The government on Wednesday said that attempts were being made to prevent India from taking a lead in the IT and business process outsourcing space.

"Everyone is waiting to see that India does not get a lead in BPO," Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran said referring to a spate of reports portraying the BPO industry in bad light.

He said the BPO industry was the pride of the nation and every thing about it gets blown out of proportion.

Are Indian BPOs slave ships?

Maran advised restraint to the media while dealing with information that seeks to portray the BPO industry in bad light.

"The news might be over but the industry has to face its repercussions for a long time to come," he said after launching HCL's [Get Quote] global integration of "DOT IN" domain and inauguration of the company's new Remote Infrastructure Management Facility.

The BPO industry has been getting a lot of bad press recently. First, it was a series of reports highlighting alleged theft of data from the companies and recently they dealt with the working conditions in the call centres.

While the government has moved proactively to address the concerns of data theft by proposing amendments in the IT Act, the BPO industry has reacted with indignation to the reports alleging that the call centres have been treating their workers like slaves.