Nasscom snubs Indian SMBs again for new exco
India's software industry body, National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), has elected representatives from a mix of local and foreign technology multinationals to constitute the new 18-member executive council (EC).
The composition the 25-year-old organization's new EC appears to be largely the same as before--with little representation from the small and midsize businesses (SMB) community.
A source with knowledge of the result, who declined to be named, told ZDNet which candidates -- the country heads and senior executives from local and global MNCs -- were successfully elected by the organisation's 1,400 members on Tuesday night:
- Accenture
- Alcatel-Lucent
- Capgemini
- Cisco
- Cognizant
- Dell
- HP
- IBM
- Infosys
- Infotech
- Larsen&Tubro
- Microsoft
- MindTree
- Niit
- Quattro
- Mahindra Satyam
- Wipro
ZDNet has sought an official confirmation of the results from Nasscom.
Notable among the selections are: two females, HP India MD, Neelam Dhawan, and Capgemini India CEO Aruna Jayanthi; and the recognisable Wipro chief strategy officer, Rishad Premji, son of the company's revered billionaire chairman and philanthropist, Azim. Cisco India president Jeffrey White was the only foreigner elected to executive council of the Indian IT industry's peak body.
Nasscom has recently come under fire for being an outsourcing services "boys club" ignoring the needs of the rest of the industry, including business process outsourcing and software product developers.
It recently announced a series of changes, such as including a focus on Web and mobile, to better serve other technology growth sectors. However, the EC's composition raises further questions about its ability to properly represent entrepreneurs, startups, and SMBs.
Last month, 30 software companies in the group decided to break away to form their own association. Their new thinktank, Indian Software Product Industry Round Table (iSpirt), will specifically promote local software developers and expand the scale of their products.
In an interview with Livemint this week, Nasscom president Som Mittal said there would be an opportunity for unelected companies and industries.