Realizing that the future wealth creation in India would be through knowledge-based industries, ASSOCHAM has repositioned itself as a 'Knowledge Chamber of India'. In this direction, the Chamber has been organising International Summits under the 'Knowledge Millennium Series' focussing on emerging service industries like IT, Biotechnology etc. The Chamber has also proactively taken-up the issues of the Telecom and ITES/BPO industry. To specifically promote the Business Process Outsourcing industry, the Chamber has formed a BPO Steering Committee with representation of industry chieftains, analysts and experts in this field. ASSOCHAM also proposes to form a one-stop information help-desk for all Indian and international companies seeking to know more about this industry.

Over the past one year, ASSOCHAM has refocussed its attention on spreading awareness on the emerging business opportunities in BPO and the value that international companies can gain from outsourcing to Indian vendors. In this direction, ASSOCHAM had organised a National Seminar on 'Business Process Outsourcing: Strategies for Maximizing opportunities, Minimizing costs and Reducing risks' in August, 2002. The Seminar was supported by the State Government of Kerala and Gujarat. At this occasion, the Chamber also released a study on BPO that forecasted these services to usher-in a revolution in India by 2008 on all fronts i.e employment generation, exports and revenues. Our second successful initiative was a National Seminar titled 'Call Centres: Strategic Route for Competitive Edge' in December 2002. Many Indian companies actively participated in this seminar and gained invaluable insight on how their businesses could benefit by using Call/Contact centres. The Third initiative was where ASSOCHAM organised National Conference 'Business Process Outsourcing: Trends and Insights' on July 16, 2003 at Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi. Continuing with its pioneering efforts in these services.

Continuing with its pioneering efforts in these services, ASSOCHAM recently organized "Global CXO & VCs Conclave-2007" at Hotel Taj Mahal on 27th April, 2007. The Conclave saw active participation from Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India with global IT/ ITES Companies like Oracle, SAP, Satyam, Polaris L&T InfoTech, Quatrro BPO Solutions, TCS, OneSource Information Services, Vertex Customer Solutions, Omnia BPO, Wipro Technologies, Prithvi Information Solutions Ltd., Tech Mahindra Limited, Ripple IP Services, Ernst & Young & leading Venture capital companies like Goldman Sachs, Clearstone Venture Partners, Intel Capital China, Sidbi Ventures, Barring Partners, Matrix Partners, Yes Bank Ltd.

Dr. A. K. Lahiri, Chief Economic Advisor & Chairman SEBI Committee on VC and Shri B. N. Satpathy, Economic Advisor, Deptt. Of Information Technology, Government of India were the "Keynote Speaker" to this Global Conclave. A copy of the Backgrounder Paper prepared by ASSOCHAM & Ernst & Young is enclosed for your kind reference.

ASSOCHAM also had the privilege to have Shri Jainder Singh IAS, Hon'ble Secretary, Information Technology, Government of India as the "Keynote Speaket" to "ASSOCHAM BPO/ITES Summit" held on 20th December 2006 at Hotel Le-Meridien, New Delhi with theme "From Cost Arbitrage to Value Creation through Service Excellence". OmniTouch Pte Ltd., Singapore was the Knowledge Partner. The Summit was also addressed by Shri Raman Roy, CMD, Quattro BPO Solutions, Shri Girdhar Gyani, Secretary General, Quality Council of India, Shri K V Rama Mohan, Vice President, Infosys BPO, Shri Sameer Bajaj, Chief Quality Officer, IBM Daksh, Shri Punit Jain, VP, Newgen, Shri Reshan Dewapura, CEO, ICTA, Sri Lanka, Ms. Smita Sapre, Tata Consultancy Services, Ms. Sumit Chadha, CEO, CitiPhone (Citibank).