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Nasscom's annual summit in Mumbai often acts as a reasonable barometer to measure the IT health of the country. This year was no exception-the presence of a galaxy of illustrious speakers ranging from: the prime minister, Manmohan Singh; Noble Laureate Amartya Sen; the IT minister, Dayanidhi Maran; Patrick Snowball, group executive director, Aviva; and Bernard Bourigeaud, chairman and CEO, ATOS Origin-added a special sheen to the three-day event.

Sen-Speak
"IT owes its growth a lot to TI or the Talkative Indian," quipped Amartya Sen, eminent political economist and Noble Laureate while delivering the keynote session at the Summit. The "argumentative Indian" was quite equivocal that it is actually the intellectual altercation prowess of Indians that have made them a global force to reckon with in IT. The broad theme of Sen's speech revolved around "inclusion" of all strata of society-an aspect where the IT industry, according to him, has not delivered up to the mark.

Sen argued that while it would be presumptuous to assume any social obligation on the part of the Indian IT industry, the country could very well expect something from the sector, especially on the principle of 'reciprocity'. "After all that the country has done for the IT industry, it can very well expect something in return." "India was not just the first poor country in the world to adopt democracy, but also the first with grinding poverty to prioritize development of technical skill and state-of-the-art education in technology," asserted Sen.

PM's Assurance
The prime minister Manmohan Singh opined that though the government had played a marginal role in the development of the IT sector in the past, it still has a facilitative role to play in maintaining and building on its competitive advantages. "The policy framework will continue to be supportive and enabling, rather than a barrier to progress and innovation," assured Singh. He also expressed hope that several large e-Governance initiatives launched by the government under the NEGP are expected to provide sustained growth in domestic demand for IT services over the next few years.

To improve physical infrastructure, the premier reiterated on the National Urban Renewal Mission launched last year to enable states to develop specialized 'knowledge townships' which can be clusters of knowledge, innovation and excellence in IT. To ease the manpower challenge, he advocated a radical reform of the education system as well as additional investment on the sector-issues that hopefully the Eleventh Plan would address.

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