Two interactions in California on a recent trip abroad opened my eyes to the possibilities that still exist for IT entrepreneurs even as the traditional markets for the exports sector come under a cloud with the spectre of an impending global slowdown. First was an amazing encounter with the production team of the Final Destination series of Warner Brothers at the Intel Capital Conference on Huntington Beach near Los Angeles. After seeing a heart stopping preview of the opening disaster scenes from the movie, we were amazed to hear that a majority of the gripping sequence had actually been rendered using technology. Later on, a discussion in San Francisco with one of the major gaming companies who are significant clients of Zensar showed the exciting road map for building better and more engaging games that would could be played seamlessly across multiple platforms. Start a game on your Android on the train home from office and continue on your console or television or PC at home with no loss of time or excitement – this is the expectation that the company is now building platforms to meet.

The opportunity to do exciting stuff has not been lost on the new generation either. A young lad I know in Hyderabad is making a living doing video game programming while another in the US intends to focus on technology enabled music as a method of converting his juvenile aspiration to be a rock star into a genuine career in the music industry. It is a matter of concern for our proud software industry that India lags behind China and Korea in gaming and media and even young Pakistani companies across the border are producing games for cricket and other areas at a faster clip than we are doing. An industry that has opened up such an amazing lead over all competitors in IT Services and has taken similar strides in BPO and Engineering services should not leave the opportunity to be a dominant player in technology for entertainment to other countries to take the lead.

It has been a rather dismal November – for the world economy and for India! The seven successive days of decline in the Indian stock markets do not bode well for industry stocks as Europe continues to dither and the contradictions of the American political and economic scenario send shudders down the spine of many US watchers. The only economies which continue to do well seem to be China Brazil and Indonesia, none of whom are particularly strong markets for the Indian Software or BPO sector. While the next year or so will be undoubtedly a little slower than expected for the traditional players, there are still opportunities in abundance for new entrepreneurial companies to identify product niches, take advantage of the angel and venture capital funding that is now readily available and build new companies that will shape the industry in future. Time perhaps for the new generation to choose the road less traveled and craft the success stories of tomorrow!

Dr Ganesh Natarajan is CEO of Zensar Technologies and Co-Chair of the National Knowledge Council of the CII.