IT enabled services provider Genpact has been rated as the biggest ITES-BPO company in the country in terms of revenue while WNS Global Services has retained the second spot in the annual rankings given by industry chamber Nasscom.

Nasscom, in its annual third party ITES-BPO companies rankings for FY 06-07 released today, has rated Transworks Information Services as the third biggest ITES-BPO company followed by IBM-Daksh, TCS BPO, Wipro BPO at the fourth, fifth and sixth positions respectively.

The rankings are based on companies' reported revenue for 2006-07.

Other companies featuring in the top 15 list include Firstsource Solutions, HCL BPO, Infosys BPO, EXL Service Holdings, Citigroup Global Services, Aegis BPO Services, HTMT Global Solutions, 24/7 Customer, Mphasis BPO, Nasscom said in a statement.

The list, however, does not include companies having India-based delivery capabilities, but with corporate headquarters located outside India, if they have not shared their revenue from Indian operations, it said.

The ITES-BPO sector grew by 33.5 per cent in the last fiscal contributing USD 8.4 billion to the total software and services exports of USD 31.4 billion.

"The segment continued to grow at a good pace, to record export revenue of USD 8.4 billion in FY07. We expect segment revenue to grow at around 30 per cent next year to clock exports of USD 10.5-11 billion in FY08," Nasscom President Kiran Karnik said.

Karnik said the Indian BPO sector has witnessed significant transformation over the past decade and is now involved in various complex processes.

"Overseas M&A, along with increase in scale and depth of existing service lines, has complemented the growth of this segment," he added.

ITES-BPO employee base also grew to 5,53,000 in FY 07 from 4,15,000 in FY 06.

The domestic market for ITES-BPO grew to USD 1.2 billion in FY 2006-07 from USD 0.9 billion in FY 2005-06.

Courtesy : Expressindia.com

State customs is all set to install Container Scanning Machines (CSMs) at all ports to ensure better security. These sophisticated machines, according to officials, can detect hazardous materials in containers, during customs clearance.

Chief Commissioner of Customs (Gujarat Zone), Ajit Kumar said, “The Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Kandla port is expected to have a CSM by the end of August this year. We later plan to install CSMs gradually at all other ports in the state.” After Nhava Sheva port in Mumbai, Kendal will be the second port in India to have a CSM, Kumar added.

CSM is primarily a digital scanner of very high resolution and can spot explosives — including RDX — weapons or any other suspicious material inside a container.

It can screen sealed containers, when they are off-loaded and taken out in trucks, and can easily spot suspicious items inside them. “Suspicious material in the container, if any, can be seen clearly on the LCD screen attached to the machine,” Kumar explained.

Normally, it is difficult to detect explosives, prohibited materials in cargo and unexploded shells mixed with scrap metal consignments imported from other countries.

A senior customs officer, requesting anonymity, said, “It is virtually impossible to open every container and search manually. On an average, we search only 10 to 50 per cent of the cargo, depending on the nature of information about what it contains.”

Sources in Kandla customs said that in the absence of any specialised scanning device, they take the help of Army experts to search for explosives in suspicious cargos, particularly transshipment cargos and those about whom the department has specific information.

"Considering that the manual checks are not 100 per cent foolproof, we cannot rule out the possibility of consignment, which may contain explosives, contrabands or other prohibited materials, getting cleared by us,” the officer added.

Courtesy : Expressindia.com