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The evening was devoted to addressing the NASSCOM and Australian
Information Industry Association (AIIA) organized a business networking session.
With a hundred-strong Australian-Indian companies attending, the minister made
two important announcements relevant for the Indian IT industry.
The first was about an Indian digital signature certification agency getting established
by June, 2001. The second bit of news related to the Communication Commission
of India, which the minister stated could be set up by January, 2002 provided of
course the Convergence Bill went through the Parliament.
The minister later launched NASSCOM’s chapter in Australia. Mr. Neville Roach,
Chairman of Fujitsu Australia, and Chairman, Australian India IT Business Network
(
AIIBN) was named as the patron of the NASSCOM chapter. About 16 NASSCOM
member companies have already enrolled in this chapter. These are the companies
that are present in Australia. Thirty more companies are likely to join the chapter
over the next two months.
An important criterion for a company to become a member of NASSCOM, Australia
is that the organization should have a development facility in India and at a
minimum, boast an ISO 9001 or SEI level 3 assessment.
The minister also witnessed a historic memorandum of understanding, signing
between NASSCOM and AIIA—the key event in fact during a jam-packed day.
From the AIIA side, the document was signed by Executive Director Mr. Rob
Durie. Under the MoU, both India and Australia will contribute to the mutual
growth and development of their respective information and communication
technology industries. NASSCOM will help AIIA companies create relevant
alliances in India and also enable Indian ventures to set up companies/subsidiaries
with Australian IT companies.
The MoU lays special emphasis on segments such as software engineering,
web-based applications/animation, multimedia, telecom software, banking and
insurance, e-commerce/e-business/Internet, mining, trading and retail operations,
embedded software and interactive integration.
Under the aegis of agreement, there will be an exchange of information and
facilitation of co-operation between member companies of the two associations.
Promotion of IT trade missions/alliances/joint ventures between the two countries;
cooperation in public policy efforts: promotion of joint research; survey reports,
seminars and exhibitions; co-organizing of conferences, exhibitions and workshops
between the two countries; and promotion of joint marketing in the USA, Europe,
South-East Asia and Japan.
The grand finale to the proceedings meanwhile, was a speech by the
minister, where he addressed a 100-plus group representing the Indian
community in Australia.
n
This was the last article penned by Dewang, which was faxed from Sydney, Australia on 11th April 2001, at 6.30 PM (IST).
