An In(Ac)cident

Nowadays I am suffering with a fractured elbow making it difficult for me to pursue my daily activities. Initially only good thing with the entire incident was that I could still use my right hand. During all this time I was cursing everything and everyone responsible for this incident. For me this accident turned out to be a good incident when I started realising the potential of one hand. Yes for me it was an incident and a memorable one. This was the time when I realised not just what I cannot do with my impaired left hand but also the true potential of my one working hand. All this time I was not ready to let my work suffer so I kept on attending my office and continued doing my assignments. To my amazement not only I was able to complete my work in time that too with one hand,however, I also realized that in this entire process my pace to complete all the assigned jobs increased in no time and thus I was able to cut my timeline at least by one-fourth. I really wonder the reason behind this change. 

Was it the absence of an alternative or the unused potential?

I believe the reason could be attributed to the combination of both. Since we always have an alternative therefore most of the times our true potential is not maximized. It is so great to imagine  that when one hand of our body can achieve so much then how much our body as a whole can achieve. Sounds obvious, however, this thought is worth pondering. Also it is important to realize that a bit of stooping is not only depriving us to achieve the true potential of our height(read mental height) rather it also stops us from reaching there just because we never took that last step which was very much crucial to help us achieve our dreams and continued practice of such incomplete efforts do compel us to forget our dreams which we had painted in our childhood. Aren't we all forgetting those unrealistic dreams of owning a fleet of cars,our own company,being the most successful man/woman on earth. Didn’t we promise ourselves that though we did build castles in the air,however, we shall lay the foundations underneath those huge dreams. How can we let those dreams vanish just because we don’t find the way to lay foundations under those beautiful castles. Aren’t we doing the same mistake on which we have a very famous hindi joke.(To keep the essence alive am writing this in Hinglish).

Ek aadmi ek din ghar ke bahar street light mein kuch dhoond raha tha, tabhi ek raahgeer wahan aaya aur usne uss aadmi se puchcha.

Rahgeer:  Arre bhai kya dhoond rahe ho.

Aadmi:     Mera 1 rupaye ka sikka kahin kho gaya hai.

Rahgeer: Sikka kahan khoya tha.

Aadmi :   Ghar ke andar.

Rahgeer: (Hanste hue): Arre sikka ghar ke andar khoya hai toh bahar kyun dhund rahe ho

Aadmi:    Ghar mein light nahin thi toh bahar aa gaya dhundne

Isn’t it true that since we all don’t see the light at the right place therefore we always focus at the wrong place just because it is easy to convince ourselves by saying that I searched in the light yet I couldn’t find what I was seeking.  Isn’t it easy to say I really tried hard but couldn’t help it? Are we really searching for our dreams at the right place? I think its time we try to bring in a ray of light into that room of darkness and we all shall find our lost dreams rather than fooling ourselves just to look for them at the wrong place altogether.

Isn’t it time to get back to our dreams and start searching them which have been lost in the darkness of distractions and ignorance rather than searching at a place where those dreams are completely non-existent? Isn’t it time to realise our true potential and to channelize them in the right direction to seek our goals which did motivate us to start our journey long back?

It is time all of us look back at those unrealistic dreams and use our skills which have grown considerably since then and feel motivated to achieve what we started for. It is time we live for all those thoughts and dreams which are worth living.

I do not think I could have justified this memorable experience in a better way than writing it down with just my one hand which is capable to deliver more than its potential.

Outsourcing Industry-The Brighter Side

This post is an attempt to bring forward an aspect of the Outsourcing industry which has never been talked about. Though lot has been written about the grey side of this industry and the life of people associated with it (in books like One night @ call centre and many others)- it is strange that nothing has ever been written about the brighter side of this business model. Based on my first hand experience of working in this industry I have put forth some of the uniquely positive dimensions of this industry.

It was 3am and the screeching sound of the station wagon forced me to rush towards it as it was time to leave for office. As soon as I entered the cab I saw people in different attires engaged in different interests. I greeted one of my colleagues, Raj, with the pat on his shoulder – I don’t think this was because I was too friendly with him, rather it is just that his ears are always occupied with the earphones which he uses to enjoy the loud music so I needed to pat his shoulder to get his attention. This was also the case with another colleague of mine - Rahul who is just like Raj, the better part,however, was that we could talk as soon as I entered the cab.

