WE’VE TO GRADUATE TO BECOME BUSINESS CONSULTANTS TO THE WORLD

If IT is the major enabler for change, then we should be seen as business consultants in this transformation. LC Singh, Director, and Executive Vice Chairman, Nihilent, talks about the importance of Al and India2047. Edited excerpts from a video interview.

- Sunil Rajguru

LC SINGH
Director and Executive Vice Chairman, Nihilent

The early years… Initially it was a lot of hard work, struggle and sacrifices, because nobody knew that India could give value added services to the IT industry. That was the case from the 1980s to the mid-1990s. The kind of stature, respect and rewards that people are getting now in IT were not available to us in those days.

Things then changed. I would say that a lot of development took place and thresholds were reached between 1995-96 and 2001. The first phase of development and recognition happened then. We had the Internet bust and boom followed by powerful PCs, laptops and mobiles coming into the picture. There was no looking back after that.

sufferings during the pandemic…

It was a shock. The physical communication and travel which was routine and taken for granted suddenly came to naught. Overnight we had to create a Work From Home culture. There was even the logistics of sending laptops to someone’s home. There were administrative challenges.

Acquiring new customers was not that difficult. But that softer side of the relationship did not happen, when you have dinner and lunches with them. It became a very transactional and formal relationship during the Covid period. It was specially a loss for mid-size companies who didn't have the set ups in every country the way big companies have. They could survive, but expansion was a problem.