The Hindu : Chennai ITeS BPO forum launched

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 20, 2003

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Business

Chennai ITeS BPO forum launched

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI JUNE 19. The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has launched the Chennai ITeS BPO forum here today. The forum will take up issues relating to IT, telecom, education and training sectors. It will also help in building the `Indian IT brand'. The reason for setting up a forum in Chennai, according to Kiran Karnik, President, Nasscom, was that Chennai had been undersold in the IT market, though there had been enough potential. He said Chennai had lots of untold success stories. So to position the city, Nasscom had created the forum to market the city and the State. Chennai will be a mirror of the national forum and it will help in linking the national agent.

Mr. Karnik's perception was that India was way ahead of competition. About the bill passed by the New Jersey Senate to prevent holders of government contracts out-sourcing their businesses abroad, he said it would not affect the Indian IT market. The abundant potential for English language and technical knowledge would generate business for the Indian market. Other States in the U.S. are also threatening to adopt the bill and there were also indications that pressures were building in other markets such as the U.K. and Germany to protect the locals from outsourcing to low-wages locations particularly India. Mr. Karnik who was here to address the forum, told a few journalists that the ITeS market in India, at present, was substantially restricted to call centres.

Even if some activity had taken place in other areas such as medical transcription, engineering and design or other web services, this was seen as being too little to make a significant impact on the overall market or growth. Yet, worldwide, the ITeS sector was highly diversified, holding out promise for diversification into higher value areas.

If the present rates of growth continue in future, then even the employment implications of ITeS growth appear remarkable. According to Nasscom's annual industry survey, the IT software and services industry is projected to employ 6.50 lakh IT professionals by March 2004 against 5.22 lakhs. Worldwide spending on ITeS and BPO was estimated at $ 712 billion in 2001, according to Romi Malhotra, CEO and Managing Director, Scope International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank, U.K.

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