The Hindu Business Line : Nasscom sends rep to UK to manage `sting' fallout

Nasscom today sent its representative to London to manage the fallout of a Channel 4 documentary on alleged consumer data theft from Indian call centres, to be aired on Thursday.

This comes even as Nasscom officials said that they were awaiting response from Channel 4 to its request seeking assistance in taking action against the data theft.

Mr Sunil Mehta, Vice-President of Nasscom, has been sent to London to create awareness through the British media about the measures taken by the Indian BPO industry to adhere to global standards.

Meanwhile, Nasscom is going ahead with its plan to roll out the Nasscom Assessment of Competence (NAC) from November 2006.

The industry body had roped in British Council to do pilot tests, which were completed recently.

Nasscom has short-listed three partners for conducting these certification tests across the country, which is aimed at creating a robust and continuous pipeline of talent by transforming the trainable workforce into an employable workforce.

The Indian ITES-BPO industry has been on a high-growth path, clocking revenues of $6.3 billion in 2005-06.

In a bid to address the security concerns of the BPO segment, Nasscom has also set up a national skills registry, which is an online registry of employees working in various call centres across the country.

The registry will contain employees' professional history, educational and personal background.

The data is validated by an independent third party and is aimed at creating a secure environment against misuse of employee IDs.

Twenty-four BPO and ITES companies and 24,000 employees have already registered.

Nasscom is also setting up an industry regulatory body that proposes security standards which companies can chose to adhere to.

On Monday, Nasscom had said that any allegations of security breach would be dealt with seriously.

It urged the channels - Star News (India) and Channel 4 - to fully co-operate with Indian authorities to locate the "corrupt staff" in Indian call centres.

"We are concerned about the veracity of such stories, especially sting operations, where monetary inducements are provided," said Mr Kiran Karnik, President of Nasscom.

"These operations increasingly go beyond uncovering wrong-doing and actually induce criminal activity that is then recorded and aired. Such stories go to prove the lengths to which some vested interests will go to threaten this global industry with its reputation for customer value and security. This situation is particularly grave, since one of the alleged criminals has stated that the data he offered for sale was fake."

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