Outsourcing industry will continue to grow: Cognizant head (Interview)
By T.S.V. Hari
Chennai, Aug 17 Despite the global economic slowdown and bad publicity against the
industry, India's outsourcing sector would retain its high growth rate, says R.
Chandrasekaran, president of Cognizant India, a leading global and business process
outsourcing (BPO) company.
The number of foreign companies outsourcing jobs to India is increasing geometrically,
the industry leader told IANS in an interview.
According to him, lower salaries, compared to the global standards, is the unique
selling proposition (USP) of India. However, he added: "On the global GDP linked purchase
power parity grid, India is the fourth country ahead of Germany, the UK, Italy, Canada
etc, according to the listings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World
Bank. Doesn't that indicate something?"
Chandrasekaran also expressed confidence that India would catch up with the global pace
in the IT industry and technological advancement.
"From mobile telephony that helps us keep track of vehicles that ferry our associates
from home to jobs, to application of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), Nano and
virtualisation methods, all in their infancy globally, our research is on a par with the
world," he said.
Asked about the computer hardware prices, he said prices would come down further in two
years as all "aspects of life will depend on computing per se" by that time.
While he pointed out the crippling shortage of electricity in the country and
particularly in Tamil Nadu, where Cognizant has units, Chandrasekaran said: "No matter
what the world says, we are happy here. Further, shortages in some form or other are a
global phenomenon."
Despite humble beginnings from a Tamil medium school, Chandrasekaran has built an
empire whose last balance sheet showed an annual profit of $2.13 billion.
Cognizant is the second company in India to have been accorded the honour of ringing
the Nasdaq (US stock exchange) bell for the start of trade March 5, 2007.
"In 2006, we grew 60 percent but the rising rupee, the global slowdown and competition
have trimmed it almost by half. Yet, our profits are close to $2.8 billion and we are
India's fastest growing services company in IT," Chandrasekaran said.
Asked about the company's efforts to reverse brain drain, Chandrasekaran said he was
one of those who started the process successfully. "Roughly 70 percent of our top people
are the best examples of reverse brain drain," he said.
Chandrasekaran said Cognizant was against making too many attractive offers to students
before graduation as these result in dropouts.
"We invest in R&D in educational institutions, rewarding faculties for
cutting-edge results and encourage systems of education like technical writing, content
management, e-learning to prepare students for the future. Our collaborative ventures in
Manipal have resulted in a new course in pharmacological methods," he said.
Asked about bad publicity against the IT industry, he said: "While our strict
controls, sensitisation methods, constant monitoring have prevented any wrongdoing, some
sections of the media play up minor aberrations as it's fashionable to titillate
underachievers by blaming the smartest guys and girls of India."
--Indo-Asian News Service
tsv/sj/jg
-- IANS
