KPO next hot thing for professionals

THE Indian IT sector plans to strike it rich in a new breed of high-end knowledge-based outsourcing as global corporations move process like data and intellectual property researches to offshore locations, a report from Mumbai said on Sunday.

This new breed of knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) comprises companies providing higher-end research and analytical based services to overseas clients in a wide spectrum of business areas.

These include basic data research, integration and management, market research, equity research, engineering design, animation and simulation, medical content and services, remote education and publishing. Other areas with significant latent potential for KPO include pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and intellectual property research. According to Nasscom, the total market size of KPO business in India may rise to a staggering $15.5 billion, up from $1.2 billion now.

Says R. Sivadas, Director and CEO of Scope e-Knowledge Centre, "Although very few Indian companies are working in this space now, KPO will be one of the major segments of the outsourcing business in terms of creation of new jobs and generation of billions of dollars in business." — IANS