Day 4

Starting last year, NASSCOM hold a CEO fashion show where the tech giants of India get a chance to sashy down the catwalk alongside gorgoeous supermodels [or their wives] -- kind of like livin the dream for some of them. This year, some one had the brilliant idea to combine tech plus fashion with Indian religious mythology. The result proved quite entertaining for the first half of the show with Som Mittal dressing up as Gandhi and Harsh Mehta as a guru. Positively knackered, we all returned to the hotel to catch some shut eye before our breakfast meet with the Canadian deputy high commissioner and some local businessmen.

Again, the breakfast saw Owais Zaidi ready to strike a deal [short of] with one of the local reps of CGI. Shop talk plus an invitation to Reliance gave us a good start at the Canadian breakfast. The walk to and fro to the continental gave every one's brain a refreshing change.

As always, three of us ended up talking about the state of the IT industry well past midnight. While there has been considerable networking with other delegates at the Forum, I have suggested to Jehan that we, as a group, need a session to recap everything, the developments here, how to follow this up and what PASHA can gain from this. As a group, every one has had a chance to get to know the entire delegation and its time we all sat down for a discussion. Guess who the moderator will be?

Jehan's caught a bad bug last nite and is out of action until the afternoon when we have a meeting with NASSCOM [finally]. I've just caught Kiran Karnik and the head of the malaysian delegation signing up MoUs. The Malaysians seem very focused and they are throwing a networking coctail party later in the evening right before the Gala. They have handed atleast 10 cards to each delegate in the conference.

Perhaps Kiran and Jehan can sign similar agreements and conduct press conferences together in the future?

Ive personally found NASSCOM very welcoming. However there has been very little chance of interaction with them directly and between our delegation. Perhaps this is expected since NASSCOM is looking after the entire conference and busy promoting the advantages of outsourcing to a keen audience. This afternoon would be a good indicator of where things go from here between the two trade bodies.

Bangalore awaits us tomorrow. We have a mad 6:30 am flight, which means heading for the airport at 4 or 5am. We are due back tomorrow night and hell no entertainment since we are meeting 3-5 companies there. No legendary pubs and no sightseeing since every one agreed to sacrifice that opportunity at the cost of visiting Reliance in Mumbai on Saturday.

Its 1. Need to see if I can grab lunch or harass some one for comments.