Innovation is one of the most evocative words in every country and industry sector today-it holds out the promise of a future that transcends the mundane act of making money through the most opportunistic means and seems to beckon its followers towards a more lofty purpose-small wonder then that every visitor to our companies, from Chambers to Gates to Clinton to Hu, talks about Innovation being the Holy Grail for all IT firms in the future. And the industry has taken innovation to heart in all its dimensions.

Looking beyond the hype, innovation is actually not an exclusive preserve of the global multinationals and a few successful leaders of the software exports sector in search of a new mantra for winning and retaining business. It is today recognized as being at the very core of India's global competitiveness and the recognition of the need to build and sustain an Innovation Eco-system has seen all the participating entities-large firms, SMEs, Government and Academia-equally engaged in the process in the recent past!

In the fiftieth issue of India's favourite IT magazine, it may be worthwhile to understand the progress Innovation in Indian IT has made in the same time. In the Fifties, IT itself was almost non existent, in the Sixties it was dominated by data processing centers that sprouted largely with IBM technology. In the Eighties innovation started primarily in the hardware industry with the unceremonious ejection of IBM paving the way for ICL, HCL, WIPRO, DCM IDM and a few others to bring products into the Indian market. But the real global boom in IT came about with the innovative creation of the offshore outsourcing model by the Indian Software Exports industry in the Nineties. With the Year 2000 sword hanging over their heads, many global multinationals found that outsourcing their code-fixing problem to Indian firms was truly expedient and a revolution had commenced.

This revolution has continued relentlessly into this decade with a few challenges leading to the acceleration of the innovation movement-the runaway salary bills in IT and BPO companies, the flight to scale resulting in smaller companies without a "different point of view" being left in the cold and the continued reliance on wage arbitrage and process quality as the true motivation for offshore outsourcing have all led to the focus on innovation across the length and breadth of the industry and the country.

The stellar role that Nasscom has played in creating the vibrant innovation forum needs to be recognized. The forum's current focus on product, process and business model innovation has seen a healthy competition emerge among over a hundred small medium large and global multinational firms to win recognition in the eyes of their peers and a global analyst and customer audience-a movement whose time has come!

There are many new horizons to conquer of course-the eternal debate of labor oriented offshore models versus the more innovative technology enabled development and migration continues to linger as well as the social issues pertaining to the digital divide and the increasing clogging of major IT destinations like Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune as aspiring IT professionals make a beeline to live and work in these cities. Innovation thrives in a climate of challenge and creates more opportunities for the future. These are exciting times for the industry as well as for the participating firms and their stakeholders-the good news is that innovation continues to flourish and will be the beacon of hope for the continuing success of this global industry.

Page(s)   1