Indian politicians and software executives have accused Britain of waging a low-intensity trade war by exaggerating the threat of security breaches in the country's fast-growing call centre industry. The US$5.2 billion (S$9 billion) industry is reeling from allegations that an IT employee in Delhi sold confidential data involving 1,000 UK banking customers.
The scandal, prompted by a news story in The Sun, a tabloid newspaper in the UK, followed the recent theft of US$350,000 from Citibank account holders by call centre workers in Pune. It lead to fears of a protectionist backlash in Western countries. With 40 per cent growth, the call centre industry is expected to generate more than 100,000 jobs in India this year.
Mr Arun Jaitley, a senior leader of the BJP Hindu nationalist opposition, said that Thursday's report in The Sun was part of a campaign to 'undermine' Indian competitiveness as an offshore destination by exaggerating security risks.
The Economic Times, the leading business daily in India, accused The Sun of 'Indiaphobia'. The front page of yesterday's Sunday Pioneer also hinted at racism, with its main headline reading: 'It's just a Sun tar lotion for India.'
Mr Mohan Kaul, director-general of the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC), said: 'Because India captures the bulk of global offshore outsourcing deals, the probability of such cases happening there is higher.'
The CBC, an organisation that promotes business activity across the Commonwealth, announced a partnership yesterday with Scotland Yard to tackle financial crime. It said far worse cases had occurred elsewhere.
'The ones in India are negligible compared with some other incidents involving millions of dollars,' Mr Kaul said.
The Sun alleged that Mr Kharan Bahree, 24, sold a CD containing supposedly secret information on 1,000 accounts, claiming to have obtained it from corrupt call-centre workers. The information included passwords, credit card numbers, addresses and security questions. Mr Bahree allegedly boasted to The Sun that he could sell 'as many as 200,000 account details a month'.
