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IT weekly wrap: Nasscom Leadership Forum, Uber CEO visit were the key highlights

Even as the storm over India’s largest known banking frauds continues to brew, India saw an action packed week of technology related news- from a packed event in Hyderabad to the Uber CEO’s visit to the Capital, there was much to write about and ponder.

February 24, 2018 / 10:03 PM IST

Even as the storm over India’s largest known banking frauds continues to brew, India saw an action packed week of technology related news- from a packed event in Hyderabad to the Uber CEO’s visit to the Capital, there was much to write about and ponder.

The IT services industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) held its annual India Leadership Forum coupled with the World Congress on Information Technology in Hyderabad this year instead of the usual Mumbai venue.

The change did result in several regulars giving the forum a miss, but the numbers that showed up weren’t exactly disappointing.

The Prime Minister opened the forum by addressing a packed hall through video conference on one of India’s homegrown systems provided by the National Informatics Centre (Make in India, anyone?). Modi spoke about the importance of innovation and digital skills, and announced the launch of a “FutureSkills” platform too.

For the next three days, that was pretty much the focus of the event, along with artificial intelligence and blockchain. Interspersed with closed door sessions on data handling and the policy issues associated with a booming data economy, interest peaked on the final day with Deepika Padukone making an entry to talk about her entrepreneurial venture.

Just around the same time, the Internet and Mobile Association of India told us that India’s internet user base is expected to reach 500 million by June, a significant milestone considering India is one of the largest growth markets for global technology and internet companies.

Which is one of the reasons why Uber, the world’s largest taxi hailing app wants to keep investing in India, according to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who was in Delhi this week too.  In a candid chat with CNBC TV18’s Shereen Bhan, he said he wants Uber to become the Amazon of mobility.

As the number of Internet users in India expand, so will the opportunities for corporate and governments to improve service delivery. Newer business models perfected in other parts of the world are looking at India as a huge market, and its about time Indian regulators and government give serious thought to the way this data is stored, handled and understood.

The committee on data protection working towards this goal has touched upon several important and interesting points, but if India is to become a connected, Internet society, a change is also required at a cultural level to appreciate privacy, data integrity and transfer.

The week ended with the US deciding to bring in changes to the H-1B visa scrutiny process. In a policy memorandum, the US immigration agency said third party workers applying for H-1B visas will now have to prove they are employed in a specialty profession, and employers will have to provide proof of employment.

While Nasscom downplayed the impact of the move, other industry experts expect this to increase paperwork and costs, as well as scrutiny for H-1B visa applications.

The move is part of the US administration’s attempt to fix the larger issue of illegal immigration, but the targeting of lawful immigration routes such as H-1B visas, which are most commonly used for transfer of technology workers, has been a pain point for the IT industry since last year.

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Neha Alawadhi
first published: Feb 24, 2018 10:03 pm

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