Manpower creation is priority for BPOs

Shyamanuja Das

NEW DELHI: "Take care of our long term needs and we will not bother you asking for short-term sops," the CEOs of top BPO companies seem to tell the new government.

In a quick survey among 20 CEOs of BPO companies in India, on the expectations from the new government, V&D bpOrbit has found that creation of manpower by introducing BPO specific skills training in universities tops the list. It is closely followed by rapid development of power and other infrastructure in major BPO centers.

While only a handful still think that the ‘tax holiday’ should be extended and telecom pricing should come down, few have it on top of their wish list and do not even talk of other monetary incentives. The boys, it seems, have already grown to become men.

Interestingly, as many as 75 percent CEOs feel that the change of guard at center will have no significant impact on the business. About 15 percent feel it would have a negative impact whereas ten percent feel it would have a positive impact.

Most CEOs believe that specific BPO policies of government would have maximum impact on their business than any other policy-related developments like relations with US, or peace in the subcontinent. General direction of economic reforms and exchange rates are the two factors that some think could affect this sector to some extent.

That the overwhelming majority did accept that a specific BPO policy would impact the business means the industry is looking forward to such a policy. "There is need for a national strategy by the government," says Wipro Spectramind Chairman & CEO Raman Roy. "The gameplan should be derived out of that strategy jointly by the government and the industry. The specific tactical steps should emerge out of that," he adds.

According to him, instead of looking at the issues in bits and parts, the country should look at it holistically, if India has to emerge as global services hub. "What we need is a top down approach. Bottom-up will not do anymore," he says.

Reemphasizing the need for rapid development of infrastructure Exl Service CEO Vikram Talwar says, "Overall improvement in roads, power and water is badly needed. Otherwise, economic reforms has been good and should continue."

Infowavz, CEO, Zia Sheikh, chips in with the comment stating, "The Government needs to take up the education and training very seriously and start evolving our school and college education to more job-oriented rather than just theoretical." Clarifying thus that the country needs to look beyond just English speaking and develop specifics like finance, accounting and legal skillset.

Another young CEO–Tecnovate’s Prashant Sahni, echoes his thoughts. "Help India create a sustainable human capital differential in the Industry by investing in generic as well as special skills education across the country," is his advice.

However, according to ProcessMind MD Nimish Soni, NIIT SmartServe President R Venkatesh Iyer and, CEO CMS at GTL Aparup Sengupta, before doing anything the government should realize the fact that this can do what farm and industry were expected to do earlier–job creation. This is echoed by the comments of both.

While, vCustomer CEO Sanjay Kumar believes that the perceived stability of the new government will greatly influence the industry Transworks CEO Prakash Gurbaxani expects that the reforms would continue. Hinduja TMT CEO R Mohan also echoes the same sentiment.

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