Govt urged to improve Gurgaon infrastructure

NEW DELHI: “Haryana and Gurgaon have the opportunity of becoming the face of India and the premier investment destination but what is needed is a long-term vision, cultural change and education,” said Genpact president & CEO Pramod Bhasin.

Speaking specifically about Gurgaon, he said that the endeavor should be to take out the 'Gaon” from 'Gurgaon' and build up a world-class infrastructure at Gurgaon. He was speaking at the Invest Haryana Summit 2006 Infrastructure: Key to comparative advantage.

According to Bhasin, infrastructure needs a tremendous overhaul and the law and order has also to be looked into. Bhasin said, “The cost of infrastructure is very high and private companies need to work with the government to make Haryana the best state in the country. With time, the Indian BPO industry is facing a lot of challenges like shrinking margins, lack of skilled people, wage inflation, etc. Add to this the infrastructure cost like power, security, etc., we would soon lose our competitive advantage.”

Taking his company's example Bhasin said, “We were among the first BPO companies to set up base in Gurgaon. We came to Gurgaon because of the office infrastructure it provided and the lack of such infrastructure in Delhi. But now we are also moving out to other Indian cities because of the lack of infrastructure in Gurgaon.”

“We are also expanding into other countries. We have our centers in Hungary, Romania, etc. and plan to further expand into Poland and Philippines. Compared to India, cost of infrastructure in China is around 30 percent less. We employ around 1,500 people at our China center and we plan to further increase the headcount to 2,500 soon,” Bhasin added.