Nasscom conclave focuses on future of Indian IT-ITeS industry

    Aiming to provide emerging firms insights on the changing user environment, IT-ITeS industry body Nasscom today organised a conclave, showcasing the evolution of the Indian IT Industry and its future road map.


The Emergeout Conclave 2013, pondered on opportunities from emerging and developed markets, the hot verticals for start-up successes, changing buyer landscape and the art of learning from failures among other pertinent issues. 

"The landscape of the IT industry is changing rapidly and many start-ups and emerging companies are finding themselves ill-equipped to address the changing needs of their customers" Nasscom President Som Mittal said here. 

These start-ups and new players are uncertain about the ways and means to tap the emerging SME (small and medium enterprise) customer base, gain deeper knowledge about their prospective buyers and enhance their engagement mechanisms with them, he added. 

"Keeping this in mind we have designed the sessions of today's conclave, to evangelise and support emerging IT companies to out-compete and perform in such a dynamic environment," Mittal said. 

The USD 108 billion India IT-ITeS industry faces challenges like employability, infrastructure, favourable policies and competition from other low cost countries, he added. 

Low employability of existing talent with only 10-15 per cent employable graduates in business services and 26 per cent of employable engineers in technology services continues to be a major bottleneck, Mittal said. 

The infrastructure development is largely constrained to about nine cities, which contribute more than 95 per cent of the country's exports and development of tier 2 and 3 cities has not taken off in a planned manner, he added. 

The lack of a supportive fiscal environment with a long- term policy framework is also leading to competition from other low-cost countries including China, Philippines and from Eastern Europe with potential erosion of India's opportunity, he said. 

"Another major issues is funding. Many start-ups require small funds to start and complete the first phase of their growth, fund like about Rs 20 lakh. Getting such small amounts is difficult," Mittal said. 

The participating companies shared their insights on working in the domain, focusing on new technologies, client needs and processes. 

Emerging IT players are not only setting new benchmarks in operational excellence, they are drawing vital VC and angel funding, building diverse product portfolios and foraying both the domestic and overseas markets, including non-traditional regions, Mittal said.


http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/nasscom-conclave-focuses-on-future-of-indian-it-ites-industry/articleshow/22097804.cms

The polity's crisis, not just the UPA's

       The UPA government in its second term is the favourite whipping boy for the country's current ills. Nuanced commentary examines institutional dysfunction. Such diagnosis is as helpful as detection of fever for treatment of cancer. 

Of course, UPA-II is in disarray. It turns defensive on record reduction of poverty, on sustained increase in rural wages, on setting up in five years one-fourth of India's installed power generation capacity, on laying power lines to 4.6 lakh villages, on initiating a programme that would give millions of Indians a way to proclaim and prove their unique identity, on thus paving the way to financial inclusion, on laying fibre optic cable to 2,50,000 panchayats, on ratcheting up rural tele-density from 1.7 in 2004 to over 40 in early 2013, on orchestrating structural transformation of the economy that finally sees the proportion of the workforce engaged in agriculture come down below 50%. 

UPA leaders leave uncontested the proposition that the current mess is solely the UPA's creation. Its scams have shorn it of authority and paved the way for the courts to hijack policy.Its dither has led to paralysis and missed opportunities on the foreign policy front. Its turn towards "socialism" of the giveaway kind has ballooned the fiscal deficit and widened the current account deficit. 

This picture of the UPA as a wrecking crew, targeting its own home, has one empirical flaw: all the scams summoned to call this the most corrupt government in history date back to UPA-I, whether the 2G, coal or Commonwealth Games scams. 

But, under UPA-I, things were going swimmingly. India was growing at its fastest pace ever, its global prestige was high, it won a breakthrough nuclear deal in the face of stiff opposition, Indian companies bought up foreign ones. 

India was an emerging market and emerging power. It was the same UPA, led by the sameSonia Gandhi and the same, won't-speak-unless-spoken-to Manmohan Singh. Why was this corrupt, dole-happy, socialistic leadership fine then, but not now? 

Systemic Corruption 

The problem is not just with the UPA but with the entire polity. Unless we accept this and tackle the real problem, India will continue to languish, whoever is in power. 

