Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO), one of the fastest growing industries in the field of outsourcing, is expected to be a $17 billion industry by 2010.
According to industry experts, India's present dollar billion KPO industry is slated to target a market share of more than 70 percent translating into a $12-14 billion industry in five years.
Talking to the media on the sidelines of a seminar hosted by Nasscom on From BPO to KPO and Beyond, Sam Balaji, managing director, Deloitte Consulting India Pvt Ltd, said, "This is an explosively growing market globally. We have around 25,000 people employed in this industry and this is going to grow tenfold by 2010."
He further added that fields like market research, business intelligence, analytic research and IP intelligence, etc. constitute KPO.
Earlier at the seminar, panelists discussed the challenges and weaknesses of the Indian industry in the wake of the growing opportunity.
Uma Parameswaran, CEO, SciTech Patent Art Services said, "Though India stands to be the world's third largest brain bank where 2.5 million technical professionals exist, we still lack employable quality manpower. Though demand and supply needs differ from vertical to vertical, at some point there exists some deficiency."
Mudit Kulshreshta, associate director-Program Management, Knowledge Services said, "It's not going to be a natural progression from BPO to KPO. There are certain complexities involved, marketability and serviceability issues, selling and pricing models have to be fine tuned, delivery and contract levels could be different."
