Indian software meet focuses on business outsourcing
Wednesday, 04 February 2004, 20:30 IST
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MUMBAI: India's annual software meet Nasscom 2004 that began here Tuesday will focus on business process outsourcing, an area that has attracted much flak in the US and Britain as it is seen to be taking away jobs from these countries. The event has attracted delegates from several new markets like Canada, Malaysia, Britain, Taiwan, Scotland and Pakistan, Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said. The Indian IT sector, which saw a boom in the last couple of years, has been the cause of major protests in countries like the US and Britain due to outsourcing. Fears of job cuts have led workers to demand a check in outsourcing of work, including call centres, to India. "India has been in the forefront of the outsourcing revolution globally and has today become the most preferred destination for businesses worldwide to meet their outsourcing needs," Karnik said at the start of the meet. "Besides cost advantages, factors such as innovation, quality, productivity, total cost of ownership, suitability and customisation are helping India maintain its lead in the global IT industry." Of the 450 Indian companies that had invested in Britain, three-quarters were in the IT sector, British Minister of State for e-commerce Stephen Timms said. He pointed out the British government was in favour of outsourcing to Indian companies like TCS and Mastek, who have bagged huge contracts. Nasscom has projected IT services exports for 2003-04 would touch $12 billion while the domestic software market's share would be $3.5 billion. In 2002-03, software and services exports touched $9.5 billion and the domestic software market pitched in with $2.7 billion. The industry has registered a growth of 28 percent for fiscal 2002-03 over 2001-02, when it clocked $9.9 billion. Seminars at the meet will be addressed by leading lights of the software industry including S. Ramadorai of TCS, N.R. Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani of Infosys. Wipro's Vivek Paul, Satyam's Ramalinga Raju, Microsoft's Rajiv Kaul and Nasscom executives Karnik, Jerry Rao and Som Mittal too will participate, a Nasscom statement said. Among the international figures are Diana Farrell of McKinsey Global Institute, Gartner's Rita Terdiman and Forrester's John McCarthy.
Source: IANS
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