Indian technology companies need to undergo a cultural shift in mindset and should break the shackles of fear if the industry needs to grow in the future.
At Zinnov's annual conference, corporate head honchos from multinational and Indian technology companies gathered to brainstorm on the future roadmap at a time when there are tectonic shifts in the world of technology. In a round table called "Redrawing India's role in technology", Jayesh Chakravarthi, Senior VP and Country Head, Fidelity Investments said that change in mindset towards addressing business issues is the need of the hour an urged that what worked in the past, may not work in the future. Other panelists agreed with his views and according to M R Srinivas Prasad, CEO at Philips Innovation Campus Bangalore, fear of failing has dogged the Indian technology industry for a long time and now the time has come to change.
The $118 billion Indian IT industry, which grew predominantly due to labour arbitrage is expected to grow in the range of 13-15 per cent as per Nasscom estimates but massive changes in the way technology is consumed, coupled with the advent of cloud computing, business analytics and other things is forcing India-based companies to look at things differently. "While India has a level-playing field on the one hand, on the other it needs to embrace more innovation," said Ravi Gururaj, Chairman Product Council at Nasscom.
Others also believed that there are plenty of opportunities for using technology to address problems in areas like healthcare, energy and industrial automation. Sarv Saravanan, Senior Vice-President & GM, APJ Centers of Excellence at EMC Corporation believes that technology can play a vital role in healthcare, in a country which has the lowest ratio of doctors, with one doctor for 1,700 people, according to the World Health Organisation and in such a scenario, there is a need to look at how technology can bridge this large gap.