Last week it was time for my ritual yearly pilgrimage to the Mecca of the IT Industry, I am referring to NASSCOM India Leadership Forum, 2008. It was a time of meeting people, some of the faces were old and some were new but the excitement was all very palpable. You can access the NASSCOM 2008 Blog here.

As is the norm, there was a rash of media in attendance to glean updates of Industry biggies both Indian and MNC. This year was big from many perspectives and saw the attendance from the likes of Ginni Rometty from IBM Global Services and Steve Rohleder, COO of Accenture. 

NASSCOM has had biggies before but this year was different for its eclectic mix of politicians like a budding Congress leader Sachin Pilot, Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel as well Minister for IT & Telecom, Raja. It also had top industrialists like the Harvard educated and always immaculately dressed Anand Mahindra and the scion of the Bajaj family, the very suave Rajiv Bajaj. It was also different because there was less rhetoric and more realism in terms of the stock taking and the way forward as well as some plainspeak instead of the usual geek festival technobable.

The PR consultants as well as their Corporate Communications and Marketing handlers were out in a full out display of strength as they silent worked the lunches, dinners and networking sessions positioning their spokespeople, their brands in all myriad and clever ways possible.

All is well with the IT Industry despite the doomsayers, the projections are hot, traction is back 2 quarters down and Hewitt and Watson Wyatt are hooting salary increases from rooftops and I am loving it as I cock a snook to many in the media, the Industry, as well as peers who cried wolf. If anything, the sub-prime meltdown will bring in more business for Indian outsourcing industry! All is well indeed and I am loving it!