The car sped away to the highway, The two glowing eyes of the car ripped through the darkness on the road, which used to horrify me in the initial days but now I had gotten used to it. Being a foodie, it was my routine to ask the driver to stop the car at one of the mother dairy outlets near the highway so as to savour the flavoured milk. Rahul joined me in this indulgence. The entire journey used to be so scary that I looked forward to reaching safely to the office.The scenes of the accidents were very common and made the whole journey worse.Apart from the flavoured curd another interesting fact about the journey, however, was the sight of aircraft crossing our car when we passed the airport and that was something which I always liked. After about an hour long of adventurous drive we finally reached the office.

One thing I particularly like about this industry is the immaculately organised work processing. As soon as the car entered the office premises and stopped for security check, the car number along with the passenger list was fed into a computerised system.This data was then instantly transmitted to the corresponding lead so that they can know at what time a particular employee arrived. This reminds me of an incident which happened when one of my friends joined one of the BPO companies. It happened during the early morning hours- his working shift was Graveyard Shift( in BPO terminology it means the midnight shift) and his working hours started at 3am.On that eventful day he arrived at 2:50 am and since he had some time at his disposal,decided to grab a bite at a neary Dhaba (roadside restaurant). In doing so however he completely lost track of time and by the time he reached the office floor it was already 3.30 am. As expected his Senior enquired about this delay .Unaware of the intelligent system of attendance and cab’s arrival entry information he lied about the late arrival of the office cab and that’s all the humour started.His senior showed him in the system the exact entry time of the cab. It was really an embabarrasing moment for him.

Now it was time to enter the office. The office entrance gave me a feeling of being in a different world. The only world which was so brightly lit up at 4 in the morning.

The receptionist was always formally dressed and greeted us with an evergreen smile, and we stepped on the shiny floors to find people roaming around in their best of outfits. There were many like Raj who could only be greeted with a pat or a slight gesture. At 4 in the morning this was certainly an amazing environment., Men were dressed in their best outfits - formals, casuals it was all there. Women were dressed to flaunt, some in formals, some in skirts, some in traditionals and all of them loaded perfumes and makeup which at times was suffocating in the elevator. Girls will be girls. It was difficult to believe in the existence of two such contrasting worlds - one outside which is sleeping at this hour and one in here where people were keen to deliver their best even at such odd hours.

2^nd Floor- Office

It was time for serious stuff now for which this industry is very well known. I punched in my access card and stepped into the amazing workplace . The sight of this floor always excited me and whatever laziness I had till now due to the long drive or the odd hour of the day vanished, replaced by a surge of energy in my body. I don’t know where this energy came from. Everywhere there were people sitting with headphones over their ears and there were voices all around- Thank you for calling, I apologize, I will make sure its done, How may I help you, Thanks for your appreciation. Hundreds of people all talking at the same time. The whole place was buzzing with energy and a drive to deliver.

It was time to find my own seat. Here I must tell you that, unlike other organization, in BPO operations there is no fixed place for any employee as it works in shifts So while I was entering the office it was time for the previous shift to leave. I managed to grab an empty seat and was about to log-in in when my colleague signalled me to join the daily meeting. This was a general meeting held at the start of the day so as to decide the agenda of the day, strategies, concerns within the team etc. After this 5 min meeting, it was time to work.

Here I must tell you certain details about how things work over here. Every employee is provided with one Desktop PC and a special phone with a Headset connected to it, These special phones are designed to receive calls that are routed to them from different locations and therefore can be answered by employees working in this office. Let me make it even simpler for people who are new to this concept. What happens is that Customers call a Toll free number of the organisation which they have a concern with, for example if a particular customer has some problems with his PC then he would dial the customer care number of the Service centre of that PC say Dell. Now Dell has outsourced such jobs to Indian companies who are taking care of Dell customers and therefore, such calls are immediately routed to random customer service agents to corresponding companies in India and the customer wouldn’t even realise that he is talking to someone from India and not from Dell in the US. Such calls are received by people at this office.

Okay. So after such a detailed technical description let me move on to how things work over here. As usual I logged in to my PC and at the same time I had to login to the special phone as well with my unique four digit phone ID. I opened all the required tools along with my Outlook Mail client on my PC and pressed the red button on the phone. This red button is used to activate the phone and now whenever any call would be routed to my ID I shall be able to respond to it via my headset which is almost a part of my body now.

