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Som Mittal will be Nasscom’s new chief
Hewlett-Packard’s Asia Pacific chief bets on training
The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) on Wednesday announced the appointment of Som Mittal as its new President. Mr. Mittal, who heads the services business of Hewlett-Packard for Asia-Pacific and the Japan Karnik in January, 2008.
Addressing a press conference here after the announcement, Mr. Mittal said: “I am honored to take up this role at this exciting stage of the industry’s lifecycle when the Indian information technology and IT-enabled sevices sector has established its position in the global landscape and is continuously defining newer benchmarks. I look forward to leading team Nasscom inthese interesting times, to enable both continuity and change to happen.”
Referring to future challenges, Mr Mittal said that apart from sustaining growth of the IT industry, the real challenge would be to generate resources and prepare a workforce through right education and excellent training module so that nobody could erode India’s competitiveness in the sector.
Welcoming the selection of Mr.Mittal as his successor, outgoing President Kiran Karnik said: “It is a matter of great satisfaction to be handing satisfaction to be handing over the reins to such a capable individual. The industry has come a long way in the last few year and it is a matter of great pride for me to have been part of this success story.”
Talking about the rupee appreciation issue, Mr. Karnik said though there was no immediate threat to the IT and ITES industry, but the Government should closely monitor the situation and announce measures to help the industry, particularly small and medium enterprises. He also ruled out any revision in software export traget of $60 billion by 2010.
According to Nasscom Chairman Lakshmi Naryanan, who is also Cognizant’s Vice-Chairman, though there would be no impact of the rupee appreciation on the top-line of companies profitability of small and medium companies would be affected.