The government said on Wednesday that it will soon bring in amendments in the existing legislations dealing with the business process outsourcing industry to inspire confidence among investors and silence the detractors.
"Within the next few months, we will remove all the lacunae in laws covering the BPO industry, especially regarding data protection, to inspire confidence among investors," secretary in the Department of IT, K K Jaswal, said while releasing India's first book on BPO laws, authored by Supreme Court advocate Pavan Duggal.
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Since BPO is the fastest growing segment in the ITeS industry with an export turnover of $3.6 billion in 2003-04, there are many detractors attempting to inhibit its growth by saying the laws dealing with the sector are inadequate, he said.
"A legislative initiative is on the anvil and the amendments, filling all the gaps in the existing laws dealing with the sector, will silence the critics," Jaswal said.
Kiran Karnik, president of National Association of Software and Services Companies said data privacy, network security and intellectual property rights are the biggest challenges facing the BPO industry.
The laws covering BPO need to be strengthened with cases of misuse of data, identity thefts and hacking coming to light he said, adding BPO industry should follow "trustworthy sourcing" practices, which are reliable and superior in quality.
Judiciary and police should be updated about the changes so that they are not 'mystified' by the cases of identity thefts, hacking and spamming.