India's National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has reasserted itself as a major player on the world stage with a variety of new initiatives in 2008, headed by new president, Som Mittal.

First, the organisation hosted a conference in London exploring the vital issues of security in global sourcing – both identified as the number-one industry talking points by CSC's Guy Hains this week (see separate report). Speakers included deputy information commissioner David Smith – who has had his hands full in the wake of widespread public- and private-sector data scandals in the UK – plus representatives of the US Treasury Department and the banking community.

Full marks once again to this ever-proactive organisation, which remains so publicly committed to local and global excellence. Congratulations especially for coming to the UK and telling us how to do it.

The UK has been battered with a number of widely reported and lesser-known data-loss and data-sharing scandals: the HMRC, the Driving Standards Agency, and Marks and Spencer, of course, as reported by Ovum in its coverage of the event, but also the Ministry of Defence's haemorrhaging security procedures, various primary healthcare trusts, and even much more technology-savvy companies such as Carphone Warehouse.

(The latter mixed up many customers' details, sent detailed account information to the wrong people, and cashed cheques for customer data access under the Data Protection Act, but neglected to provide the requested information.)

It is certainly an irony that Indian offshoring is often negatively portrayed by a partisan media in the UK at a time when many Indian businesses put UK enterprises to shame in terms of their security policies; at least, that was the prevailing view of many at the event. The Nasscom conference demonstrated that many IT buyers now see India as an equal to Europe and the US in terms of data security.

So what else has Nasscom been doing lately? First, Som Mittal has taken over as president of the organisation. Mittal, who heads the services business of Hewlett-Packard for the Asia-Pacific and Japan regions, replaced Kiran Karnik in January.

At the time of his appointment, Mittal said: “I am honoured to take up this role at this exciting stage of the industry’s lifecycle when the Indian information technology and IT-enabled services sector has established its position in the global landscape and is continuously defining newer benchmarks. I look forward to leading 'Team Nasscom' in these interesting times, to enable both continuity and change to happen.”

Let us hope for the world economy that Mittal did not mean "interesting times" in any popular-proverbial sense – although, it must here be noted that there is no such Chinese curse as "May you live in interesting times", as many people believe. Its real origin is unknown, but it is almost certainly an American pulp fiction confection.

Since taking over, Mittal has presided over another Innovation in IT Forum – which, in India, makes a point of rewarding the previous year's achievements by calling this year's ceremony the 2007 Awards.

Mittal said, “Over the years, the Indian IT industry has made many rapid strides and has now established itself as a mature and credible player in the global IT industry. The next wave of growth for the Indian IT industry will be innovation-led and hence possessing an innovation capability will be sine qua non for Indian IT firms, regardless of their size.

“2007 marks the fourth edition of the awards, and in this edition we have introduced a special focus on start-ups.”

Award categories for 2007 include Market-facing Innovation, Process Innovation and Input Innovation.

Nasscom has also unveiled a wide-ranging study of the Indian BPO industry, in tandem with Everest Group. The study, Nasscom-Everest India BPO Study – Roadmap 2012 – Capitalizing on the Expanding BPO Landscape, provides “a comprehensive, fact-based view of the capabilities of the sector, opportunities and growth imperatives for the Indian BPO industry and its key stakeholders. It sets the stage for the next wave of the industry’s growth”.

Speaking at the launch, Mittal said, “The Indian BPO sector has evolved tremendously since its inception, not only in its size but also in terms of maturity – service lines, service delivery capability, and footprint. This $11 billion industry today employs more that 700,000 people across 25 countries and accounts for approximately 40 percent of the global BPO offshore market, thereby creating huge job opportunities and impacting the economy. The future potential is even larger. This study not only estimates the opportunity ahead but also lays down specific agenda for all stakeholders to help achieve this.”

The survey presents a detailed and far-reaching analysis of the Indian BPO industry, including buyers, suppliers and BPO organizations, covering over 60 percent of the Indian BPO market.

Among many things, the report outlines the need for collaboration between industry, government and other stakeholders on a range of initiatives including education, infrastructure, the country's competitiveness, and domestic BPO.

”From a talent perspective,” says the report, “while the number of people required to capture a five-fold growth are available, there may be a requirement of employable talent, of which approximately 50 percent of the additional talent requirements will have to be met from tier-two and -three cities in India, necessitating the creation of physical and social infrastructure in these cities”.

Of the domestic market, the survey has this to say: “The domestic Business Process Outsourcing market with a growth rate of ~50 percent over the last five years has grown faster than the overall Indian BPO market to reach nearly US$1.6 billion by FY2008.

"Tapping significant opportunities for domestic businesses, such as, Banking, Retail, Insurance, Media, Telecom and Government provides an additional US$15-20 billion opportunity for the industry”.

The study also identifies key “action themes” for stakeholders. These include:

• Protect India’s cost advantage to ensure that buyer interest, adoption and growth are sustained.

• Create ‘BPO hubs’ with enabling physical and social ‘eco-systems’ to drive BPO-led growth broader and deeper within India.

• Increase employability and access untapped talent pools by creating greater linkages between the current education system and the needs of the BPO industry, and facilitating the development of BPO-specific education models.

• Encourage the growth of domestic BPO to enhance the competitiveness of Indian industry, create additional employment and facilitate development.

• ‘Up-shift’ the third-party and captive value proposition to effectively deliver against changing buyer expectations.

• Shape an ‘integrator’ role for the Indian BPO industry in the emerging global services supply chain.

• Communicate the true performance and potential of the industry to a broader set of stakeholders, including buyers, employees and government.

• Help buyers embrace the overall opportunity of India’s BPO industry in a more meaningful way.

The report will be discussed in detail at the forthcoming Nasscom India Leadership Forum 2008, to be held in Mumbai between February 13 and 15, 2008.