Mr. Rajendra Pawar appointed Chairman of NASSCOM for 2011-2012

Mr. N. Chandrasekaran appointed Vice-Chairman

Pune, April 26, 2011: National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) today announced Mr. Rajendra S. Pawar as the new Chairman of its Executive Council for the year 2011-2012. Mr. Pawar succeeds Mr. Harsh Manglik, Chairman for the year 2010-11, and will take on his new role with effect from April 26, 2011. Mr. Pawar has been a member of NASSCOM’s Executive Council and is currently the Chairman and Co-founder of NIIT Technologies. NASSCOM also announced the appointment of Mr. N. Chandrasekaran as the Vice Chairman of the Executive Council. Mr. N. Chandrasekaran is the CEO and MD of Tata Consultancy Services.

As Chairman of the Executive Council, Mr. Pawar will lead and assist NASSCOM in catalyzing the growth of the Indian IT-BPO industry and enabling the fulfillment of its future goals and aspirations.

“It is a moment of great pride and honour for me to be elected as the Chairman of NASSCOM. India is among the few economies of the world that have stood tall after the global financial crisis. The country has emerged a winner due to its favourable population demographics, greater domestic consumption, and inherent resilience. To further sustain this growth, India, and specially the industry, will have to focus on two important pillars of the economic development – Skills of its workforce and SMEs. There is a need of greater focus on the ongoing development of specialized skills and capabilities, with the objective of helping increase employability of the current talent pool, by means of skill development across all tiers of the pyramid. Also, SME's play a crucial role in the India’s economy and help to achieve the objective of inclusive growth. Therefore, special focus and attention is required on the development of SME segment to propel this broad-based economic growth,” said Mr. Rajendra S. Pawar, Chairman, NASSCOM and Chairman and Co-founder of NIIT Technologies. He further added, “NASSCOM will continue to facilitate and collaborate and support the industry’s growth and achieve its vision outlined for 2020. It will broaden its role entailing greater collaboration across various industry players, governments and markets.”

“It has been an honour and a privilege to lead the industry as Chairman of NASSCOM. The IT-BPO industry is an engine of growth and innovation and is contributing to the transformational agenda in India and around the world. The trajectory for the future is exciting and NASSCOM will continue to play a key leadership role in this journey,” said Mr. Harsh Manglik, former Chairman, NASSCOM.

“We at NASSCOM are honoured to have Rajendra as the chairman of its executive council. He is known for promoting industry-academia alliances, and has been working closely with the academia to facilitate skill development in various sectors by way of collaboration, showcasing best practices for capacity building. A visionary entrepreneur and a respected opinion leader, he will bring his invaluable experience to the table and will a play crucial part in formulating future growth strategies and ensure adequate policy support to keep the momentum strong. We wish him the very best for future,” said Mr. Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM.

Chairman Mr. Pawar along with Vice-Chairman Mr. N. Chandrasekaran and President, Mr. Som Mittal will lead NASSCOM to carry out its diverse array of priorities consisting of industry’s value proposition including:

• Talent Development – Leverage NSDC partnership; Foundation skills for IT and BPO, benchmarking entry level talent; Industry best practices
• Domestic Market – Enable private sector partnership for e-governance, cluster development for SMBs
• Small company/start-up ecosystem – Mentorship programs, partnership with industry, participation in e-governance projects
• Innovation / Transformation – industry best practices, successful examples and enable scale
• Globalization and Protectionism – Factual perspectives and demonstrate impact of job creation by India in key markets
• Inclusion – NASSCOM Foundation to create industry-government partnership on inclusion

About NASSCOMNASSCOM® is the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT-BPO industries in India. NASSCOM is a global trade body with more than 1200 members, which include both Indian and multinational companies that have a presence in India. NASSCOM's member and associate member companies are broadly in the business of software development, software services, software products, consulting services, BPO services, e-commerce & web services, engineering services off-shoring and animation and gaming. NASSCOM’s membership base constitutes over 95% of the industry revenues in India and employs over 2.24 million professionals.

About Mr. Rajendra S. PawarMr. Rajendra S. Pawar is the Chairman & Managing Director of NIIT Technologies. He is an engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Mr. Pawar co-promoted NIIT Limited, in 1981 and currently serves as the Chairman and Managing Director. He is also Chairman of a premier software company NIIT Technologies Limited. Mr. Pawar has been awarded the country’s prestigious civilian honour, Padma Bhushan by the President of India. Global Business Intelligence firm, Ernst & Young recognized him as the Master Entrepreneur of the Year in 1999. He has also been named the IT man of the Year by IT industry journal, Dataquest. Mr. Pawar is on the Board of Governors of the India’s premier engineering institution, IIT Delhi, IIM Bangalore, the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and Scindia School, Gwalior.

About Mr. Natarajan ChandrasekaranMr. Natarajan Chandrasekaran is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services. Responsible for formulating and executing the company's global strategy, Chandra has been at helm of several key strategic transitions at TCS since 2002 when he took over the role as head of global sales. Under his leadership, TCS pioneered the creation of its unique Global Network Delivery Model (GNDM™) across five continents and ventured into new markets including Europe, China and Latin America. It added new business lines like BPO, Infrastructure and Assurance services. Chandra has also driven the domain diversification drive that has seen the company enter new verticals like Media and Information Services as well as Hi-tech. Chandra joined TCSL in 1987 after completing his MCA from Regional Engineering College, Trichy, Tamil Nadu in 1986. He also holds a B.Sc. in Applied Science from the Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu.