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They have been talking about it for almost a year now, but it never seemed to find its way out of the agenda sheet. However, on November 11, 2008, at the Nasscom CEO Summit, the words scribbled on the long forgotten agenda sheet finally found elocution. Some call it a sudden awakening, while others pronounced it as too late, too little, but when looked at closely, the Nasscom Green Initiative does seem to have some meat.

It was in Kolkata that the announcement was finally made. Som Mittal, president, Nasscom announced it and said, We are pleased to formally announce the launch of Nasscoms Green IT Initiative. The first meeting of the Nasscom Green IT Initiative recently took place in Bangalore to discuss and brainstorm Nasscoms strategy on Green IT. We expect Green IT to become an integral component of a firms business strategy and this initiative will play a critical role in helping the Indian IT-BPO industry to collaborate and become a global leader in addressing environmental issues proactively.

While it is apparent that the brainstorming went on for a little too long, what the announcement didnt explain was how this industry will collaborate in addressing environmental issues. The announcement seemed little more than rhetoric. But a talk with Nasscom and Cisco, a strategic partner in the alliance, served well to dismantle the doubts of it being yet another green paper initiative.

What its About
According to Rajdeep Sahrawat, VP, Nasscom, the green initiative was in the tunnel for a long time. He doesnt believe that it has come rather late in the day but agrees that a lot of homework that had to be done internally, took more time than expected. But he emphasizes the need for the cautious approach that Nasscom has adopted vis--vis its Green IT Initiative. Given the brand equity of Nasscom we had to be very careful, we are constantly watched, and whatever we do is talked about a lot, he says.

When asked about all the attention green IT has captured recently, Sahrawat comes up with a very interesting example. There is a difference between knowing about world poverty and doing something to alleviate it. Similarly, says Sahrawat, Knowing green IT, and actually implementing it to see the results are two different things. Nasscom through this initiative plans to make green IT a practice rather than just a boardroom or conference discussion topic.

The Nasscom Green strategy mainly focuses on three points as of now. They can broadly be summed up as: how to make IT Green, how to make Green happen through IT and how to make each employee of the IT industry (which employees over 2 mn people in India) a Green Warrior. Sahrawat calls the first point defensive play but it is the second point which he claims to be the most powerful vector. How to make Green happen through IT is what is called as the proactive approach by Nasscom. They plan to focus a lot of attention in this area and through this drive home the business sense behind Green IT.

Some measures that Sahrawat hinted as being part of the green promotional campaign included increased softwarisation of hardware and helping organizations who are looking at Green seriously to find hotspots via the use of IT. Nasscom also intends to lay stress on power savings and energy efficiency. They want to bring into play a parallel to the Price Performance Index (PPI); something that Sahrawat calls Price Performance Power Index.

Education about green practices is also a part of this agenda and Nasscom hopes to uncover and emphasize the business opportunities that come with the buzzword Green. Nasscom predicts a smooth adoption of the green initiatives, as the readiness is already there in the industry.

Being a part of Nasscoms green initiative is a great opportunity for Cisco to reach out to the Indian industry and ecosystem, and evangelize our environmental commitment and leadership Varghese M Thomas, VP, corporate communications, Cisco India and SAARC

Partnering the Initiatives
On the choice of partners, Sahrawat adopts a cautious approach. According to him, Nasscom has never aligned itself solely to a single partner. There are definitely other partners but Cisco happens to be the most visible and strategic. Cisco, which has been moving aggressively on the Green front for sometime now, has been working closely with Nasscom for this Green initiative.

According to Varghese M Thomas, VP, corporate communications, Cisco India and SAARC, Being a part of Nasscoms Green Initiative is a great opportunity for Cisco to reach out to the Indian industry and ecosystem, and evangelize our environmental commitment and leadership. Varghese also sees this initiative as bringing some of the best green practices to the Indian IT industry, and bringing together all individual efforts and ideas under one umbrella. He says, Almost all companies, especially within the IT industry, have instituted some form of Green initiatives within their organizations, and we see this committee as an ideal platform from which to gather the best from across the industry and make the knowledge available more widely.

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