Bing ( Alert for an Incoming call): I pressed the button to receive the call and started off with my scripted speech- “Thank you for calling. My name is “Anonymous”. May I please have your customer ID. Now the amazing game of synchronization starts where mouth, ears and hands work at the same time for different things guided by the brain.

As soon as the customer started providing information, my hands started to work on the keyboard to type the information on the Notepad as that would be noted for further reference and at the same time while noting down the information I asked him questions either related to his information or for most part of the time just general discussion to soothe the customer as usually a customer is irritated about the product Writing , listening and talking all so synchronised that I always thank God for designing us to be able to handle this. I remember on my first day it was so difficult for me to manage all my sensory organs effectively, however, work itself teaches how to do it effectively.

After wrapping up the call it was time for a short break.I punched in the 15 min break code and rushed towards the bathroom as my bladder was about to burst and any further delay could be embarassing for me. After a divine relief I headed towards the Eating Zone to savour some noodles and a soft drink and the worse part was I had to wrap all this within next 10 min as nature's call had already consumed 5 precious minutes of my time. Eating Zone is how we used to term this small room. Silent from outside(thanks to the sound proof doors) and one could see the laughing, smiling happy faces through the glass which is a rare scene at their desks :) Opening the door would bash your ears with music channel being played on 65 inch LCD TV, Yellow walls and wooden floors complimenting the youthful environment. Walking past loads of people talking, chatting, giggling, I greeted couple of my colleagues and rushed towards the Food counter to order a dish of noodles and a soft drink. While the dish was being prepared I started chatting with some of my colleagues and the topic was mostly the grudges about the office and the office policies and some official gossip as well. The order was ready by now and I could only manage to hurriedly swallow my fav noodles without relishing them as the ticking clock sounded like a hammer on my head. I knew, as always, I would have to leave my meal unfinished. At the end of my 10 minutes I bade goodbye to my colleagues and rushed towards my seat, punched in the In Time and was ready for another call.

Time between two calls is our relaxation period which increases with the increase in the gap between two calls. It was 7am now and usually the call flow during this time is less. I loved the sight of people during this time. Headsets stucked onto their heads and instead of working on their official tools people could be seen busy playing computer games, listening to music , chatting to their friends sitting next to their seats. You must be thinking whether the company is so liberal in allowing games, social networking sites to be opened on the PC? Is IT department so friendly? No ways. Its the talent of our Indian engineers who can find a loop hole in almost anything under the sun and are able to play with the security structures of the Online systems The result of this efforts is sheer pleasure in the form of a whole package consisting of Games, Music, Social networking sites and what not.

Rising of the sun makes us behave in an opposite manner to a normal human - in a lazy and sleepy way. The reason is attributed to the biological cycle and now there was this deep urge to hit the sack but we still had few more hours to go. The only way to keep an employee energised is a Dirty call from a customer or a verbal thrashing by one of the Managers. Dirty call- No it doesn't mean vulgar calls rather it means handling a customer who is hell bent on suing the company and that means is going to be very hard to one of us on the call. This reminds me of one of my calls and to make things worse it was my first call. It was a bad experience however somewhat interesting, It was our first day of our job and we were told that we would be put on calls. That day it really meant putting us on Warfronts we all were very excited except those who were already into this business. We were given a round of the office floor and we could see how people were talking calls, hundreds of hands typing at the same pace, many voices talking with headphones on their heads and together it generated a mixed voice, We all were then asked to assemble in a training room where we were about to be addressed by one of our Managers. We were given basics of training and our hearts were pounding as to how would the first experience would be. Our seniors were trying to calm us by saying that it would be fine and no need to worry and in case of any problem they would be there to handle the call so no need to worry. I still remember that I was so nervous that I asked one of my seniors that would it be possible to experience a dummy call first rather than straightaway moving to the Live call to which he refused.

The clock signalled 5 in the morning. Those two needles of clock were no less than sharp arrows ripping me apart.

