KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) is not a mere extension of BPO. The core essence of KPO, is not about delegating or sending away processes in order to focus on core competencies. The premise of KPO is to include into a global delivery team, the required skills that support and guide strategies for an organization’s core processes. Therefore where BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) seeks to exclude processes (i.e. send them away), Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) seeks to include talent. The “inclusive” philosophy of KPO is driven by the global availability of skills and the simultaneous diffusion and aggregation of knowledge across multiple geographies. Cost-reduction is an additional benefit that organizations happen to derive from including talented people from lower cost geographies. Access to domain knowledge is undoubtedly the key driver for Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO).

India with its knowledge base and lower costs will be leading the pack in the race for Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) businesses. According to a report by Evalueserve, India will capture more than 70% of the Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) territory by 2010.

Today India's healthcare outsourcing industry stands transformed with the steady migration of services to the higher-end of the value spectrum. The traditional knowledge-intensive yet non-core health information management activities such as medical transcription, medical coding, revenue cycle management and claims processing have created a robust foundation for the growth of a wide spectrum of healthcare services offshoring to India. The offerings of service-providers now also include higher-value activities such as diagnostic services, telemedicine, telepathology, teleradiology, clinical data management and disease management. India today is a force to reckon with in the higher-value functions of drug discovery, research and development and clinical research. Contract Research Organizations (CRO’s) cater to the outsourcing requirements of global pharma by offering a wide range of clinical development services, from expertise in bioavailability and bioequivalence studies to clinical trial management and monitoring, data operations, reporting, and regulatory support. Large IT and BPO service providers such are also providing services like data management, programming, statistics and reporting. With growing maturity of the sector, industry players anticipate India to focus on untapped market segments, including healthcare customer services, e-learning, healthcare knowledge management etc. A futuristic vision of the medical outsourcing industry envisages Indian doctors offering real time consultation on operations done in US hospitals.