| It is important to note that in the year 2003-04, Indian economy overtook Chinese economy. India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in the third quarter of 2003-04 is estimated to be at 10.4 %, higher than that of all emerging economies. Today, India is the second fastest growing economy in the world with a GDP of 8.4 %. Indian economy is diverse and still gets large chunk of income from agriculture, handicrafts, textile, manufacturing, and multitude of services. Although two-thirds of the Indian workforce still earns their livelihood directly or indirectly from agriculture sector, service sector is also growing and is playing a vital role in growth of India’s economy. It is noteworthy that India is the second largest software exporter in the world and its large business houses and public sector units are growing rapidly towards raising economic growth. The service sector in India is contributing to about 51% of the GDP. One of the most important factors in the growth of service sector is outsourcing of IT related services. Computer software export was prominent with a growth rate of around 40-50% per year during the 90s. The advent of computer and a large number of educated English speaking population is gradually transforming India as an important outsourcing destination for global companies for the outsourcing of their customer service and technical support. The participation of outsourcing and IT related services is playing a vital role in growth of Indian economy. IT enabled services and Business Process Outsourcing have been growing rapidly in the recent past and will continue to rise. India’s large number of English speaking skilled manpower has made India a major exporter of software services and software workers. NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service) India’s “voice” pertaining to IT, announced India’s BPO huge chunk of revenue contribution amounting to $6 billion and in the overall brought to a close a whopping $23 billion for India’s entire software industry last year. The outsourcing sector alone contributed an astounding 90% in the country’s revenue for the Fiscal year 2006-07. At this time, it is important that India sees BPO in a larger perspective, than the internet, as India’s share is just $3.5 billion in December 2004 compared to the global market of US $178 billion. |