5 am First day, First Call

We were shown our seats and I managed to grab a seat next to the manager. I did this deliberately to be safe in case of any problems. We were told how the phones work and how to receive the call. My future manager was standing next to me,reminding us to start with the scripted opening speech consisting of Mechanical words " Thank you for calling. My name is .... May I please have your customer ID”, and Greeting the customer"

Bing( the beep on the phone indicating the incoming call) and being the first time this Beep was No less than a Bang much severe than Big Bang. My manager signalled me to punch in the incoming call button and start off and to my surprise and shock he left, yes he left. I was clueless as I was not expecting this. I started off with "Th..Th.. Thank you for calling. My name is B.( this was the inner feelings for my manager which came onto my lips) My name is Harsh. May I please have your customer ID. And to my shock from there came the reply. To hell with your Hi and Hello and your customer ID.I tried to pacify him by ignoring the speech and asked him his concern. This guy had some problems with his computer and now he was not able to connect to his computer, I asked him could you please connect the Lan wire to your computer, to which he replied,” I am at the beach side you moron.” I was cursing myself, my goodness this is my first call, why do my first customer have to sit at the beach side accessing the internet and what kinda man he is, sitting at the beachside and accessing the internet- there are lot many interesting reasons for which people go to beaches, he could have enjoyed , savoured the delicacies rather than accessing the internet and if he had to do this why me GOD, WHY ME?????

I was sweating like hell.I didnt know what to do and tried what all I could do and finally assured him a callback. I ended the call without a closing speech. As I ended the call and turned back that same manager for whom I had so many adjectives in my mind was standing behind me and was staring at me. He told me that he was monitoring my call and as per him it was fine. FINE- I guess that was a blunder, a complete disaster. As he left I rushed to the Eating Zone and ordered something to eat and without knowing the timing constraints I had my meal and enjoyed the Eating Zone for about half and hour and while I was walking to my seat,I realised that I had missed one of my calls. Now this was a big blunder as this was picked up by the intelligent system of this industry. Everything over here is so minutely monitored that it amazes me sometimes. Each call was monitored by two persons- 1 technical and 1 communication coach. These 2 ppl give a detailed feedback on each of the calls and if things go below the expectation then the person taking the call is given appropriate feedback. Every call should be accurate not only in terms of content and presentation but also with respect to the time taken on call. Average call takes about 1 hour 55min to be precise and thus maintaining this pace one can accomodate 8+ calls in a day and deviating from this would lead to less number of calls and thus poor performance. This time is referred to as Average Handling Time(AHT). Apart from this, calls are also monitored on the basis of the duration of holds and pauses for which customer has to wait while on call. So many parameters for a single call. Amazing infrastructure.

Clock signalled 7am with its inviting hands and it was time to enjoy the breakfast. As the clock hands were moving towards our impending time of freedom for the day, I punched in the 30 min break and forced some of my friends to accompany for the breakfast. We all rushed to the elevator to reach ground floor. We walked towards the Grand canteen which is much bigger than the Eating Zone. A large hall full of dining tables and chairs which were occupied by hundreds of people. I must tell you that this office accomodates 3000 people in a single shift and at any point of time hundreds of people could be seen in the canteen having their meals. Needless to say that there is a dedicated department which is responsible for the maintenance of the canteen. On top of that there is a dedicated team that works to make sure that employees get nutritious food and that too of their choice for which surveys at regular intervals are being conducted which keeps the canteen up to the expectation of the employees.

Amazing industry giving employment to thousands of people thus generating huge employment which in turn is generating GDP for the country as a whole and thus justifying the WIn-WIN situation for everyone. Perhaps the only industry which is using the huge Indian manpower in the most effective way and giving opportunities to everyone ranging from Simple Graduates to Professionally Qualified persons and thus bringing them on a single platform.

Struggle: An ongoing process

Today was a warm day and I was feeling good after so many days of unbearable heat and thought of settling my home a bit so I started off by organising my educational as well as employment certificates which though not many, are in every way important to me not only because of their value in my career,however, also because they always remind me of two things –one my struggle to achieve them and secondly the extent of effort I did not put which I could have so as to have better grades in those papers. While organising the papers I got hold of the Experience certificate of my first job and all those memories flashed through my mind as to how I got selected for my first job and even then how unsatisfied I was since it was not a very good job on the universal scale so I kept working for better opportunities and I hopped like anything to an average of changing my job within an year. Infact this reminds me 0f a question during my interview where I was asked ,”Why should we hire you as you change jobs like anything?” and I don’t know where I got the courage of backfiring the question to the interviewer and I told him that I don’t think there is anything wrong in this and infact you would do the same in case you get a better opportunity. I really have no clue as to what that person liked in me and finally offered me that job.