The problem is that nobody pays for Indian democracy. India's biggest private sector company, Reliance IndustriesBSE -4.72 %, for example, makes zero contribution to political parties. The story repeats itself as you go down the rungs of the corporate ladder. Just a handful of companies admit to making political contributions. The rest pay off the books, to individual politicians, with a keen eye on the quid pro quo. 

Political parties file income-tax returns showing puny incomes. 2008-09 registered the highest incomes:Rs497 crore for the Congress and Rs220 crore for the BJP. In reality, these parties spend tens of thousands of crore rupees: not just for elections, but also for the regular functioning of their parties. Which means, quite simply, that India's great democracy is funded by the proceeds of corruption. 

This corruption takes three forms: loot of the exchequer (the fodder scam, commissions on procurement), sale of patronage (allocation of mining leases) and plain extortion (no clearance till you pay up, complex administrative procedures, each one of which serves as a rent-seeking opportunity).

This mostly involves use of the state machinery. Which means civil servants must collude, getting suborned in the process. They turn unaccountable as well. A dysfunctional legal system facilitates such corrupt funding of politics. 

In India, corruption is systemic, not opportunistic, as in most other countries. Without corruption, politics would come to a halt, democracy would cease to work. 

Democracy vs Dirty Funding 

This has been morally degrading and has turned politics predatory. But things still remained functional. Till prosperity threw up a body of people whose progress in life has little to do with state patronage and who thus resent being subjected to poor governance and extortion. 

Their anger and their ability to use institutions of the state, such as the courts, to challenge and oppose corruption, aided by democratic advances such as the Right to Information Act, have brought the conflict between democracy and funding it through corruption to the fore. 

The system has turned dysfunctional thanks to this basic conflict, which manifests as dithering bureaucrats, a glory-hunting CAG, judicial overkill and defensive politicians. 

Clean Up Funding 

And unless political funding turns transparent, the crisis will continue, whoever happens to be in power. Sure, the UPA is dysfunctional in its own way, much as each unhappy family is unhappy in its own unique way, with ministries other than finance pretending they have no role to play in tackling the economic crisis. 

But even if some other formation were to replace the UPA, the basic conflict between democracy and its corrupt funding would continue to stymie things. At hand is a crisis of political evolution. It must not be confused with a particular alliance's problems.


Source:http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/Cursor/entry/the-polity-s-crisis-not-just-the-upa-s

India cannot afford to grow at less than 8%: P Chidambaram, FM

     
          Blaming the political logjam in the Parliament for stalling economic decisions, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said that India cannot afford to grow at less than 8%. "There is no political consensus on how to mitigate economic woes," he said.

Chidambaram said that there are no signs of global crisis ending and the Indian economy is challenged by global factors. "India needs more reforms and less economic restrictions," he said while addressing the Lok Sabha. "India needs a more open economy to seed growth," he added.

"The polity needs to agree on a basic direction of policy making," he emphasised. "Political parties should agree on a common economic programme," he said.

Seeking to assure the house, Chidambaram said that the economy has sufficient reserves and the external debt is manageble. He, however admitted the need to shore up the reserves. :We will fully and safely finance FY14 CAD, it will contained at $70 billion or less," he added.

Chidambaram's comments come after BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said, "Rupee is tanking but government, Chidambaram keep saying All Izzz Well."

Earlier in the day, Sinha said that the government sowed the seeds for the current crisis, back in 2008-09. "In a move that was aimed to win elections, the government hiked consumption expenditure, as opposed to the recommended investment expenditure," Sinha hit out.

Sinha explained that a high fiscal deficit leads to higher inflation, which in turn impacts investments. When the fiscal deficit continues to be high, it is natural for it to spill into current account deficit, he added.

Stating that the rupee has fallen despite Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) efforts, Sinha said that it is the responsibility of the government and central bank to curb the volatility in the currency. "Such rapid volatility does not bode well for the economy," he said. "Foreign investors shying away from India's growth story," he added.

source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/India-cannot-afford-to-grow-at-less-than-8-P-Chidambaram-FM/articleshow/22097263.cms