Terrorism, Outsourcing, Bangalore, Security
Terrorist attack raises concerns for India's outsourcing sector
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A retired mathematics professor was killed and four others injured after unidentified gunmen opened indiscriminate fire in the campus of Bangalore's Indian Institute of Science (IISc) late Wednesday evening.
Terrorists may have targeted Bangalore, the center of India's thriving bpo industry, as a way to cripple the burgeoning economy. Officials suspect Islamist terror outfits. The Lashkar-e-Toiba, a jihadist group that aims to drive India out of Kashmir, is a prime suspect, but Bangladesh-based terror outfits are also considered potential culprits. India's security experts have been warning for months that it was only a matter of time before terrorists attacked Bangalore in a bid to weaken the country's booming technology sector.
As companies within the outsourcing sector could become targets, a wake-up call has been heard. Representatives of bpo companies including Genpact, IBM and Convergys attended a high-profile meeting on Saturday organized jointly by the CII and the Call Centre Association of India (CCAI), to address security issues facing the industry.
Just two weeks earlier, Bangalore was rocked by the rape and murder of a female call center employee. The entire BPO industry in the region was part of the meeting, and there has been a consensus on greater emphasis on security issues pertaining to women employees, and the physical security of the building.
The terrorist attack on a scientist at the Indian Institute of Science campus and the murder of a BPO employee has made the IT industry more wary of its security practices.
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