You can’t miss the glint in CEO Pramod Bhasin’s eyes as he describes the BPO sector as the “most exciting employment opportunity in any industry I have seen”. He also says the BPO sector is perhaps the “most misunderstood industry”, hitting the headlines more often for its young workforce’s nightlife, cybercrime like identity theft and phishing, and overspeeding by cabs transporting its employees than the dollars it has earned or the jobs it has created.

He also described the facilities provided to employees and invited the authorities to visit Genpact’s office before issuing regulations aimed at improving the health of BPO employees. The appreciating rupee, the U.S. sub-prime crisis, the looming economic uncertainty, and rising wages in India continue to cause concern for the sector. Over the course of an hour and a half, Bhasin described the phenomenon that is rocking the world and fielded queries from Express staff. Excerpts . . .

PRAMOD BHASIN: I remain convinced that one day this industry (the BPO sector) is going to become India’s largest private-sector employer. Unlike the information technology industry, we take people from all backgrounds for every type of work. It involves back-office as well front-office work and I think the range of opportunities that it presents to a country is phenomenal. At Genpact, we have all kinds of people — economists, MBAs, PhDs, and simple graduates with English and math skills. We then provide them training for voice skills, accounting, and even U.S. GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), because there is no other way you can get trained resources. We have around 300 trainers and virtually run a small university.

The industry is booming and it will continue to boom. It has changed the way companies work. I think there is scope for moving up the value chain and in building real competencies. On the opportunities front, I feel that globally, this industry would be in the range of $ 200-300 billion. So, we have barely scratched the surface. Talent and infrastructure is clearly a big challenge.

• PRAGATI VERMA: You say talent and infrastructure are your biggest challenges. What about rupee appreciation?

It’s not that much. It’s an old phenomenon. When I went to England to study, the pound was worth $ 2.41. It dropped to $1.31 and later went back up to $ 2.10. These things happen. It is a challenge, as it puts pressure on our costs. But there are multiple levers for increasing productivity. There are other costs we can reduce, like telecom and hiring costs. I also think that people worry about the differentiation in salaries going down, but there is some simple math I will do for you. If I were to give a salary increase of 15 per cent to someone who earns $ 3,000-4,000 a year, it’s about $ 600 a year. That is still lower than a five per cent salary increase to someone in the U.S. who earns $ 40,000 a year in absolute terms. So the gap continues to expand for a period of time. There will be pressure, but it is manageable.

• PRAGATI VERMA: So do you feel rupee appreciation is getting more attention than it deserves?

I think it is getting a lot more attention. The government is focussed on it, which is how it should be. We are hedged for two-three years, so we know exactly what our dollar costs will be. That’s the benefit of having GE as a parent. We didn’t have a choice; we were hedging even when the rupee was depreciating. It was a policy. When you have revenues in dollars and costs in rupees, you hedge. We are not in the foreign currency business. We are in the business-process business, so we are hedged up.

• ANURADHA NAGARAJ: What makes you think of going to smaller places? Is the talent in metros not enough?

No, talent in the metros is more than enough. Sometimes we create our own problems. We recruit people and bring them to Gurgaon, Bangalore, or Hyderabad. Firstly, we are already hiring from all over India. Secondly, these smaller cities have enough people. I mean a small city in India has two million people. I want to set up a 3,000-person centre, so how difficult would that be? Will they need some specialised training? Perhaps. Will they need some more training? Perhaps. When we first opened our centre in Jaipur, we couldn’t hire more than 30 people. Today, we can hire 300 per month. Smaller cities also offer lower cost, lower attrition, more stability. Transportation is easier. Above all, life is generally easier.

• VARUN JAITLY: After BPO, we are hearing about KPO (or knowledge process outsourcing). What next?

I don’t buy any of that stuff. I don’t think any of that is relevant. In fact, I think it is a combination of business process and technology — and we do KPO and BPO. Companies don’t come to you and say I’ll buy a little bit of KPO and a little bit of BPO. These are terms we have coined here and you’ll find that it will continue. People will look for specialisation and you can specialise in finance, accounting, banking, or pharma.

But you cannot say that I am a BPO specialist: nobody knows what’s that and customers don’t care. Will there be niches that will come up? Absolutely, hundreds of them — like legal processing. But it all requires specialisation and real domain knowledge. So in these areas there will be lots of options. That’s the joy of this. It has unleashed so much entrepreneurship that is fantastic.

