'Outsourcing' is no longer just about low-skill jobs and call centres. The next big wave involves the outsourcing of high-skilled or 'knowledge' jobs such as accountants, lawyers, engineers and doctors to foreign countries. Knowledge Process Outsourcing, or KPO, is expected to grow faster over the next six years than Business Process Outsourcing, or BPO.

According to a CII study, India would soon become the most preferred destination for KPOs as it grows 46 per cent to touch 17 billion dollars by 2010.

Examples of KPO would include a law firm outsourcing basic case research to paralegals in a foreign country or pharmaceutical firms conducting R&D for new drugs in offshore facilities.

Knowledge Process Outsourcing covers the following streams:

• Pharmaceuticals

• Biotechnology

• ICT

• Legal services

• Intellectual property

• Research and design

• Development of automotive and aerospace industries

In its annual publication Strategic Review 2005, Nasscom has said the high-end activity of knowledge process outsourcing could be worth $15.5 billion by 2010.

There's tremendous scope for those with specialisation in sciences, applied sciences and health care. Biotech graduates and professionals in data search and management will be in demand.

While a BPO job is entirely governed by rules, a KPO job demands human discretion, judgements and clarity in client relationships and decision making.

While BPO providers specialise in managing repetitive and transactional chores like payroll and accounts, KPO covers services such as intellectual property, legal and medical research, pharma, biotechnology-related research and process outsourcing.

Billing rates for KPO are higher at $30-45 per hour compared to just $10-14 in the BPO business.

For clients, outsourcing knowledge-based work could mean significant cost-cutting.

While an American MBA graduate earns $85,000 a year to start with, a mere $12,000 would suffice for his Indian counterpart. A Ph.D in the US could earn something close to $80,000 annually while an Indian Ph.D earns just about $16,000 per annum.

The maximum share of value creation goes to clients. Quality will always be on check as the people working on it are trained professionals. Vendors can assure the US client of a 24X7 work cycle due to the 12-hour time difference between the US and India.