BPO backlash just a blip, says Nasscom chief

Kiran Karnik, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, has expressed confidence that the backlash against business process outsourcing in the US, the UK and elsewhere on the Continent was a temporary blip on the BPO horizon and that this would change once the economies of these countries picked up.

Karnik said that the apex IT association had done several things to address the problem. It was in dialogue with the Indian government; it had written to the governor of New Jersey in the US on the US state's bill to prohibit outsourcing by US companies of New Jersey state work and it had appointed a public relations agency in the US to present the Indian IT industry's case to the US media.

Nasscom had underlined the point that if the costs of US corporations went up, US taxpayers would ultimately bear the burden.

Karnik added that Nasscom had not asked the Indian government to approach the World Trade Organisation's dispute settlement mechanism because, among other things, this was a time consuming process.

Karnik was addressing a group of journalists on Nasscom 2003, the apex IT association's annual business conference which is being held in Mumbai from 11-14 February.

Nasscom 2003, he said, would focus on high growth emerging business areas such as semiconductor design and embedded chips and newer 'verticals' such as retail, utilities and healthcare.

Karnik unveiled the highlights of Nasscom 2003. This year's annual conference would have country forums to help small and medium enterprises identify new markets.

Speakers from the UK, Italy, Canada, Malaysia, Germany and Singapore would make presentations on the IT and communications market scenarios in their countries, present case studies and provide information on market access strategies.

International CIOs and senior executives of companies such as the $62.4 billion American International Group, the $20.1 billion Johnson Controls would speak on strategies and share insights, he said.

International analysts would make presentations on the future of technology and so on.

Two tech gurus would be present at Nasscom 2003. These were Don Tapscott, author of 'Digital Capital: Harnessing the power of business webs' and president of New Paradigm Learning Corporation and chairman of application service provider Maptuit and Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future.

Saffo is a technology forecaster who has done work on radio frequency chips, which may be used in department stores and embedded in clothing, he said.