The three-day-long National Association of Software and Service Companies started in Mumbai with the launch of a new logo and tag line that would now be use to brand the Indian IT industry.

Drawn from Indian mythology the logo comes with the tag line 'India is IT.'

The sketch for the logo is drawn from the epic Mahabharat, specifically from the feat of Arjuna accurately hitting the fish's eye with a bow by just looking at its reflection in the water.

"India has a rich past and culture and we have drawn upon that to build this logo," said Kiran Karnik, president, Nasscom, while inaugurating the logo.

Nasscom has conceptualised and executed the concept.

The logo is expected to help create a global branding of the Indian software services industry which is already the second largest employer in the software services segment in the world.

Attended by nearly 800 delegates, the Nasscom's three-day-long conference that started on Tuesday concentrates on international partnerships and the IT-enabled services and business process outsourcing segment.

The goal for the conference this year was to go global and with the increased international participation Nasscom seems to have achieved it.

International speakers are up from 22 last year to 50 this year, while international delegates have almost doubled compared to last year.

Ten countries are participating in the Nasscom conference this year. There are delegations from countries like Sri Lanka, Uruguay, Canada, Taiwan and China.

However, it is the United Kingdom that has the largest foreign delegation and representatives from drawn from British Midlands, Wales, Scotland and London First amongst others.

The UK Minister of State for Small Business Nigel Griffiths delivered the inaugural address in which he played up the strong ties between India and UK in the IT and software sector.

According to Griffiths, in the last 5 years 350 Indian IT companies have set up shop in the UK, with 180 of them doing so in the last 18 months.

Stressing on the history of a shared language and culture, he urged more Indian IT companies to move into UK which is the fastest growing economy among the G-7 countries and the fourth largest economy in Europe.

Over the next two days, Griffith hopes to have extensive discussions with Indian companies on how UK can emerge as an attractive gateway for Indian companies who want to access the European market.

While the inaugural session had some of the top CEOs of India, quite a few significant faces were missing.

N R Narayana Murthy, Chairman, Infosys, Rajendra Pawar of NIIT, Som Mittal of Digital, Arun Kumar of Hughes Software Systems, Deepak Ghaisas of i-flex, Shaskank Desai of Mastek and Harish Mehta of Onward Novell were present but most of them are part of Nasscom's executive council.

There were few other familiar faces drawn from among the Indian IT industry in the crowd.

Nasscom, however, chose to counter this by citing the high number of delegates attending this year and the focus of international speakers and members.

Despite the modest growth of less than 30 per cent in 2002-03, Nasscom chairman Arun Kumar said that the Indian IT sector has emerged as the sunshine sector for the entire economy.

"In midst of a global recession, the Indian IT sector great at over 29 per cent last year to cross the $ 10 billion mark in terms of revenues. The performance of the Indian industry has put to rest any speculation about the viability and resilience of the industry," he said.

In his inaugural address, Kumar stressed upon the need to develop India's domestic market as an indigenous alternative for IT purchases.

E-governance is a critical area that, according to Nasscom, could provide a shot in the arm towards the growth of local companies.

Pegging the e-governance market at Rs 1,400 crore (Rs 14 billion) in 2001-02, Kumar emphasized that Nasscom is committed to developing this potential.

"We are working with the government to enhance IT spends by central and state governments, propagate e-governance projects and deepen government-citizen digital interfaces," he said.

The key highlight of the evening, though, was the question and answer session with Infosys chairman N R Narayana Murthy.

Moderated by the Canadian High Commissioner, Peter Sutherland and Nasscom president Kiran Karnik, the session saw Murthy talking about various issues like how to bridge India's digital divide, what the IT industry has done right and what can be learnt from the industry's success.

"The biggest thing that the software export industry has done right is to benchmark itself right from day one against the best in the global industry. That is a lesson that every other sector in India, including manufacturing, could learn from the software industry. The industry has also invested significantly in research and development that other sectors can emulate," Murthy said.

Murthy also suggested that India needs both the offshoring and nearshoring models to sustain its industry. "As I see it they are complementary. It's not one over the other. 60-80 per cent delivery can happen offshore while 40-20 per cent has to happen near the customer. So both these models have to co-exist," he said.