US business advocacy group says disruption in India's BPO would impact FDI

WASHINGTON:

A disruption in India's BPO industry, which provides critical customer and technical support to US' health and emergency services, would have a negative impact on FDI, an India-centric US business advocacy group has said.

As India moves towards "Janata curfew" in view of the coronavirus crisis and other similar measures like work from home or stay at home at mass level, the US-based business advocacy group insisted that there is a need to look into the provision of providing some kind of exemption to those call centres and services in India that are providing crucial support to America's critical cell centres.Such a disruption would have an impact on future investment in India and a messaging that these services should be brought back to the United States, Mukesh Aghi, president of US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum, told PTI.

The annual revenue of India's BPO industry is said to over USD 10 billion and gives employment to hundreds and thousands of youths.

"The economies are so interlinked now that you have to have some kind of a policy where all countries supporting each other. For example, India provides almost 30 per cent of the generic (medicine) to the US and they should not get impacted.

"Now the challenge India has is that a large chunk of API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) comes from China. So, it's a complex issue and that has to be worked out within India, the US and China to make sure that critical drugs are being supplied, which are being made in India from raw material coming from China," Aghi said.