Worries or queries? Which way will IT go at Nasscom?

We have heard this all too often by now: that India could actually be the solution to the economic crisis the world is going through. The ideas, first discussed by economists and business leaders in the developed countries, have now been picked up by Indian politicians.

Somehow, Indian business leaders do not seem to be as enthusiastic. Maybe they know something the world does not know. Or maybe, they are just too preoccupied with today, now and the immediate.

India is not China. It is a democracy and there is nothing the country can hide - not that it tries to - from the eyes of the world. So, it is difficult to believe there is some big reason hidden out there that makes Indian business leaders any less cheery about their own country. So, my guess is it is the latter: they are a little too caught up in the quarterly performances and cash flows.

What surprises me is that the Indian IT services industry - the industry that almost single-handedly changed India’s image globally - has also not been very enthusiastic. If India actually becomes the solution to the global crisis or at least plays a significant part in the solution, it is difficult to believe that would happen without a major role being played by this industry.

So, what makes the otherwise cheerful Indian IT industry so sombre? As Nasscom’s India Leadership Summit 2009 kicks off today at Mumbai, I am sure this question will be asked many a times in different forms and there would be a collective effort to find answer(s).

I remember a visiting senior executive of a large IT services firm in the US telling me half-jealously, half-matter-of-factly about five years back that the Indian IT firms have just seen the brighter side of the story; they would be tested only when they see a real tough time.

Has that time come? I guess so. I expect the event to be dominated by three issues - Slowdown, Obama, and Satyam — ironically abbreviating as SOS.
But it would be important to know of the questions the industry asks itself, within these issues. Only that will determine whether it is ready to lead.

The first set of questions could include the following: What will be the exact impact of slowdown in the next few quarters? What will be the time of recovery? Will H1-Bs be severely impacted? Will the Satyam issue impact the credibility of Indian companies in the short term?

Another set could have: What would accelerate the recovery and when it ultimately happens, what would the world require and how India can provide that? Whether there’s an out-of-box solution for Obama’s call of balancing globalisation with protecting American jobs and can India add value to that? How could the Indian IT industry use the Satyam exception as an opportunity to critically examine where things could go wrong?

 Let us call the first set of questions the ‘worries’ and the second set the ‘queries’. Let us see which of these two dominates the three days at Nasscom: Worries or Queries? SOS or solutions?

If it is the worries, we have reasons to, well, worry. Indian IT industry, then, at best, is just another segment that was lucky to have been there at the right place at the right time. If it is the queries, the will to proactively bring about the change, we can rest assured: we haven’t seen anything yet of the India story. It is just the beginning.