Time to create business models centered around India

Pragati Simlote

NEW DELHI: Overtime India has become a dominant IT player in the global arena.

Currently the work being undertaken by Indian companies is such that they become just an extension of business models being driven outside India. But with Indian IT companies moving up the value chain that day is not far enough when a number of Indian companies would create business models centered around India. The time is not far where Indian companies will drive the business model.

One such example is the recent boom in educational services outsourcing (ESO) in India where online tutoring and homework help is provided for overseas students. Students get live one-on-one assistance to excel at School/ College and in competitive exams.

President and CEO for MindTree's IT services business Krishnakumar Natarajan said, “A personal tutor in US costs around $40-45 per hour and content also becomes very different. But today information like what is the curriculum in US, how do you increase you SAT scores, etc. is in the public domain. So people are building content for that and the tutor sits in India and there is an online chat. This has become possible due to the technology and bandwidth available in India and all this comes at one-fourth the cost in US.”

The company recently secured $2 million in series A round funding. The round was led by Sequoia Capital India and includes prior angel investors.

Another area, which can be tapped by Indian companies, is that of administrative and secretarial support, which is also being increasingly outsourced to India. Natarajan said, “Today executives don’t have admin at their own location. Why should they pay $30,000-$40,000 when they can have an independent secretary at a monthly fee of around $250.There can be a person sitting in a remote location that takes care of all the administrative activities. So there can be different business models where the whole service delivery becomes out of India but in a virtual mode and communication and technology is going to enable that.”

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