There will be 40 million new service jobs created bringing in $200 billion revenues to India because of global demand for outsourced services, said Arun Maira, chairman, Boston Consulting Group, while introducing the session on 'Services: New explosion for growth' at the CII national conference and annual session held at New Delhi.

India's opportunity lies in knowledge-based services such as transaction processing, design and analysis, R&D, value-added tourism, and leisure tourism.

He said that India's people could be its assets in capturing this opportunity. However, he emphasized that this could be achieved through action in three critical areas- strengthening professional education and vocational training, improved infrastructure in communication, tourism, healthcare and marketing India as the world's best source for services.

Dr Naresh Trehan, executive director, Escorts Heart Institute & Research Centre said that while India is emerging as a low cost healthcare provider to the world, it is equally important to extend affordable healthcare delivery to the rural masses.

The way forward is through public-private partnerships, he said, while speaking on the topic can India emerge as a low-cost treatment hub. He urged captains of the industry to come forward and adopt public healthcare centres around their work areas, which will bring in huge goodwill at a small expense.

A nurse earns anything between $30,000-50,000 per annum in the West. Currently, there is a shortage of 2,50,000 nurses in Europe, said Trehan, thereby creating opportunities for Indian healthcare professionals other than doctors.

He pointed out that India already has areas of excellence in cardiac care, cosmetic surgery, joint replacements and dental treatment. Five to seven per cent of the patients are coming in from SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries and Medical tourism has the potential to reach Rs10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) by 2012, he said.

Pramod Bhasin, president, GE Capital India said that business process outsourcing in India has the potential to grow at 45 per cent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) with $24 billion revenue by 2008, while speaking on the topic 'The BPO space: Opportunities for higher value addition.'

However, he emphasized that BPO must expand to cover all remote services and not just restrict to call centres. India also needs to develop expertise for niche products and build up the India Inc brand, he said.

Other countries like Hungary, Poland, Russia, Jamaica, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Mauritius are fast catching up, he cautioned.