Now after 4 years I have landed into a so called respectable job which I always wanted and now everything seems fine as I am earning fairly well and working with a brand name. Life seems cool and is not a roller coaster ride anymore, however, sometimes I get reminded of my earlier days where I used to feel bad as to not having good grades in my degree and then the fight to get a good job began which was not easier as on one side I was being rejected by every employer and on the other hand I had to face the expressions of my family who was very supportive ,however, I could sense the disappointment in their eyes. No matter I was fortunate enough to have a supportive family not only emotionally however financially too but then as a young man I used to feel worse for not being able to grab a small job even so that I could at least satisfy my conscience that I am doing something on my own. Though there have been so many ups and downs,however, one best thing about that time was my struggle which kept me happy that am moving towards the next step and this one thing is missing nowadays. The big question in front of me is WHAT NEXT? How to keep this fight and struggle ongoing even now when I don’t have a visible reason like earlier where my sole motive of the struggle was the mere survival and thus it was inevitable.Now what is one thing that can keep me moving and still can make me happy.Is it the time to press the RESTART button in my life? Another question which comes to my mind is that how many times we would like to restart our life as this situation would arise in many phases of life so the answer lies in the fact that whenever there is a saturation then its time to create a deliberate need for struggle which in turn means creating self fabricated challenges so as to test oneself which would keep you going and will always give a contented feel on achieving those challenges. Well now the point is how to create those challenges- one way is to look for different avenues in your life which might mean to move out of your present role and this always seems easy than it actually is due to the human tendency of believing that something else would be better- as its aptly said that the grass is always greener on the other side. On the contrary, second best thing is to make sure that we are improving on day to day basis so that we excel in our pre-designated jobs and we try to look for the ways as to how can one improve in the environment we are into and in this way the charm to enjoy that job would always be there and in this way one would always feel happy.

I wonder that is why even in computers there is Reset button, there is even Power button , however, there is no pause button as it follows the basic law of nature- and that is just to keep moving.

Some one has aptly said “Zindagi har pal ek ladayii hai isse har saaans ladna padega, kyunki jab tak zindagi hai tab tak sangharsh hai”

Latent Legacy

Nowadays I am reading a book. Infact it would be unfair to call it just a book rather it is a precious gift by the author of an excellent piece of writing to the forthcoming generations. Discovery of India, thats the name of the book and am sure by now many of you must have guessed the name of the author, none other than our first Prime Minister The Jawaharlal Nehru. Though I have still been able to finish just the first half of the book, however, for me this is enough to appreciate the knowledge of this man and am really thankful to him for sharing such an excellent piece of information with the coming generations. This book enlightens us about what India was before it was ruled by Turks, Mughals and Britishers. It throws light on our religion and its origin (not many of us would be knowing that Hindu word is derived from a tribe called H-sintu), it tells us that India is not only about Mughals, Gandhi, Revolt of 1857 rather it thrills us with the fact that Indian history dates back to Turkish invasion and also tells us what India was even before that.
I couldn’t help brooding over the fact that such books have been written by Indians and it’s true that not many of us know about it. I was shocked to read the amazing facts mentioned in this book and this came as news to me. I didn’t know that the leaders of India have left such a great legacy for us.

Our newspapers are filled with communal riots, news channels are occupied with religious rivalry. We talk about being a victim of western culture and Outsourcing industry spoiling our so called INDIAN CULTURE. We call ourselves religious and we perform so many rituals without knowing the logic behind most of them. We are Hindus, Muslims, and all, except Indian, this might sound boring and reiterating to some of us however, it is appalling to realize that our culture is not known to us. Our dresses, food, traditional superstitions decide our culture. If a girl in our family is dressed in a western outfit and refuses to follow the old traditional ways which our ancestors have been following then she is being labelled as a rebellion or uncultured and vice versa. Do we really know our culture? The fact is that around me there are many ignorant people like me who do not have the slightest idea of our culture. This book compelled me to believe that we are still too narrow minded and the reason I believe is lack of knowledge and people are not aware what they belong to. If such valuable source of information is easily available then how come we are still ignorant? Mr. Nehru took the pain of compiling the Indian history into a book so that we can take advantage of it and can come to know what real India was and he might have a vision that making this information available to his next generations would help us in building a better India in future. On the contrary, we hardly know about our history, let go of the fact of using this history for a better future and this is prevelant in our day to day lives.

