Ramalinga Raju is Nasscom's Chairman
By agencies   |   Tuesday, 11 April 2006, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Satyam Computer Systems founder Chairman B Ramalinga Raju is taking over as Nasscom?s new chairman. Cognizant Technologies CEO Laxmi Narayanan will be the new Vice-Chairman. Both Raju and Narayanan come at a time when the IT industry could see fresh challenges and a wave of consolidation. The two positions are appointed on rotation from among Nasscom members for a year. Raju, who was the Vice-Chairman earlier, takes over from TCS, CEO, S. Ramadorai. The new Chairman sees HR, infrastructure, innovation and influencing a more conducive global and Indian governance structure as the thrust areas for the IT representative body. ?Our role will be to facilitate the significant changes that we are faced with. Cost (IT wages and related costs going up) is an issue but not one that cannot be addressed,? he said. There is a need for short-term intervention to provide skills that may be missing and this will be one of the focus areas, he said and added that the university curriculum also needs to change ?Many of the Indian professionals are not industry-ready,? Raju said. On the recent EDS-MphasiS deal and the likely consolidation in the industry he said, ?These transactions prove the Indian delivery model and offshoring is now a mainstream activity. With so much happening, it is hard to predict M&A activity. I believe there will be significant organic growth and heightened activity among the mid-tier companies.? He believes Nasscom has been one of the most successful bodies in the IT industry. Nasscom, with over 950 members, of a total of about 3,000 IT companies, represents over 90 percent of the Indian IT industry turnover.

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