The Hindu Business Line : `Give us better infrastructure facilities' — Nasscom summit highlights needs of BPO sector

Mr Kiran Karnik, President, Nasscom; Mr Nandan Nilekani, CEO, Infosys; and Mr Arun Seth, MD, BT ( Worldwide) Ltd; at the Nasscom's India ITES-BPO Strategy Summit 2004 in Bangalore on Wednesday. - - G. R. N. Somashekar

Bangalore , June 9

LACK of proper infrastructure coupled with high attrition rates and inadequate data protection laws were "hitting at the root" of the country's booming IT enabled services and BPO sector, industry chieftains opined at the ITES-BPO Strategy Summit, 2004, on Wednesday. The two-day summit is organised by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom).

Delivering the keynote address, Mr Nandan Nilekani, Managing Director and CEO of Infosys Technologies, said the BPO industry would see further growth if the Government provided good infrastructure.

"Infrastructure is a critical part of the customer's value and supply chain. If our BPO centres cannot be accessed by good roads and do not have regular power supply; you are hitting at the root of success we intend to achieve," he said.

The BPO industry that created 70,000 jobs last year is expanding into smaller towns and that depended largely on the quality of the infrastructure, he added.

Stating that business process outsourcing was based on reputation, Mr Nilekani called upon the industry to deliver quality work.

"We're in a situation where customer expectations are going up and we have to invest in people to make this industry successful," he said, adding that the main challenge was how to attract and retain people.

Highlighting the infrastructure constraints, Mr Arun Seth, Managing Director, BT (Worldwide) Ltd, said the sector's concern was also the lack of manpower in the middle management level.

"The challenge is how do you produce a 10-year scotch in two years," Mr Seth said, pointing out that there was abundance of fresh recruits and also at the CEO levels, but a vacuum in mid-level managers at the operational level.

Mr Seth said that the increasing wages were eroding the cost-competitiveness of the Indian industry.

"Other countries are catching up and we can't be complacent. One has to look at areas such as telecommunications, where presently costs are high and try to bring down costs to make up for high salaries," he said.

Mr Kiran Karnik, President of Nasscom, said the Indian outsourcing industry was performing well despite the infrastructure bottlenecks but the performance could be enhanced if the Government were to address these issues. "Give us airports, roads, power and local transportation and after this the government can leave us alone. We are doing well enough," he said.

Later speaking at a session, Mr Raman Roy, Chief Executive, Wipro Spectramind, said the raging price war among Indian vendors would have a long-term impact on the industry. "In the short-term, the price wars may not hurt because there is huge business, but the long-term competitiveness will definitely be hurt," he added.

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