NASSCOM ties up with govt to form a conducive start-up ecosystem

In an attempt to strengthen and leverage IT and innovation for economic growth & development of the start-up ecosystem, National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has put forth its recommendation to the Union government in a meeting of NASSCOM’s Executive Council with Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Law and Justice. NASSCOM, along with other industry leaders, came together to share critical areas that need immediate attention and intervention from the Government. Industry leaders stressed on the need to enable innovation and support entrepreneurship in order to foster an ecosystem and accelerate growth of product, and start-up companies. In order to promote growth and global competitiveness of IT industry, NASSCOM has also requested to the government’s help to build newer markets while expanding core markets, focusing on skill development, and employment creation. NASSCOM has also requested the government to provide relevant interventions to improve business environment in India to ease investment and operations for entrepreneurs in the country.

Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “This is my first formal interaction after taking up the position of minister of communications & IT, and I want to reiterate the need to transform India into a software product nation. The future of the Indian IT industry will be driven by products and there is a need to encourage investments in this segment. We will be holding many more such meetings in the future which will be more like ‘IT panchayats’ that will involve detailed discussions and a feedback mechanism from key stakeholders on how to leverage IT and Innovation for the start-up ecosystem and betterment of the industry.”

On the side-lines, R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM, said, “Of the total revenue, about 80% is contributed by 200 larger and mid-sized players and, rest 20% comes from more than 16,000 companies that are either small and emerging. With constant innovations both at global and domestic level, the smaller companies can become bigger and large companies can penetrate the market deeper, but only with right and immediate support by the government in terms.” He further added that “Our future growth will be driven by innovation, IP and valuations, and hence NASSCOM has recommended five pronged agenda to achieve this.”