When the Sensex went from 10k to 20k everyone was rejoicing. Today it stand at half of that and even a swing of 500 points makes people worry. These undoubtedly are difficult times and I believe the situation will be quiet for the next 15-18 months. But new winners will emerge form this both on the services side and on the consumption side.

As far as the BPO and IT industry is concerned, will it continue to march -- yes it will; but will it get the same kind of work -- probably not. This is a wait and watch situation, you need to be patient to see how it all shapes out.

Will this be an opportunity for Indian outsourcing firms...
I believe people will start to think a little more before they just throw work over. My sense is that Europe has been so conservative that this might just drive them to send more. Someone has to do certain types of work. For instance there is a big opportunity in India to build data centres for the world. Problem though is that our infrastructure is still a little bit suspect. We still have power failures, we still have bandhs, or political riots. And yet this work need to be done somewhere, data needs to lie and be supported at some place. And why not India.

All I am saying is that sales cycles could increase, types of projects can change, consolidation of vendors could happen, CFOs and CIOs are going to be very strict about the work that goes out and it is now imperative that outsourcing vendors be robust.