Market Development and Business Matching Sessions US Virtual Digital Trade Mission to the U.S.: NASSCOM U.S. Week program was designed to provide a hands-on understanding of the U.S. market for the Indian technology companies looking to expand in the Market. This was the fourth edition of NASSCOM U.S. Week. Program focused on providing a combination of low-cost incubation set up, focusing on a deeper understanding of technology and market landscape combined with legal and regulatory issues. The program covered three states of Virginia, Rhode Island and Michigan. Impact: Program was attended by Governor's Senator, Consul General India (NY), key stakeholders from industry, government and over 400+ participants from Indian companies.

Rhode Island Launchpad: NASSCOM further expanded its Launchpad in the US by signing an MoU with RIHub in Rhode Island, the signing was witnessed by Randhir Jaswal - Consul General of India, New York and Stefan Pryor - Secretary of Commerce, State of Rhode Island. Impact: Indian companies setting up in Rhode Island will get following benefits: 180 days of complimentary soft-landing space. Assist with introductions to potential business partners, client's etc. Access to RIHub programs including: Mentoring, Customer Discovery, legal clinics and other programs offered by RIHub Access to apply to global accelerator: MassChallenge

Canada NASSCOM SME delegation to Canada: This was NASSCOM's first in-person member company market engagement after a break of 19 months since the pandemic began. Indian SMEs that were part of this delegation had an exclusive opportunity to gather hands-on understanding of Canada's technology and innovation ecosystems, global business development opportunities, financing support, doing business and regulatory regime in Canada, to name just a few. A well rounded mix of formal and informal opportunities for business matching, relationship building, and networking opportunities in the provinces of Ontario, Nova Scotia & New Brunswick were part of the program. Impact: 45 participants joined the program from 35 companies

Debriefing with Members and follow up on Canada: As a follow up to the Canada visit, interaction was planned with member companies. To discuss the way forward of exploring a common "NASSCOM launchpad" umbrella jointly for them, with one/two regions to strengthen our position, credibility and strength in the Canadian market and to build upon the favourable momentum generated. Impact:17+ companies have confirmed there plans to setup in Canada in next few months. NASSCOM is actively pursuing setting up of a Launchpad in Canada.

Germany Mittlestand Connect Initiative: NASSCOM has partnered with BVMW (German Federal Association of Small and Medium sized Enterprises) to launch a series of sessions with an objective to expose Indian SME companies to work with German Mittelstand companies. The maiden session addressed points such as how to overcome language and cultural barriers while working with German companies, how to connect with German Mittlestand, what type of skillsets do these companies need, tech maturity & demand of these companies, challenges German Mittelstand companies face while working with Indian companies, how to set up in Germany and types of incentives available for Indian companies. Impact: Around 25 Indian tech SMEs having presence / interest in Germany joined the session.

Japan NRI Report Launch: At a high-profile event we launched a report on Japanese investments into Indian tech sector. Indian Minister of State (MoS), MeitY, Mr. R Chandrasekhar and his counterpart Mr Naoshi Hirose, Vice Minister of METI, Japan launched the report. The report outlines Japanese investment into Indian IT between 2016 up to 2021 and provides a trend prediction for next couple of years. Impact: This report will serve as benchmark index of gauging progress made since last few years and predict future trends for years to come and guide Government response with its targeted policy intervention to further enhance Japanese investments into Indian IT. CEATEC: Virtual booth by 15 Indian companies (8 Startups, 4 SMEs and 3 Large Companies) at the event under NASSCOM India Showcase. CEATEC is Japan's most comprehensive CPS/IoT exhibition. This was our fourth edition of the prestigious conference. The event took place in online mode this year and was attended by 1,00,000 visitors. Impact: Indian booths were visited by ~4,000 Japanese companies. 2 Indian companies also spoke at the event and promoted wider industry capabilities on smart vehicles and smart manufacturing to Japanese companies 4th Japan Business Matching Session: Facilitated connection between Japanese companies having definite technology requirements and Indian tech service providers to build partnerships between Indian and Japanese companies Impact:~40 pre-arranged B2B meetings took place between 10 Japanese companies and 23 Indian companies in 1-on-1 virtual rooms with interpretation support - Large Japanese companies such as Daikin Airconditioning, Nomura Real Estate and Macnica also joined the event

Nordics 2nd Nordics Business Matching Session: The session provided an opportunity to Nordic enterprises to explore partnerships with Indian service providers for addressing specific digitisation challenges & building capabilities for addressing client needs. We identified real business leads from the Nordic side and organised one on one exclusive interactions between India tech providers & Nordic Companies. Impact: Over 30 individual meetings were organised between 9 Nordics and 13 Indian companies

Saudi Arabia INDIA - KSA Datalogue 2.0 Business Matching Session: "Virtual Business Gateway" for a complete deep dive into the Saudi market. Saudi companies with technology requirements connected with Indian companies to discuss partnership opportunities Impact: We had 30 B2B's between 10 Saudi and 12 Indian companies.

Policy Advocacy UK Exclusive session with UK's Home Office: While our companies take number of initiatives to develop skills locally, there continues to be a challenge on availability of high-skilled workers within the UK. To facilitate the movement of high skilled workers, the industry uses the ICT Tier II visa as the primary route for talent deployment. This is a key enabler to the India-UK Tech partnerships and during the interaction with the industry members, the Home Office team eluded to their approach and future thinking on some of the areas important to members. These included- immediate switching from ICT Tier II to Skilled Worker, short Term ICT visa, requirement of overseas experience with the employer, consideration of variable salary component for meeting salary threshold, enabling multi-customer projects at one time and removal of Immigration skills surcharge. India - UK Joint position paper to enable cross border data transfers; in partnership with techUK & UKIBC: NASSCOM, techUK & UKIBC have come together to create an industry led bilateral -joint position paper to enable cross border data transfers between India & UK. It is an attempt to enhance digital co-operation, deepen the existing technology partnership and ensure ethical access to and effective use of data. An initiative taken ahead of the India-UK FTA discussions. US Quantifying our U.S. policy wins: ~$6 billion per year aggregate industry savings realized due to defeat of proposals in the past 2-5 years that would have mandated higher wage rates, higher fees or imposing additional restrictions. This is excluding our litigation and Administrative wins like National Interest Exceptions Policy Submissions and Meetings with key U.S. Government: Outreach with key U.S. House & Senate Committee staffers for intelligence gathering and disseminating the new industry narrative focused on innovation, U.S. STEM talent development, digital transformation Policy submission to U.S. Department of Homeland Services on streamlining visa process norms Research on industry impact in the U.S. with IHS Markit: Quantifying industry impact on US jobs and incomes, STEM talent, U.S. technology adoption, as well as innovation and start-ups, new tech areas and climate change with an aim to provide critical fact-based ammunition to our various outreach and advocacy activities Impact: Industry new narrative continuously disseminated to U.S. policy makers Prior policy submission' recommendations accepted (e.g., deferring H-1B wage rule). Positive news for U.S. members

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