Nasscom to bid for WCIT 2008

Ashu Kumar in New Delhi

The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) will make a pitch to host the World Congress on IT in India in the year 2008.

Nasscom, which is a member of World Information Technology and Services Alliance (Witsa) member, will make a formal bid for the event at the forthcoming World Congress on IT 2002 (WCIT 2002) being held in Australia in February this year.

The Congress is held every two year by rotation in America, Europe and Asia regions. As the 2002 Congress is being held in Australia this time, it will be only 2008 when the next Congress can be held in Asia again. The World Congress 1998 was held in US and it will be held in European region in 2004 and then in America in 2006.

According to a senior Nasscom official, the association has also secured the support of the Indian government to hold the event in the country in 2008. “The ministry of communication and information technology has also agreed to support the event if it is held in India,” said the Nasscom official.

“The event if held in India will spell immense spinoffs to us as we will get an opportunity to demonstrate our potential and capabilities in technology to hundreds of world renowned companies. It will be a great opportunity for enticing the Who’s Who of global industry,” the Nasscom official said.

According to a Witsa media release, Fairfax County in Virginia, USA, which hosted the Congress in 1998, is still reaping the rewards. “(Post-Congress) 263 companies decided to relocate or initiate offices in the area. The companies in the area of IT, telecommunications, Internet, financial services and bioinformatics have created nearly 30,000 new jobs in the area,” the press note said.

WCIT2002 is being held at the Adelaide Convention Center from February 26 to March 1 this year. It is a flagship event of Witsa which is an apex global body of information industry. Witsa has the national IT associations of 41 countries as members including Nasscom. According to Witsa, the Congress is expected to attract around 1,800 delegates to Adelaide.

An Indian delegation of around 20 members including industry leaders and government officials will also participate in the Congress in Australia. Infosys chairman N Narayana Murthy is one of the key note speakers at the Congress which will be inaugurated by former US President Bill Clinton and feature speakers such as Bob Hayward of Gartner, Craig Mundie of Microsoft, Al Berkeley of Nasdaq and Bob Bishop of Silicon Graphics.