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With tensions between India and China showing no signs of abating, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) has halted its India business support programme in China until political climate changes.
The IT industry body had started the Sino-Indian Digital Collaborative Opportunities Plaza (SIDCOP) platform in China in 2017, in an effort to enable Indian IT firms get access to the huge Chinese software market. Currently, venture capital from China through this programme is also put on hold.
While the move will not impact Indian IT firms already in China, new companies looking to work with local Chinese companies and planning to set up operations in the country, won’t be facilitated by Nasscom under its programme for now. Also, new Chinese companies looking to enter the Indian market through Nasscom’s treaty will have to wait.
Sangeeta Gupta, Senior Vice-President and Chief Strategy Officer, Nasscom, told BusinessLine, “There are parts to what we are doing. A lot of our Indian services companies have presence in China and are doing global business. They would have an office and even delivery capabilities in China. That still continues to go on.”
However, she added, “There are some other things like helping smaller Indian companies connect with businesses in China or setting up operations in China and vice versa... this has been put on hold given the geopolitical issues. Getting more venture capital from China is also on hold.”
A great initiative
Since starting in 2017, Nasscom has created two IT corridors in partnership with the Chinese local governments of Dalian and Guiyang, which operate offline. The offline presence helped in the strategic matchmaking of Indian and Chinese companies mainly focussing on their strength in software and hardware manufacturing, respectively.
Some of the early Indian companies to have entered into bilateral agreements under the SIDCOP programme with Chinese companies include Sasken Technologies, OneGlobe and Fugumobile; the latter also became the first company to begin operations in Guizhou. Indian IT services providers such as Infosys, Wipro and TCS already have multi-location footprint in China.
In early 2019, an AI-enabled online platform was launched for SIDCOP to modernise the entire technology process starting from value ideation to value realisation. It was especially meant to reduce the time taken for procurement from six-nine months to one-two weeks. The platform also had a translation tool. A joint venture between an Indian and Chinese company was tasked with operating the platform.
Given that the partnership is now on hold amidst geopolitical issues, Gupta said, “It doesn’t make sense to push that agenda for now, but that is part of what is happening across sectors and it is nothing new for IT.”
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