Thursday, March 24 2005 11:53 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Building on the trust generated over years of delivering offshore IT services, India is now the natural destination for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) in the world, Director General of the Commonwealth Business Council Mohan Kaul has said.

"If a company wants a quality software product to be created, then the leading global software experts are located in India. This is now an accepted fact. The city of Bangalore has become synonymous with technology and other regions, such as Gurgaon have become huge centres of excellence for BPO," he said speaking at the launch of Mark Kobayashi-Hillary's book "Outsourcing to India: The Offshore Advantage" in London last night (Mar 23, 2005).

"BPO alone was worth almost $ 4 billion to India last year, yet these direct gains in sales to Indian companies also generate other effects that assist in the development of the country," he said.

Dr Kaul said the concept of outsourcing to India has been a popular business strategy for several years, however the growth rates in the sector are continuing at a strong pace.

"The software services sector grew in the past year by around 23 per cent and the BPO sector continues to grow at a phenomenal 50 per cent year on year," he said.

Others who spoke on the occasion included Dr Satyabrata Pal, Deputy High Commissioner of India, Pavan Varma, Director, Nehru Centre and author 'The Great Indian Middle Class' and 'Being Indian' and David West, UK Head of NIIT Technologies besides Mark Kobayashi-Hillary, Global Research Director of Commonwealth Business Council Technologies.