Title: Heterogeneity in Indian IT-ITeS industry: is a uniform policy enough?

Authors: Sankalpa Bhattacharjee; Debkumar Chakrabarti

Addresses: Economics and Finance, T.A. Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), Post Bag No. 9, Manipal, Karnataka – 576104, India ' Department of Economics, Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, Belur Math, Howrah – 711202, West Bengal, India

Abstract: The astounding success of India's IT-ITeS industry has identified itself as one of the major strategic areas for future development. Considering the fact that the initial growth of this sector came through software development, policies undertaken for this sector to date exhibit significant software centricity. Based on firm-level granular data, this paper argues that over the period, with the increasing presence of ITeS segment comprising primarily call centres, BPOs and medical transcription units, the IT-ITeS industry as a whole has transformed into a heterogeneous sector. Given the relatively less requirement of technical know-how, the ITeS firms appear to be more suited for the Indian economy that inherits a huge amount of unskilled labour force. Therefore, it is time the policymakers realise the changing dynamics of the industry and take appropriate 'segment-specific' policies so that the industry can sustain its competitive edge.

Keywords: India; software development; information technology industry; IT enabled services; ITeS industry; heterogeneity; policy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2013.054467

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2013 Vol.13 No.3, pp.317 - 342

Published online: 27 Sep 2013 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article