The software sector, which has established India as the best destination for cheap and quality services over the last 15 years, should now try to offer the best practices in security, said Jerry Rao, who took over as the chairman of the National Association of Software and Service Companies.

Rao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mphasis BFL, takes over from Digital CEO Som Mittal.

Tata Consultancy Services CEO S Ramadorai has been appointed the vice chairman of the apex software industry body for 2004-05.

Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said, "Jerry is widely recognised in both the areas of IT software and services and IT enabled services. His global experience, knowledge, and industry expertise will be of immense value to Nasscom."

Rao has been actively involved in the activities of the body and heads the recently formed Nasscom Security Forum.

Speaking to Business Standard, Rao said: "With more and more mission-critical work is being outsourced to India and Intellectual Property Rights being developed rapidly, data privacy and exclusivity should be of prime importance for IT service providers."

Rao added: "As the Indian IT industry grows into adulthood, responsibilities should graduate and we should be seen as a trustworthy partner. The Indian legal system is well equipped to protect ugly situations, but we will have to deal with the enforcement part. We should turn this problem into an opportunity and should grow to offer the best practices in security."

He said Nasscom would hold an international seminar on security issues in October 2004, adding that the IT Act was constantly being evolved and whenever appropriate measures were required they would be implemented.

Speaking on the issue of SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in the software sector, Rao said: "The other major agenda we have is how to help these companies to scale up. We have been constantly interacting with SMEs and are stepping up our activities to make market and finance access easier for them."

He said there was a lot of creativity in SMEs and Nasscom should  recognise this spark and bring it to the fore.

Commenting on how 2003-04 fared for Nasscom, he said: "Tremendous amount of work went into keeping the confidence, encouragement and excitement going. We were able to put forth our point of view successfully on offshoring. All these measures have made corporations think more comprehensively on the issue and avoid 'shooting-from-the-hip' on offshoring."