Innovation will keep us ahead: Ramadorai

Davos was an "unequivocal assertion of India as a power", said Nasscom chairman and TCS MD and CEO S Ramadorai. He was speaking at Nasscom 2006, in Mumbai on Wednesday.

It was no surprise as India contributed 65 per cent to the global offshore market and 46 per cent to the BPO offshoring industry, Ramadorai said. He pointed out that despite the IT-ITES market being worth $300 billion, India had captured only 10 per cent of it.

"We have an international pool of knowledge workers. We can easily transfer our skills across geographies. Our country can achieve IT exports to the tune of $60 billion by 2010. Another $15-25 billion can be added through innovation. Innovation is the key to achieve this growth," asserted Ramadorai.

Speaking on the labour advantage that India has, Ramadorai noted that India would need a talent pool of 2.3 million workers for the IT and BPO sectors by 2010. Currently, there was a shortfall of five lakh workers.

Earlier, welcoming the audience, Nasscom President Kiran Karnik said, "IT exports have crossed the $23-billion mark. We are here to speak of the opportunities, challenges of how IT fits into the global scheme of things."

Nasscom vice-chairman Ramalingam Raju noted that over the last 13-14 years, the worldwide services industry had grown from 56 per cent of the world's GDP to 71 per cent.

"Trade is going faster. Over the last 13-14 years, it has grown from 40 per cent of the world's GDP to 54 per cent," said Raju.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who delivered the inaugural address at the meet said, "I am happy that Mumbai has become a de facto base for Nasscom." Deshmukh, who has been an ardent supporter of Nasscom, said it was a "fitting tribute to the state and its pro-active policies".