The 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.

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 Indian and Russia, especially in IT. Kanwal Sibal, India's Ambassador to Russia was also present at the discussion.

After that, Malhotra gave a very interesting 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.”

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