment to raise and visibly assess standards in this growing industry sector, both in India and beyond.

Signing the MoU, Mr. Kiran Karnik, President said: "NASSCOM is very pleased to partner with an organisation like SII that enjoys global repute in its field. We are looking at this collaboration to maintain the industry's global standards "� now in the fields of securities and investment as well. The industry has very high benchmarks in areas like quality, HR practices, and information security, and we want to continuously raise the bar. A number of IT companies are already using such standards and with this MoU, we want to take it to an industry level, and create competencies at par with any other geography for this specialised area as well."

"Through this association, NASSCOM will be formally represented on the SII qualification examination panels which review and develop qualifications and is already seeking potential collaboration on further qualifications for the BPO global market," he added.

Simon Culhane, SII's Chief Executive said: "We are delighted to announce this partnership with NASSCOM here in India. As the premier trade body in the IT-BPO sector of the industry this sends a clear message to firms, their staff and potential staff, that a commitment to high standards is paramount in this expanding sector. We are delighted that NASSCOM has selected SII as its partner in India and beyond. I must also thank our India Regional Advisory Board, of which NASSCOM is a member, which has been invaluable in providing us with the strategic vision which has led us to embark on this important venture."

SII's India Regional Committee members are:

Mr. Richard Stockdale, President, SII India Regional Committee

Dr. Prakash G. Apte, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Director

Mr. S A Narayan - Kotak Securities Limited, Managing Director

Mr. P H Ravikumar - National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Limited, Managing Director and CEO

Ms. Sheena Wilson, Mellon India Private Limited, CEO

Mr. Natarajan Radhakrishnan - Cognizant Technology Solutions India Private Limited, Practice Director

Ms. Ashu Suyash - Fidelity Fund Management Private Limited, Managing Director and Country Head

Ms. Deena Mehta - Asit C Mehta Interrmediates Limited, Managing Director

Mr. Sunil Shah "� HDFC Securities Limited, Managing Director

Mr. Nitin Rakesh - Syntel, CEO Syntel Sourcing

Dr. Sandhya Chintala, Director Education Initiative, NASSCOM

About SII

SII is the leading professional membership organisation for individuals working in the securities and investment industry, developing and delivering qualifications for the sector and promoting industry standards and integrity. SII's financial services operations qualifications are unique in their modular structure and global reach and these have been particularly valuable to firms both offshoring to India and based in India.

SII has recently opened an office in Mumbai where it launched the world's first qualification for financial services IT staff working in operations in May this year, the ITIO Award, and NASSCOM, the key trade body for the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is both endorsing this and engaging in further development projects with SII for the sector it regulates.

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.