• VRISHTI BENIWAL: What do you think of the recent statements from the Union Health Ministry on the need for regulation of employee health in BPOs?

I would love government officials to come over to my office so that they get the real view of life in a BPO. And I am talking about the broad BPO sector. If you look at the top companies in BPO, with the demand for employees so strong, no company could afford not to take care of its employees. Our employees are our only assets. Rather than regulation, we would love to engage government officials through Nasscom and say, okay, what is it that you are worried about? Do you think the likes of IBM, Accenture, Infosys, Goldman Sachs and so on do not provide appropriate facilities to their employees? I don’t think so. We have a health clinic downstairs for our employees.

• ANURADHA NAGARAJ: What was the thought process at the time when you started?

We have been much more successful than I had thought it would be. We never dreamt it would create one more industry, not only here but in the entire developing world. Other countries are really chasing now what India has created. Vietnam, China and South Africa are really getting into the act now and following what India has done. It wasn’t such a huge event, and not a big idea that we’ll create the outsourcing industry. It was more like saying that India has enormous intellectual talent. We are providing services for ourselves today, so why can’t we provide services to the rest of the world. We started from a small place. However, soon we realised that this was a huge winner. Capabilities, especially in the areas of finance, accounting and customer services, and collections, were fantastic. Within a few years, we kick-started it and it jumped exponentially. People soon began to realise the potential and the opportunity.

• PRAGATI VERMA: Can the sub-prime crisis in the U.S. impact the off-shoring momentum of the financial services industry? Can U.S. elections cause a slowdown?

I think the nature of your customers is very important. Typically, our financial services clients are blue-chip. Of course, our clients like GE Capital get hurt by such issues, but they do not change their business outlook or long-term prospects. They are not going from boom to bust. Our exposure to that is very small; it could have been larger. But it’s tiny and we are fortunate. People will start accelerating off-shoring. They need the money and savings. It will actually accelerate it in the times to come.

Do we expect rhetoric around the U.S. elections in our industry? Absolutely. Are there real issues to deal with as far as job losses in America are concerned? Absolutely, and we as an industry have been very sensitive and try to learn how to handle that. Does it mean that there will be a lasting impact on account of the U.S. elections? No. The U.S. has the most global companies in the world. They buy from all over the world and sell all over the world. So we are going to hear some rhetoric and we need to be sensitive to that.

• VRISHTI BENIWAL: Do you agree that cab drivers of BPOs are becoming a traffic menace?

At Genpact, we are doing our bit to regulate our cab drivers. We offer training and certification programmes for them. We keep them under a tight watch and never allow them to do double shifts. We have elaborate security programmes for our women employees and they always have an escort. I fully agree that traffic needs to be brought under control and we need to do our part. But we can’t do it on our own. We have to work with the police and the driver-training establishment.

• ANURADHA NAGARAJ: You also work in China. How different is the experience?

China is an amazing place. I am glad our ministers go there often. Like Gurgaon, we are the pioneers in Dalian, having started operations eight to nine years ago. The city’s centre street is already a three-lane highway. China has one-window clearances. When we go and talk to the city mayor for visa clearances for our employees, electricity or telecom issues, it’s all done promptly. Nine years ago, Dalian airport was better than Delhi airport. Accessibility from Tokyo is two hours. They are serving a lot of Japanese people. As far as talent goes, attrition is lower there, though English-speaking talent isn’t there. But they are highly efficient and ambitious.

China is making every effort to catch up with India when it comes to education. They are teaching their kids English. When they move, they really move. They have said they want to create 40 Harvard universities. Their government really works as one team.

Here (in India), we have got wonderful people in government who are supportive in all departments. We have different pockets in the government here, but working at different speeds. The difference in China is that they are a very focused people. They work in one direction. It’s a huge and stunning difference. They are now focused on services as being a very important part of their growth story.

• ARJUN JASSAL: Do you think cybercrime is a big threat to BPO’s image globally? Will punitive measures impact the extent of cybercrime?

Cybercrime in India will increase over a period of time. But it is negligible for the kind of work being undertaken here. It has not even crossed half a million dollars. Hardly 20-odd people have been involved in cybercrime. Compare it with the credit card frauds and thefts in India — Rs 10,000 crore. That’s the difference. The police here are extremely fast. Our rules are tough and regulation is strong. We have to make rules real as our clients and auditors are watching us.