Bachchan @ NASSCOM
By Techgirl

Till today I am not very sure what NASSCOM can really do to boost our IT-BPO sector in any substantial way.  Americans and Europeans and other ‘clients’  will outsource to India because of our great technical / call centre /  project management etc skills provided at very competitive costs.  For example, if Microsoft wants to set up a centre in India they do it directly without ‘consulting’ NASSCOM.  If a European pharmaceutical giant wants to outsource to India they hire a local company and publicly advertise for proposals from Indian companies.  Infosys will continue to grow because of its merit and does not really need a NASSCOM to promote it.

NASSCOM did have a role in the first decade of outsourcing but it is increasingly irrelevant in this flat market, free capitalism era.  If you need an Apex body to interact with the Government, there are long standing Indian business organizations that do it very well.

But NASSCOM is very good at one thing and that is holding conferences and meetings aka junkets.  NASSCOM is holding its ‘India Leadership Forum 2012’ between Feb 14 and 16 at Grand Hyatt Mumbai.

According to NASSCOM, this ‘Leadership Forum’ would be dedicated to ‘the world’s journey from the simple and stable to complex and complicated.’   WTF?  Was the world simple and stable 10 years ago? 

And then NASSCOM says ‘If there really was a single phrase to describe this transition, it would probably be Hyper Specialization. Whatever be your calling, have you thought what it would take to sustain your leadership positions in such a hyper specialized world?’  WTF again! What is new in this jargon?

And then NASSCOM lets the cat out of the bag by saying: ‘Join us at NILF 2012 between Feb 14 and 16 at Grand Hyatt Mumbai to bounce off some of these questions in the air and get you some well-baked answers.’  Obviously, except for the ‘Guests’ you will have to pay tens of thousands of Rupees to hear the ‘well baked answers’.  Because there have been fewer takers for this conference, the online registration has been extended to Feb 6, 2012.

And guess who is coming to the NASSCOM conference where ‘hyper specialization’ in today’s ‘complex and complicated world’ will be discussed?  None other than Mr. Nice Guy, mediocre actor and son of the iconic Big B, Abhishek Bachchan.  Sir Richard Hadlee will also be at this conference.

Of course, NASSCOM has more than celebrities like Abhishek Bachchan as speakers.  A number of qualified, successful people from tech majors like Infosys, Cisco, HCL, and Genpact will also share their views.  Their views count for a lot in such conferences. But not one of them will attract the same crowds as Mr. Aishwarya Bachchan.

Getting back to the point and at the risk of being labeled a cynic,  most of the dozen or so ‘Leadership Summits’ held in India by everyone from Media Houses to State Governments are basically networking events where people come to see and be seen and build networks.  And get ‘Awards’ to boost their egos.

Countries like America and Philippines do not have such powerful Apex bodies for their tech / outsourcing sectors.  Why should a mature tech industry in India need a NASSCOM?

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog techgirltalk.blogspot.com.  Techgirl has been ejected from Twitter for satirizing an Indian Minister.  Her satire blog has links to her Times of India interview detailing her being kicked out of Twitter, and then being invited back.