Recent fraud case has alerted Kolkata's BPO hub to its security troubles

Ever since the recent BPO fraud, wherein, a young woman working at a call centre was arrested for splurging Rs. 200, 000 with credit cards of her company's US clients, the IT hub in the Salt Lake area is going full throttle to ensure tight security control by involving the police.

As Oney Seal, the Miami-based CEO of Databazaar.com, says, "It is high time we all came together to ensure an all-encompassing cyber security. We must follow best practices and certain standard certification and auditing by authorities like ISO or BS7799 (British Standard),"

"Law enforcement agencies need to be trained in potential areas of security fraud so that when an incident occurs, the police should have some idea of the problem," said Seal, whose company, a wholesale distributor, exporter and e-tailer of computer and printer supplies, has its sensitive back-end office in the IT hub.

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Outsourcing the Drug Industry

By Pete Engardio and Arlene Weintraub

In her swank headquarters just blocks from some of Mumbai's worst slums, Swati Piramal is midway through an impassioned pitch about revolutionizing the world of drug discovery. Sanskrit passages of the Bhagavad Gita, the ancient Hindu text that guides her business philosophy, adorn the office walls of her company, Piramal Life Sciences. Its logo is gyan mudra, a finger gesture used in yoga meditation resembling the Western sign for "A-O.K."

Journey now to Bangalore. After a crawl through the city's notorious traffic and a bone-rattling ride over a cratered road that washes away with each rainfall, the four-wheel-drive van arrives at the glistening, ocean liner-shaped headquarters of Jubilant Biosys. The laboratories inside are world-class. But when equipment fails, repairs often take a week, scientist Ajith Kamath explains sheepishly. Lunch is Domino's pizza with toppings that include corn, Indian paneer cheese, and hot spices. Turns out Jubilant is co-owner of India's Domino's franchise.

At first glance, companies such as Jubilant and Piramal may seem too undeveloped -- or perhaps just too culturally remote -- to rub shoulders with the world's top pharmaceutical makers. But judging from all the deals taking shape in India, they may have a critical role to play in the industry's future. In recent months, Western executives have been flocking to India's hastily built science parks, looking for allies in the never-ending quest to develop blockbuster treatments. With little fanfare, they've started a process that could lead to wide-scale outsourcing of drug research to Asia.

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BPO exports grow 21.4 per cent

NEW DELHI: India's third party business process outsourcing (BPO) services exports in 2007-08 grew 21.4 per cent to Rs.264.23 billion, up from Rs.217.60 billion in the previous fiscal, according to a new study.

In dollar terms, the growth was even more impressive at 36.6 per cent to $6.6 billion, up from $4.8 billion last fiscal, said the study. It ranked Genpact as the No. 1 export revenue earner with revenues of Rs.26.59 billion, up by 19.8 per cent from Rs.22.20 billion that the company earned last fiscal.

Aditya Birla Minacs, the second ranking revenue earning company last fiscal, maintained its rank this year as well. Its revenues grew 3.1 per cent to Rs.15.63 billion up from Rs.15.16 billion last fiscal.

Apart from these two top rankers, the other companies that managed to maintain their ranks this year were Wipro BPO and HCL BPO. Wipro BPO maintained its 7th rank by growing 22.7 per cent to Rs.11.47 billion up from Rs.9.35 billion last fiscal.

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