Competitive advantage will be determined by talent: Nasscom chief

Talent is going to define competitive advantage for the information technology (IT) industry in India as a hybrid model of working both physically and digitally evolves, said Debjani Ghosh (pictured), president of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom).

“There is no guessing, no ifs and buts. Technology is getting democratised faster and faster. Everyone will have access to technology, (but) what will differentiate you is how you use this access to technology. That’s where your talent comes in,” she said, speaking to Business Standard on the sidelines of the ongoing Nasscom Technology Leadership Forum (NTLF).

According to Nasscom, consolidated revenues of top, listed technology companies recorded a growth rate of 5.3 per cent in the second half (H2) of 2020 over the first half (H1) of 2020.

Also, with an increase in focus on digital upskilling initiatives, revenue per employee grew at 5.5 per cent in H2 2020 over H1 2020.

The attrition rate dropped by 50 per cent in H2 over H1. According to a report on the technology sector by Motilal Oswal Financial Services, attrition in the third quarter of FY21 was the lowest ever at 11.3 per cent against 16.2 per cent a year ago.

The brokerage, however, expects this to rise over the next few quarters despite wage hikes in the current and next quarters.

“For me as a leader, attrition has never been an important metric. You set yourself up for failure if you want to hit a target (for attrition). For me, it has always been about the best talent,” Ghosh said.

Nasscom on Monday said the Indian tech industry continued to be a net hirer with a significant focus on digital upskilling. The industry is expected to add over 138,000 net workers in FY21, taking the employee base to 4.47 million. The digital talent pool is expected to cross 1.17 million, growing at 32 per cent over last year.

“Even this year when we launched the Strategic Review, it was clear that traditional jobs were going down, (and) net jobs were going up. It is the new, emerging jobs that are getting created by use of robotics, artificial intelligence and so on,” Ghosh said.

In the backdrop of increased work from home and the Covid-19 related lockdowns, the IT services industry also reported its highest ever utilisation, according to the Motilal Oswal report.

While the Indian technology sector grew 2.3 per cent during the year, the Indian domestic market expanded 3.4 per cent in the year.

E-commerce grew at 4.8 per cent while hardware went up at 4.1 per cent during the year.

Ghosh said there was scope for each of these areas to become an over $100 billion opportunity.

“It is not just e-commerce but software products, engineering and R&D (also). We would love to have $100-200 billion sectors across (the board). IT services have led the growth so far, and we’re very proud of it but I think the prime minister said we had to be the best in everything. I think it’s a legit ambition — we have the talent, opportunity and timing,” Ghosh added.

Addressing the NTLF opening session on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the IT industry would have to compete with itself, and would have to give equal importance to a culture of excellence and institution building.