This year at the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum, the agenda for the last day during the Valedictory Session was made a spontaneous questions and answers session - questions that had been pouring in through the NASSCOM EMERGE Blog. While there were just so many we could handle during the session, there were still lots waiting to be answered.
Here are a few of them answered:
Question: India should not assume KPO boom as a natural evolution after IT boom, KPO boom may elude India altogether unless the India (NASSCOM!) charts out a clear action plan eg. setting up Universities which provide industry specific domain knowledge much the same way as IT knowledge is being provided. Are our leaders/ govt really working towards facilitating KPO boom or expecting it more by way of a right?
Ganesha: BPO is itself a large opportunity and KPO is only one aspect of it. The new budget will provide an impetus to the creation of talent which is so essential for this sector and industry will work with NASSCOM to ensure that the right ecosystem is created to sustain the momentum.
Question: Over the last 2-3 years there is a change in which we look at our resources in the Indian BPO industry. From cheap labour, today we are talking about skilled labour and output Indian employees give to their respective firm. My question is, with the deprecitaion in the US Dollar rate v/s Indian rupee and with labour getting expensive in India in the BPO industry, ho wwell will this theory help to retain jobs in India when countries like SA, Phillipines, etc are offering cheaper labour and equal skilled staff in the coming decade.
Ganesha: It is a very valid question and with all the sops being given by competing countries, we may not be able to compete only on costs for much longer. Good processes, superior quality, innovation and superior capability of manpower will all need to be there to sustain and increase our competitive advantage.

More coming up....