Yesterday I was watching a popular show in which kids are supposed to perform as stand up comedians. I believe they are given written scripts and are judged as per performance. The age range is between 6-13 years of age. Initially, I was impressed by the amazing performance of those kids and some of them were so young that its almost impossible to believe that a child of such an age can perform so brilliantly. In some instances, these innocent children were given some vulgar scripts, no doubt they did their job well, however, is it right to expose these innocent children to such information. No doubt they would be successful and their success would be attributed to their talent and then the endless journey of running after money would begin and their precious childhood would be spent in earning money. Is this all so important? Aren’t we taking them away from their own culture and most importantly from their own themselves? Is it really their own fault? Then one fine day some so called religious people would raise their voices on banning Pub culture, celebrating Valentine’s day and would blabber on news channels that youngsters are being westernized and they don’t know about our culture.How can we expect them to understand their legacies when we ourselves are forcing them towards materialistic temptations. Are we really doing our duties? Are we really giving our children what they are supposed to inherit or are we using them as a tool to fulfil our own wishes which we could not achieve in our lifetimes. Why can’t we give them their own life and stop pushing them towards money? It’s high time we must understand that there is lot more beyond money and success is about achieving our own dreams and to satisfy ourselves rather than mere money.
Imagine what our forthcoming generations will leave for their next generations when they themselves won’t have the slightest clue of their own country and their culture. How will they face their next generations when they would have no legacy to leave for their coming generations. And such a big loss is attributed to neither them nor their children rather its we people of today, who would be responsible for such a big loss. We are forgetting that this is not a loss of lifetime , rather its loss of the coming generations and then we would really be a nation without any legacy, without any history.

I strongly feel that we should take some steps to make people around ourselves aware of the legacy which our ancestors have left for us so that we can use this immense knowledge pool. We should let go our next generations to find their own path rather than forcing our own traditions which itself is not known to us in the right context. I am sure by doing so we could lay the right foundation for a better future and then we would be able to think as True Indians.

Let’s try to understand what a true Indian is and let us join hands in spreading this knowledge.

Media and Ethics

It was a long awaited weekend and I preferred to stay at home. What could be better than exploring the world through my idiot box? So I turned on my TV just to come across a fairness cream commercial where in two females were being interviewed for the position of Air hostess and were compared on the basis of their complexions and amazingly fairer one got the lucrative job. I couldn’t resist brooding upon this particular episode, however rather than straining my grey cells I preferred to change the channel in search of a better program and to my amazement I came across another commercial where in an old man was telling his friend about his son who was being showered with innumerable job offers just because his son completed a short term computer course from Not-So- very-Popular computer institute.

Lots of questions came up to my mind-Is it right to portray that being just fair can fetch you a job? Would it be justified to tempt youngsters to pursue short term courses and demean the significance of comprehensive educational programmes designed after extensive research. Is it all about making money or does Media have moral responsibility as well. Aren’t they deviating from their sole objective with which Media was formed i.e. revealing Truth in front of Public. And all this for just few coins. People are being misled not only by such fairness cream commercials rather they are also being forced to believe that just being fair or doing module IT courses could fetch them a Glam job. We are being so inhumane that we are not only forgetting about human values and focusing on superficial stuff rather we are forcing our young generation to do the same. The creators of such commercials fail to realise the impact which such promotions lays on the people who are not fair complexioned and leaves them with a permanent impression that their dull complexion is a curse and the biggest hurdle in their life. And imagine the fate of a student who faces the harsh reality where there is no job for him and all his dreams are being shattered and then he realizes that all those Glam Jobs requires much more than a pretty complexion and short term module courses. On top of that just think of those people in small town for whom advertisements are the reflections of Metropolitan cities and what if they imbibe these advertisements thinking that such institutes might fetch their son/daughter a good job dumping their hard earned money as a fees for the course of such institutes just to realise that after an year or two their child would come back to them with Nothing.
Such commercials not only mislead students by sending a signal that they should take a shorter path rather they are playing with innocent lives. This also demeans the significant researches and their executors who are behind the design of comprehensive course curriculums and recruitment processes. This kind of promotion fails to realise that until and unless a person understands the significance of such processes and the hard work behind them, he won’t understand the amount of input required to get the desired output. This reminds me of an excellent example of Plug and socket. Wherein for every plug there is a socket and even slightest mismatch doesn’t make the Right Fit. Here people are plugs and organizations are sockets and most of us want to fit into a good socket (organizations) irrespective of the match of the socket. Rather one should try to be the right Plug and if the socket doesn’t matches then either leave the socket or upgrade to match the socket. Be the right match and find the Right match.
In fact Media should use its immense power and undeterred access to reach out to millions of people to encourage them in abolishing these material practices. It’s high time and we all as a single entity should realize that it’s time to lay a solid foundation for our next generations and that can be done by showing the right path to them rather than misleading them.

