Bangalore: Manpower shortage in India's high potential, high-growth ITES-BPO industry by 2009 is estimated to be 2.62 lakh people, officials said.

ITES-BPO (Information technology enabled services-business process outsourcing) employee base has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 52.6 per cent, from 42,000 in 2001-02 to 3,48,000 in 2004-05, according to NASSCOM estimates.

According to NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service companies), ITES-BPO exports recorded revenues of USD 5.2 billion in 2004-05, a growth of 44.5 per cent. The industry body has forecast these exports to grow at 41 per cent to reach US$7.3billion in the current financial year (2005-06).

At the two-day India ITES-BPO strategy summit 2005 which commenced here, Planning Commission's Member-Secretary Rajeeva Ratna Shah pointed out that manpower requirement in India in this sector is expected to be 10.03 lakh; the workforce would fall short by 2.62 lakh.

Noting that human resources is the key factor in this industry, NASSCOM's President Kiran Karnik said an assessment and certification programme would be rolled out on a pilot basis soon to help create an employable talent pool with benchmarked-requisite skills, and architect an effective "assessment and certification framework."