Industry calls for emphasis on education

Priya Padmanabhan

BANGALORE: Although the BPO sector in India is barely a few years old or in

the toddler stage, it is already facing a mid-life crisis, quipped NASSCOM

president, Kiran Karnik. "The industry clocked revenues of over $6 billion

last year. But the industry is only doing one-tenth of what is outsourcable."

He said that the focus of the ITES-BPO summit would be to identify issues and

constraints which may be on the supply side, He touched upon ome of the isssues

that NASSCOM is tackling on the supply-side such as NASSCOM's assessment and

certification program and also working with academic institutions and the

government to see that changes are effected at the school level especially in

areas like language and computer skills.

Pramod Bhasin, president and CEO, Genpact took a more serious view on

education and warned of competition from countries like China. "Other

countries are competing for this business with infrastructure, technology and

marketing rivaling ours. We can't take it for granted that business will come or

way," he said.

He added that China is planning to build 50 Harvard-like universities, which

would have an impact on the industry. "We need to build hundred more IIMs

and graduate more students every year. We need resources like infrastructure,

education, law and order to move ahead," Bhasin said.

Stressing that education must take precedence, he said that the government

and industry should work together on this. He urged companies to focus on

technology and domain expertise.

Karnik said that NASSCOM was working with the Government on the STPI/SEZ

scheme to ensure that taxation environment is conducive to the growth of the

industry.

He also said that the association is planning an initiative called SRO

(Self-Regulatory Organization) which would collect best practices in the BPO

industry and would provide benchmarks akin to the CMM models that IT services

companies follow. "We want companies to improve operational efficiency so

that they can stay ahead of the curve," he said.

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