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Nasscom to push for travel advisories to be lifted

A National Association of Software and Services Companies opinion poll conducted to assess the impact of Indo-Pak stand-off on the Indian IT industry, has revealed that 70 per cent of the firms polled had not felt any impact on their business.

However, 30 per cent of the respondents saw a short-term impact due to delayed decision-making, signing of contracts being deferred and customer-visits being postponed.

The apex industry association for software and service companies in India also said that it will urge various nations to lift the travel advisories as they are a major deterrent to conducting business.

The telephonic poll -- conducted last week by leading market research agency Indian Market Research Bureau, on behalf of Nasscom, to understand the reaction of the IT industry to the Indo-Pak stand-off -- was released on Monday.

The target sample included 90 respondents of senior management cadre especially CEOs/MDs/VPs in the software and services industry from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

Kiran Karnik, President, Nasscom, said, "The Indian software industry is highly reliant on exports and the travel advisories are acting as a major deterrent to conducting business."

"Since we have seen considerable de-escalation in the situation already, we are strongly stressing for the travel advisories to be lifted immediately. We are already in communication with key partner country embassies and High Commissions to urge them to carry our views forward. A quick reversal of these advisories is key to India passing through this phase without facing a significant impact on business," he said.

The poll also revealed that despite the ongoing crisis, most of the companies have not made any amendments in travel policies.

Seventy-one per cent of the respondents said that their employees continued to travel to service their customers as usual, while the rest said they had to make minor amendments in travel policies.

With respect to the fallout of Indo-Pak tensions on revenues of their companies, over 14 per cent of the respondents revealed that they are having a negative impact on their business revenues while 56 per cent felt that they will have a negative impact if the stand off continues.

Twenty-eight per cent felt that they do not see an affect on their business revenues in any manner.

On being questioned whether the incident will affect overall performance of companies for the year 2002, 21 per cent of the respondents revealed that they are already seeing some negative impact on their business.

Sixty per cent said that they do not see any negative impact till now, but this will impact their performance for the year if the stand off continues and if the travel advisories are not lifted. 16 per cent of the respondents said that this incident will not affect the industry in any manner.

FICCI, IUPF joins fray

In another development the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Indo-US Parliamentary Forum will seek Ambassador Robert Blackwill's help for withdrawal of the travel advisory to American citizens to refrain from visiting India.

Members of FICCI and IUPF recently visited Washington, DC to make a strong case for withdrawal of the advisory. The delegation met US Senator Joseph R Biden, chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The delegation, led by Dr A C Muthiah, placed a strong case before US officials to reverse Washington's decision asking its diplomatic staff to leave India and also withdraw the advisory to American corporates to leave India.

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