Indian outsourcing companies should create ombudsman roles and put in place 'whistleblower' policies so that employees can report concerns about how the business is being run. Those are just two of the recommendations that India's NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies) is making in a report released today.

The NASSCOM Corporate Government Report outlines best practices that aim to establish high standards of probity and corporate governance within the Indian IT services and business process outsourcing (BPO) industries. It has been produced by NASSCOM's Corporate Governance and Ethics Committee, established last year against the backdrop of the Satyam scandal and chaired by Infosys founder, non-executive chairman and 'chief mentor', NR Narayana Murthy.

Among the key areas the report focuses on is company structure, and in particular, the independence of non-executive directors from a company's executive management.

The report also recommends that companies adopt a 'code of conduct' with customers, in areas such as data security and intellectual property protection, and also with employees, including promoting learning, equal opportunities and appropriate grievance handling.

Commenting on the report, NR Narayana Murthy said, "The IT-BPO sector goes beyond just regulatory compliance and involves robus governance practices and ethical behaviour, which not only hinges on the functioning of the board, but also on how various, interconnected building blocks of the ecosystem work together. I am convinced that, with these guidelines, the Indian IT-BPO industry will become the flag bearer for the best practices in corporate governance across sectors."