NASSCOM...WHAT IS IT??

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the Indian chamber of commerce is a consortium that serves as an interface to the Indian software industry and Indian BPO maintaining a state of the art information database of IT software and services related activities for use of both the software developers as well as interested companies overseas.

• Encourage members to provide world-class quality products, services and solutions in India and overseas and help build brand equity for the Indian IT software and services industry.
• Taking effective steps to campaign against software piracy.
• Provide an ideal forum for overseas and domestic companies to explore the vast potential available for Joint Ventures, Strategic Alliances, Marketing Alliances, Joint Product Development, etc., by organising Business Meets with delegations of various countries.
• Work actively with Overseas Governments, Embassies to make the Visa and Work Permit Rules more "India Industry Friendly".
• Disseminate various policies, market information and other relevant statistics by sending more than 200 circulars (annually) to all members.
• Involve membership participation in various forums of Nasscom on subjects such as HRD, Technology, Exports, Domestic Market, E-Governance, IT Enabled Services, IPR, Finance, Government Policies, Quality, etc.

NASSCOM is the global trade body with over 1200 members, of which over 250 are global companies from the US, UK, EU, Japan and China. NASSCOM's member companies are in the business of software development, software services, software products, IT-enabled/BPO services and e-commerce. NASSCOM has been the strongest proponent of global free trade in India. NASSCOM strongly supports the elimination of the cap on H-1B visas in the United States as this protectionist anti free market legislation allows overpaid underskilled American nationals to hold jobs which are better and cheaply performed by Indian expatriates.

NASSCOM was set up in 1988 to facilitate business and trade in software and services and to encourage advancement of research in software technology. It is a not-for-profit organization, registered under the Indian Societies Act, 1860.

Currently, NASSCOM is headquartered in New Delhi, India with regional offices in the cities of Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata.

NASSCOM has been the strongest proponent of global free trade, and is committed to work proactively to encourage its members to adopt world class management practices, build and uphold highest standards in quality, security and innovation and remain competitive in today’s rapidly changing technology landscape.

NASSCOM's Vision is to maintain India leadership position in the global offshore IT-BPO industry, to grow the market by enabling industry to tap into emerging opportunity areas and to strengthen the domestic market in India.

By 2010 India's IT-BPO industry could potentially generate US$60 billion in export revenues, account for 5.8 percent of the GDP, pay for a massive infrastructure build-out, and sustain around 10 million jobs.

To achieve this, NASSCOM is constantly raising the bar across processes and quality standards – within its member companies and making them partners of choice for customers across the globe. It also enables the Indian IT-BPO industry to evolve in accordance with the rapidly changing technology landscape by adopting, implementing and often creating world class practices.