China big mart for Indian IT, says Nasscom

 

Briefing reporters, at the Nasscom Product Conclave, Nasscom President Som Mittal said, that besides helping Indian companies to address the vast North Asian market, China also offers itself as a rapidly burgeoning market to cater to. 

Further, Indian firms can address and service the growing number of multi-national corporations setting up shop there as also new customers that they bag out of China, he said.

On China experience he said, there has been no major breakthrough and that Indian companies were still in the discovery mode of the Chinese market and its been a mixed model so far. Stating that the West playing up the protectionist card was more of a knee-jerk reaction, he, however, cautioned that Indian companies need to be wary of indirect protectionism.

Flat growth

Further, forecasting a flat growth for Indian IT Inc during first half of current fiscal 2009-10, Mittal said they expect it to be in the trajectory of four to seven per cent.
Stating that the past two years have been momentous, he said, Indian IT industry, however, rode its resilience, though its growth skid from high of 30 per cent to around 16 per cent in the first two quarters. Observing that while the industry is not seeing high levels of growth, it, has still managed to emerge stronger with companies seeing reasonable amount of stability in their bottomlines.
Externally though, he said, there has been a paradigm shift with conversations taking place with CIOs in the US & Europe as industry goes through its transformation, discovering new business models.
He said he was quite optimistic that the IT sector’s growth  would be much ahead of the overall country’s growth.

New business dynamics

Earlier, addressing the two-day Product Conclave & Expo 2009, he said, with the economic downturn having ebbed new opportunities are making it necessary for companies to create a market need and not address it. Pointing out that new dynamics are driving us, Mittal said, the dialogue now is is one of transformation and creating new business models. The companies are not being led by recovery but what will make recovery happen, he said.

Bullish on opportunities in India, Mittal, the meltdown is seeing demographic shifts taking place and labour arbitrage is no longer going to be a leverage.

India, Mittal said, offers a great market, more technologies and can act as a catalyst for change.
Innovation is guiding the next wave of work, he said, and companies have become infrastructure creatures to spur their eco-system.