Jainder Singh, Secretary, Union Ministry of Communication & IT on Monday exhorted the IT Inc to move up the value chain in order to combat the four-pronged attack being faced by the sector.

Addressing the BangaloreIT.in here, Mr Singh said wage inflation, rising real estate prices, shortage of skilled manpower and appreciating rupee, were all causing serious concern, specially to the BPO and ITeS sectors.
Stating that rising costs as a result of escalating realty prices and wage inflation could be countered by expanding their operations into Tier II and Tier III cities, Mr Singh said setting up of finishing schools through industry-academy partnerships could help in addressing the dearth of quality talent pool that the sector faces.

Further, Mr Singh observed that moving to smaller cities would not only enable decongesting of the bigger cities but also result in a more balanced regional development.

Pointing out that the appreciating rupee had also impacted exports, Mr Singh said companies could address the issue through developing innovative strategies and tapping markets like European and Japanese market thereby reducing their dependence on the US-centric markets.

Observing that the IT sector had been a major contributor to the national economy accounting for five per cent of the GDP and 20 per cent to total Indian exports, Mr Singh said IT export revenues were expected to touch $60 billion mark by 2010.

Earlier, Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur flagged off the four-day IT trade fair and conference.