• 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.

... contd.