India – An Outsourcing Destination

BPO-One of the most popular terms we frequently come across nowadays. What is a BPO; just a C@ll Center or something beyond that. Before we strain our Grey cells so as to understand this term, let’s get back to another term Off-shoring. Off-shoring is a process wherein companies relocate some of their goods/services to another location preferably in other countries so as to achieve global competitiveness and to be much more efficient.
Indian Service sector has been one of the major contributors in the growth of Indian Economy & Indian GDP. For instance India's Service Sector has grown @ 8.1% in the year 1993 - 2003 as compared to 6.1% in the year 1983 - 1993. It is this India's service sector which has led to the emergence of BPO in India which is now growing leaps and bounds. Statistics reveal that in 2003 Indian KPO sector had revenues of 0.72 billion which accounted for 56% of Global KPO and it is estimated to rise to 71% of Global KPO by 2010.

Now the Question arises "Why India ?" Why does Global Players like Microsoft, American Express, Citibank and so on.. chose India when there are other developing economies like Malaysia, Singapore and countries with Huge market like China.
Lets have a glimpse of some of the major factors that attracted Major Global players to India:

• Highly skilled English speaking workforce: India boasts of around 3 million Graduates every year and around 7million English Speaking people.


• Huge Cost Advantage: Indian BPO salaries are almost 40% of US salaries.


• Secure Data Management Systems: India has a very efficient and secure data management systems so its Clients can be sure of the safeguard of their confidential data.


• Excellent Telecom Infrastructure: Fast and clear communication could be had by amazing Telecom infrastructure which India can proudly boast of.


• Maintenance of High Quality Standards: Despite huge attrition rates, Indian BPO sector has been able to consistently maintain very high quality standards due to which India has been able to deliver results within due course of time and that too at huge profits.


• Government Support: Indian Government understands the significance of BPO sector in India and thus has been really liberal in its policies to allow major foreign companies to outsource their products and services within India.


• Time Difference: Long time difference gives Indian BPO sector an added advantage as it gives us enough feedback time which helps us in performing much better.
  As stated earlier, Indian BPO has been performing exceptionally well. Genpact ranked as No.1 BPO started off in 1998 with a workforce of mere 4 employees in Bangalore needs no introduction today in BPO sector which has been able to force even major US players like Convergys to 2nd position since long. Another excellent instance is WNS , the only INDIAN BPO to be listed in NASSCOM. Now the question arises What Next?

Undoubtedly, Indian BPO is doing fairly well, however, one major limitation of BPO's in India was that they were confined to IT or ITES(IT Enabled Services) only. What about the other sectors which also had huge demand for outsourcing like Investment, Market Research, Research Investment, Legal Services and many more.
Another major disadvantage which later came into picture was that BPO sector which was growing at a very fast pace required only Process knowledge by its employees rather than Domain knowledge. Till now this factor proved to be an advantage as it didn’t require much training sessions and within few months could have a seasoned BPO employee who could contribute to the organization fairly well. However, What's easy to HIT is easy to MISS, so when demand increased various other sectors also required indian Services, so KPO(Knowledge Process Outsourcing) came into play.

KPO unlike BPO required more of Domain Knowledge rather than just Process knowledge. With the innovations almost at the saturation level in BPO sector, KPO has a cutting edge over BPO in the fact that it could cater to wide range of services which is not confined to IT- ITES sector rather it provided enough scope for Domain knowledge and now understanding of the entire project became much more important which helped in overall growth of the sector. KPO also holds large potential for Subject Matter Experts especially in the fields of Investment Banking and Research Investment sectors.

Indian KPO is at boom and the scenario we are encountering now enables us to be in a better position to visualise the bright future of Indian Economy, and this will soon give birth to a new sector LPO(Legal Process Outsourcing). So we can say that it’s just the beginning and there's a long way to go. It won’t be wrong to say that Indian potential gave birth to some new sectors like LPO which were not even in the making, this indicates the level of potential India has and also paves a path for a new beginning.

It is a predicament to move further with the opportunities like LPO along with the present challenges this sector is facing like High Attrition Rates, Public unawareness for this sector which leads to wrong perceptions and so on. However, the results that India has seen within past few years from this sector are enough to cope with these challenges so we can come out with new solutions and can claim to be one of the best Outsourcing Destinations to which world can look up to.