A long way to Nasscom 2.0

The solution to shooting oneself in the head is not to start shooting oneself in the foot instead, but rather to stop shooting completely. Nasscom seems to have forgotten this first principle, and band-aid solutions will not help solve problems that need surgery. At the heart of the problem is that Nasscom is like a joint family headed by a bunch of patriarchs who want to keep the youngsters together, but each member of the family, with their own legitimate aspirations, wants to live life their way, in their own home.

Make no mistake: Nasscom is one of the finest institutions in India. The current leadership — and earlier Dewang Mehta and Kiran Karnik — have done an excellent job in some aspects but poorly in others. What's happening to such a fine institution, and who is running it to the ground?

N.R. Narayana Murthy's committee on restructuring Nasscom has presented several commendable recommendations and if implemented in letter and spirit, can serve the industry well. Murthy wants Nasscom to become one of the top five industry associations in the world. But can it do so with such poor corporate governance?

Rama Vedashree, Nasscom's vice president, tweeted asking why people were questioning Nasscom and if it was their business to demand accountability. After doing so, she protected her tweets to escape public scrutiny. Is Nasscom immune to rational questioning? Or is it trying to hide some wrongdoing from the government? The IT industry that demands transparency in government is the first to hide behind opacity and threatens people when asked to show the same transparency. If someone asks these pertinent questions, why does it go completely defensive, want to shoot the messenger and not answer them?

Members of the executive council (EC) complain that the past chairman's council (PCC), whose politics appear to be no less murky than the Pradesh Congress Committees, wants the EC to be a rubber stamp. The EC will be presented decisions taken by the PCC, often in conference calls prior to the EC meet, for ratification. Emails between PCC members before last year's crucial EC meeting that was to discuss other names as competition to the current president showed the divisiveness inside the organisation.

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