14 June : IT major Wipro’s chief Azim Premji on Friday cautioned the industry that competition globally is hotting up and warned the sector against falling into a mind trap of ‘India Advantage’."We have talked a lot about India advantage. That makes me extremely worried. It’s a huge amount of thumping on the back (by Indian IT industry)," Premji said at the fifth India Innovation Summit 2009, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.
He said BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) exports from the Philippines this year would be pretty close to that of India’s.Five years ago, BPO exports from the Philippines were probably 10 per cent of what India exported.That shows that competition is universal and "we just cannot take success for granted", he said.
The growth of India’s IT exports has come down to 12-14 per cent in 2008-09 from a compounded annual growth rate of 30 per cent-plus till the previous year.If one went by guidance of leading companies and less-leading ones, growth is going to be a huge challenge in 2009-10.
Echoing Premji, Infosys CEO S Gopalakrishnan said: "We have to be always on our toes. We cannot be complacent about the lead we have, we cannot be complacent about competition".