BPO sector defends itself: says fraud cases negligible
New Delhi: The President of the Call Centre Association of India, Sam Chopra, responding the sting operation conducted by UK's Channel 4 on data theft occurring in Indian call centres, said, "Frauds in the Indian BPO industry account for a fraction of data theft globally. Data security is a matter of concern, however such cases exist in minuscule numbers across all industries and any generalisation on the entire industry based on a particular incident would be unfair."

He said that unless the UK TV channel names the companies concerned, it would be difficult to take any action. On the issue of data protection within the Indian BPO industry, the managing director of Dell International Services, Romi Malhotra, said, "In comparison to the US and UK, the cases of fraud in Indian BPO sector are much less."

When asked if the previous cases of data theft had raised any concerns in the US and other countries for outsourcing in India, he said that it had not affected the confidence of people in the West towards India. Some time ago, the Nasscom president too had dismissed concerns about data protection, saying that the numbers were too small, but the issue was being addressed with all seriousness.
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Cabinet gives go ahead for six-laning of 6,500 km of NH
New Delhi: The Government has given the go ahead for six-laning of 6,500 km of National Highways (NH), comprising 5,700 km of Golden Quadrilateral (GQ), at a cost of Rs41,210 crore of which (Rs35,692 crore would come from the private sector and Rs5,518 crore as viability gap funding, utility shifting, land acquisition, etc Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told newspersons after the CCEA meeting.

The projects would be taken up on a build, operate, transfer (BOT) mode following a design, build, finance and operate (DBFO) pattern, with a maximum of 10 per cent viability gap funding, he added.

The cost of projects under NDHP-V has been estimated at Rs6.34 crore per km, comprising Rs5.78 crore per km for construction and Rs0.56 crore per km for land acquisition, utilities, consultancy, etc., he added.
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PM pitches in for an open legal sector
New Delhi: The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, has advocated a "more open legal sector" in the country and has said that expertise in international law, commercial law and third country law is necessary as the Indian economy increasingly integrates with the global economy.

He also emphasized the need for establishing an accreditation mechanism for hospitals and laboratories even while pointing out that health services are an emerging area that hold immense potential for India.

Dr Singh said the country's educational system must be expanded to translate the "demographic dividend" into a "development dividend".

He said the Government would soon set up a high level group in the Planning Commission to look into all aspects influencing the performance of the services sector and suggest policy measures that would need to be taken to sustain its competitiveness in the coming years.
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6th Pay Commission constituted
New Delhi: The central government has constituted a four-member Sixth Pay Commission headed by Justice B N Srikrishna, which will recommend revision of wages for nearly 33 lakh central government employees.

Based in New Delhi the commission will submit its report within 18 months, according to a notification issued by the department of expenditure, ministry of finance, today.

Other members of the commission are Ravindra Dholakia, J S Mathur and Sushama Nath (Member-Secretary).
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