Nasscom to set up Rs100-crore fund for IT innovation

Mumbai: The National Association of Software Companies (Nasscom) is planning to set up a Rs100 crore fund to promote innovation in information technology.

Innovation at various levels has been identified as the next imperative to sustain growth and maintain the edge of Indian IT industry in global markets, Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said in a statement. "The first-of-its-kind initiative by the apex body, the fund would be supported by the industry and would be for driving innovation by IT companies," he added.

Meanwhile, seven companies, including Bharti Airtel & IBM India, Evalueserve.Com, HP Labs India, Ittiam Systems Pvt Ltd, Kale Consultants, Strand Lifesciences Pvt Ltd and Monsoon Multimedia India Pvt Ltd, would be awarded for innovation in information technology by prime minister Manmohan Singh on February 9.

Bharti Airtel and IBM India were selected for the business model under which the telecom major outsourced all of its IT operations to IBM. Evaluserve.Com was selected for its business intelligence services, customised reports and value-added research, which cater to industries across a wide spectrum.

HP Labs India is being awarded for its Gesture Keypad, which is a pen-based input device for phonetic scripts while Ittiam was selected for its advanced digital audio and video signal processing.

Kale Consultants' BPO product Revera got wide recognition while Strand Lifesciences has developed a comprehensive and modular data mining and predictive modeling platform.

Monsoon Multimedia's `Hava' is the world's first integrated video 'time-shifting' and 'place-shifting' product.

The seven companies were selected from a list of 18 companies, which were short listed.