Successful Russian foray by PCAIT

Progressive Channels Association of IT (PCAIT), Delhi's
premier channel body, made a very successful foray into the Russian market. Led
by its President RK Malhotra, the eight-member delegation held wide ranging
talks with various trade and industry bodies including Russian IT Association
(RITA), Russian Software Association (RUSSOFT) and Moscow Chamber of Commerce in
Moscow last week.

The PCAIT team visited Moscow as a part of the Mission to
Moscow led by Sheila Dikshit, the Chief Minister of Delhi. The Government of
Delhi organized a three-day cultural and trade interaction between Moscow and
Delhi.

While the cultural part covered the Indian classical dance,
music etc, the trade and commerce part focused on IT, ITeS, pharma, health care
etc. Apart from Dikshit, the delegation comprised of ministers like Arvinder
Singh Lovely, senior govt officials like IT Secretary Jalaj Shrivastava, and
cultural exponents like sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan, poet Javed Akhter, dancer
Astad Deboo and rock band Euphoria.

PCAIT members with the Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit in Moscow

By going on this trip, PCAIT notched up several firsts. It
became the first ever delegation from any channel association in the country to
go abroad for trade talks. It is also the first ever channel association to have
been invited to be a part of a government delegation going abroad. Terming it as
a big feather in the cap of this just one-year-old association, Malhotra said
this would spur the Delhi channel to greater heights. Apart from Malhotra,
others in the delegation included Ranjan Chopra, VP; Saket Kapur, Secretary;
Sujeet Narula, Joint Secretary; and Executive Council members Anil Mangla, Anil
Sachdeva, Asim Raina and Rajesh Aggarwal.

On the opening day, the PCAIT delegation had a two-hour long
meeting at the Indian Embassy's DP Dhar hall with delegations from RITA and
RUSSOFT. Set up in 1981,

RITA is the premier IT association of Russia and has more than 150 members. On
the other hand, RUSSOFT, which primarily represents software companies, is about
15 years old and has close to 180 members. Also present at the meeting were
Shrivastava and Satbir Singh, Minister (Economy) at the Indian Embassy.

Next day, the Indian delegation traveled to the office of the
Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI). This industry body is 50 years
old and has 1,900 Russian companies as members. The first part of the summit
level talks were led by Dikshit and Nikolay Kartashev, VP, MCCI. In her opening
remarks, Dikshit talked about the various IT initiatives taken by the Delhi
Government in its quest to become the IT hub of India. She invited Russian
companies to come to Delhi and explore the business possibilities. Kartashev
harped on the need to improve trade and commerce between India and Russia,
especially in IT. Kanwal Sibal, India's Ambassador to Russia was also present
at the discussion.

After that, Malhotra gave a presentation on behalf of PCAIT,
which talked about business possibilities in IT between Russian and Indian
companies. He elaborated on the importance of the NCR IT market, which is almost
one-fourth of the total Indian domestic IT market. Then he outlined the areas in
which PCAIT could help Russian IT companies. These areas included distribution
and marketing, joint ventures, procuring services, system and network
integration, software conversion, retail solutions, business intelligence,
training etc. Later, Malhotra had a one-to-one meeting with the DDG of MCCI
where areas of mutual cooperation were discussed.

The same day, PCAIT delegation was invited to talks with the
Sistema Group, which is Russia's largest IT and telecom conglomerate, over
dinner at their Dacha. In his opening remarks, Alexander Goncharuk, President of
this $7.6 billion group, gave an overview of the group's various business
ventures. He talked about Sistema's interest in entering the Indian market.

Overall, the four-day sojourn of PCAIT in Russia was very
fruitful. Each and every member of the delegation came back fully satisfied with
the first ever foray of PCAIT outside the country. Summing up the visit,
Malhotra said, "It was a pleasure to be in Moscow and we are pretty sure
that there is a huge possibility of cooperation between us and Russian IT
companies."

Asim Raina in Moscow