Volatility is a growth opportunity: Nasscom president

Time of India

02-07-2025

Academy
Empower your mind, elevate your skills
Geopolitics, trade tariffs, and rapid tech shifts are creating constant unpredictability but this volatility isn't a threat but a growth opportunity, Nasscom president Rajesh Nambiar said on Tuesday at the industry body's People Summit. He believed India is well-placed to lead through its strengths in GCCs, ER&D, and a rising tech-driven talent pool.He opened the Summit with a call to reimagine work and reposition talent for a changing world. In an era defined by uncertainty, he outlined why leadership must evolve, starting with people."We look at the uncertainty as a challenge and then the fact that there is so much opportunity," he said. "This is not going to happen without a significant focus on people and talent becomes the undercurrent for everything. Our business leaders have to be people leaders and our HR leaders will have to be business leaders."He went on to add that culture and engagement will be a driving factor and that hiring should focus on skills, not degrees. Further, he felt that HR tech and AI must be embedded into workflows to stay competitive. Nambiar highlighted that in order to build a hybrid future of humans and AI, learnability should be at the core.At the Summit, Tamil Nadu's minister for Information Technology and Digital Services, P Thiaga Rajan spoke of the intersection of technology, people, policy, and infrastructure. He highlighted the need for AI to touch the lives of citizens at every level of society."The only real long term solution is that it has to be ubiquitous, it has to be comprehensive and it has to be across all levels of interaction," he said. "It can't be only people with smartphones or only people with laptops. It needs to be at every level of society. Technology on the government side and citizens on the other side. It has to be comprehensive."Nasscom also announced the formation of its new Talent Council — a strategic industry-led initiative dedicated to building a future-ready, globally competitive digital workforce . It announced Satish H. C., chief delivery officer at Infosys , as the chair of the Council."With over three decades of experience in global talent strategy, innovation, and digital transformation, Satish will lead the council's efforts to shape a globally competitive, high-trust industry workforce," Nasscom said in a statement.The Council will seek to unlock new models for talent mobility, retention, and models, while driving regionally distributed employability programs. Equally, it aims to strengthen data-driven decision-making by enabling access to exclusive research, market intelligence, and global best practices to shape organisational strategies.