Nasscom ILF 2012 to focus on opportunities amid uncertainty

Amid a euro zone debt crisis and lower than expected growth in the domestic market, leaders from the Indian IT sector will meet next month to deliberate over these issues and discuss strategies to sustain the growth of the USD 70 billion industry.

The 20th edition of the Nasscom India Leadership Forum (NILF) will be held in Mumbai from February 14-16 under the aegis of the software body and is expected to see participation by veterans from the industry.

"It is obvious that we are entering an era of uncertainty and that has been the case for sometime now. What do companies need in times like these and how they should find their niche, become hyper-specialists and other strategies, is what the participants at the forum will focus on this year," Nasscom Senior Vice-President Sangeeta Gupta told PTI.

Industry leaders like HCL Infosystems Chairman Ajai Chowdhry, Accenture CMD Avinash Vashishtha, MphasiS CEO Ganesh Ayyar, Zensar Technologies Vice Chairman and CEO Ganesh Natrajan, Genpact President and CEO N V Tyagarajan and Vice Chairman Pramod Bhasin and Wipro IT business CEO T K Kurien, among others, will participate in the event.

Around 1,500 delegates from 20 countries will attend the event.

"Companies need to metamorphosise from simple one-directional supply chains to multi-dimensional supply networks and probably become hyper-specialists. For that to happen, they need to learn not only from peers, but from other industries as well, who at the end of the day are their clients as well," Gupta said.

To facilitate discussion between various stakeholders, NILF will also see participation from Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal, Home Affairs Minister P Chidambaram, Axis Bank MD and CEO Shikha Sharma, Bajaj Auto Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj, Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and Network 18 group Founder and Editor Raghav Bahl.

"The idea is to hear from customers, find out what are they looking for. These insights will be helpful to member companies, who are developing their strategies to cope with the uncertainties in the global business environment," Gupta said.

The NILF 2012 will also see discussions on building leadership and addressing the challenge of skilled manpower in the sector, the future of technology in sectors like automobiles and the role of women in the field of technology.