Nasscom summit: Digital is more ‘an opportunity than a threat’

The future of the Indian IT industry looks bright, despite the dark clouds of job losses and visas issues looming over, with the focus of clients now shifting to Digital Transformation (DX).

Due to its ability to disrupt transitional models, focussing on digital will have positive impact on individuals, corporations and countries. It is more an “opportunity than a threat”, this was the key takeaway at the first-ever Nasscom C Summit, a conference for C-suite executives, in New York.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) were the hottest areas clients wanted to understand more about.

“Any business that does not have a pro-active DX strategy is in jeopardy. Incremental or reactive change is unlikely to succeed,” WNS Group CEO Keshav R Murugesh, who was in New York on behalf of Nasscom and Indian IT companies, told BusinessLine over telephone.

Murugesh, who has been the Nasscom BPM Council Chairman for two consecutive terms and a present member of Nasscom Executive Council, said the Summit was attended by more than 200 clients.

DX needs a collaborative approach for success. Users can’t do it alone and need strong strategic partners.

“Global companies now see Indian IT companies as partners and an extension of their own enterprises. Their view was that interference around visas will only delay progress of their companies and US’s progress of leading business for the world,” he said, allaying fears that the recent crackdown on H1-B visas would have a negative impact on the Indian IT industry.

Lack of skills is also a concern, especially because a whole array of skills is needed for a successful DX. Further, the job losses in the industry are due to advancement in technology and a “collateral damage”, the summit opined adding, as the industry grows, more jobs will be added.

On Friday, Nasscom executives rang the closing bell on Nasdaq, 15 years after the apex body of Indian IT industry rang it in 2002. Nasscom President R Chandrasekhar, executives including Raman Roy, Ganesh Natarajan and Murugesh were present at the event.

Nasscom had earlier forecast the IT industry to achieve $350 billion by 2025, from the present $153 billion driven by strong and stable fundamentals. The contribution of Business Process Management (BPM) sector stands at about $30 billion and is heading to $50 billion by 2020.

At a time of job losses, Indian IT industry has created 1.7-lakh new employment in FY 2017 and the future looks bright, with more jobs expected to be created in 2018.

The IT sector has created 6 lakh additional jobs in the last three years.

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