BPM industry seeks Centre's support to spur growth

The country's Business Process Management (BPM) industry, which is set to touch USD 50 billion mark by 2020, has sought the central government's support to spur growth in the sector.
"We are a USD 26 billion industry and looking at USD 50 billion mark by 2020. The Modi government has taken many strides in spurring growth.
"The announcement of the Smart Cities and various steps in the budget to encourage tier II and III locations are steps in the right direction ," WNS Group CEO and Nasscom Chairman (BPM Council) Keshav R Murugesh told PTI here.
He said that many BPM players have invested in new age social media, mobility, Cloud and Analytics (SMAC) led solutions and delivering services with disruptive advancements around the Internet of Things, 3D printing, driver less cars.

"Now, we need large investments by individual companies in the BPM industry in training, language and soft skills, branding, marketing, educational models, partnerships with ecosystem players," Murugesh added.
He said that Centre has been making many announcements that are positive, however, the real impact will be felt in the actual states from where BPM companies deliver.

"A number of states are run by very savvy leaders and all understand that Digital enablement is the way to connect citizens, create jobs, upgrade education models, build the right ecosystem and ensure their tier 3 locations and talent become "world-worthy"," Murugesh added.
He said that the state governments must transform their own thinking and encourage the future BPM models by delivering programmes that can spur the growth of BPM in their state.

Murugesh said that office infrastructure must be made available rent free for BPM players for three-five years to encourage them to create assets.
He said there is need for incentivising small start-ups that are born to service BPM companies as well as new BPM companies.
"States must waive-off tax for a period of five years to such companies. In their initial days, such start-ups would anyway be cash-strapped, so openly incentivising them would only spur more entrepreneurship in the region. Once profitable they would be able to afford taxes," Murugesh said.
According to him, BPM companies in a region should be allowed to work with the colleges and universities so as to create more job-ready talent.