India is global ER&D leader: Nasscom chief

The president of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), Som Mittal, on Wednesday said India's leadership in the IT-BPO field has helped consolidate and strengthen its engineering research and development (ER&D) service offerings.

Mittal was speaking on the sidelines of two-day Nasscom Engineering Summit 2011, which started on Wednesday. The theme of the summit is 'Innovation and high value engineering: India as a strategic partner'.

According to Mittal, India was a global leader in ER&D with a market valued at $10 billion. He said, "Indian ER&D services market has witnessed rapid growth in the last five years. We should touch $44 billion by 2020.''

Indian ER&D services have played an important role in accelerating innovation and establishing India as an innovation hub, he said. India needs to sustain its cost competitiveness and fill its absence of linkages to manufacturing capabilities, he added.

"With a target of $40 billion, ER&D services industry will require a four-pronged strategy from the supply base. The government needs to help build product development ecosystem and collaborate with the industry, especially in defence research, product engineering support and infrastructure,'' he added.