If there is one thing common in all the quarterly results coming out of the boardrooms of IT companies this time, it is the inexorable pressure being exerted by salaries and operating costs on bottom lines. And this is not going to get any easier during the year with the sluggish economic conditions in the West and Japan making any significant price increases unlikely in the short term. With salary increases having been completed in the last quarter, major introspection would have begun on all possible measures to shore up the profitability of the sector. While all the standard solutions will no doubt be tried– non linearization of revenue through increasing focus on IP pushing all utilization levers and increasing the reliance on trainees and managed services to deliver customer projects and support, the time may well have come to look for systemic means of cost reduction in the industry. Investments in more expensive campuses with all the trappings of transportation security canteen services will have to be slowed down with investments in “work from home” solutions that will also ease the pressure on weak infrastructure in most metro cities. The earlier bravado of “we do everything and outsource nothing” will have to yield to more pragmatic approaches to outsourcing the “source and train” effort for inducting trainees as well as experienced staff with specific skills in contemporary areas like Business Intelligence, ERP and Product Life Cycle Management. Perhaps the most appropriate long term solution to finding a lower cost base for the industry lies in a study that was done by NASSCOM a few years ago to identify fifty cities which could be developed as potential locations for the industry to spread in this decade. During the last couple of years, we have seen one very successful experiment conducted in Jammu & Kashmir where the whole hearted support of CM Omar Abdullah has seen the University of Kashmir in Srinagar join hands with Pune based Global Talent Track to make hundreds of young Kashmiri students ready for the best jobs in the IT sector through intensive training and familiarization with industry projects within and outside the state. Some new initiatives proposed in collaboration with the National Skills Development Corporation also have the potential to be transformational for small locations and states like Nagaland and Assam and sow the seeds for a new eco-system in these locations to develop. A recent visit to Bihar, the state of my childhood and more an object of ridicule and pity till the current administration showed the road to success was an eye-opener to our team. Our meeting with Deputy CM Modi and the clarity with which this state is willing to embrace the industry and embark on the process of skills and infrastructure building is worthy of the highest praise. There is no doubt that capital cities like Patna Ranchi Guwahati and Lucknow and smaller cities in IT States like West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh have the potential to succeed. We should make it happen and see that an inclusive India emerges soon!