The Flip Side of BPOs

Every year, BPOs in India lose about 40 per cent of their workforce. It’s the highest employee turnover of all BPO markets in the world. In countries that have fairly strong labors laws, the median attrition rate is 15 per cent, and in more liberals markets, it is about 25 per cent. Why should BPOs in India have a harder time hanging on to their employees?

Fierce competition in an industry that’s growing at 50 per cent a year is one big reason. But the deeper reason lies in the nature of the industry in India- not just in terms of what it does, but also who it employs. The median age of a worker in call centres is 25, most of them cater to customers overseas and, therefore work during the night, and typically are graduates, unlike their counterparts in more advanced countries. Finally, a significant part of the call center employees comes from small towns. Various estimates put it between 30 and 60 per cent.

Its and unusual cocktail of workplace ingredients by any measure, and a high rate of attrition, as it turns out, doesn’t quite reveal the malaise that afflicts the young workers in this industry. An increasingly large number of BPO workers are turning to drugs, crime and disastrous workplace relationship due to various reasons. For one, the work that they do is mind-numbingly monotonous. They are getting depressed, cranky and disoriented from working nights shifts months on end.

In addition, these 25- some things are people who’ve suddenly started making decent amounts of money, living away from their families and in apartments shared with their co-workers. Several of those who comes from small towns often feel compelled to fit in by taking on all the big city habits that are considered ‘cool’(invariably smoking, drinking or doing drugs).Sometimes they also misread the rules of social engagement with unfortunate consequences.

Employees have begun to recognize and deal with the problem. There is in-house counseling available at most of the big BPOs. Perhaps, these are just the teething troubles of a young industry. But the sooner BPOs and Parents – deal with the phenomenon the better. Otherwise, we run the risk of creating a generations of young workers that is deeply troubled.

Growth of Online Investments in India

Few of you may be wondering if India is ready for the Internet Transaction world – The land of so many culture and traditions prefer doing business dealing Face to Face…. With a Human Touch. So why then would this medium be popular? The thought is justified and the question is appropriate. Lets begin demystifying the unsaid thoughts.
Globally “Technological Evolution” is taking place at a very rapid place at - India is in no mood to be left behind Brokers had starting studying ‘Trading in Cyber land’ around late ‘90s and were getting ready to face the new millennium .
India has now enough examples to adapt and do better in varies fields as compared to foreign countries Online Trading & Investments is no different – Three Critical factors will lead the cause
1) The Indian Government is helping things along by reducing barriers for telecom providers. Also, Internet access is surprisingly affordable. According to the IAMAI (Internet & Mobile Association of India), a monthly broadband subscription can cost as little as 199 rupees, or about $4.50.
2) India’s IT and Telecom Ministry is heading an initiative to cut the cost of PC’s. According to IAMAI, the Initiative is set to make computers available for less than 10,000 Rs
3) Next is the increase in website registration under the “.in” domain. According to IAMAI, these registrations surpass 150,000.

The growth rate for Internet penetration in India is Mind blowing- The country’s Internet population had grown 700% since 2000. And there‘s still plenty of room fit it to expand. More than 1.1 billon people live in India. But only 40 million people are online- only 3.5% of the total population.
Even if India reaches only 50% saturation over the next several years, this will mean more than 500 million new Internet Customers, You can see the gigantic potential and it is this very potential that has led to revolutionary changes in India across Industries – They exist all around you today-
• Online Tickets foe airlines & railways
• Online Tickets to the movies
• Online Purchase for consumables
• Auctions & Bidding online
Games Online…….. The List is quite endless and growing.

Challenge for Democratic India

The eyes of the world are fixed on India. Parliamentary elections are now underway in what is expected to be the largest and most daunting democratic exercise in the history of civilization. More than 714 million citizens are eligible to cast a ballot on over 1.4 million electronic voting machines scattered across 830,000 polling stations. That is democracy on a titanic scale.

India and its people should be proud of their extraordinary progress since declaring independence in 1947. Out of the ashes of the British occupation, India has emerged as a model for countries aspiring to join the community of democratic states – and rightfully so, because India’s democratic institutions are among the very best across the globe.

India’s commitment to free and impartial elections has received well-deserved praise. For example, the Economist gave India the second-highest score for the fairness, transparency and openness of its electoral process in its 2008 Democracy Index, an annual ranking of the state of democracy in the world.

But democracy means more than just elections. Democracy entails an equally strong commitment to values and principles – like equality, justice and opportunity – without which democracy would be divested of its core meaning. After all, what does the right to vote mean if citizens cannot read, have no food to eat or home to call their own, can expect to die young and are denied basic human rights?

That is the plight of India today. According to the United Nations, which ranks India 128th out of 177 countries on its annual Human Development Index, gender inequality endures, the gap between the richest and poorest continues to widen, nearly half the population must make do without electricity, 40 percent of Indians cannot read, 30 percent live below the poverty line, 50 percent of children under age five are below normal weight, over 40 percent of one-year-olds are not fully immunized against measles, and life expectancy is barely 60 years.

These staggering statistics are difficult to comprehend, especially for a country whose economic growth over the past 20 years has surpassed each of the G8 countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

But part of the answer to this riddle comes into sharp focus when we consider India’s economic priorities: military expenditures were more than three times greater than healthcare spending. In contrast, the opposite is true of all G8 countries, which invested an average of just under four times more in healthcare than in defense. Even the United States, the world’s military hyperpower, spent nearly twice as much on healthcare as it did on the military.

The poor quality of life in India raises a dispiriting contrast with the rich quality of its electoral process. But India is not doomed to this tragic state of affairs. Quite the contrary, the future of India is not yet written. Indians still have time to redress the imbalance between the nuts and bolts of electoral democracy and the substantive values of liberal democracy.

Time is running short, though, because the longer India waits to attack these disparities, the more likely the possibility that they will harden from a mere trend into a permanent condition. There is no better time than now, as candidates present their visions for the future of India, for Indian citizens to send a message with their votes that elections alone do not satisfy the promise of democracy.

Shoe Throw Issue

Now a day, Shoe throwing is a topic which every one is talking about and i strongly feel that i should also comment on this.

Well we all know what it means to throw the book at someone, and now it seems that dictionaries will soon have to make space for a new phrase—‘throwing the shoe.’ The origin would be the journalist who threw a shoe at George W Bush a few months ago.

In the latest incident in India, a 21-year-old student flung his footwear at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a rally in the city of Ahmedabad last Sunday. The same night, at a different political gathering in Ahmedabad, a wooden sandal was tossed at prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani. Advani was also the target of another shoe-throw earlier in the election season.

"It's become an epidemic," said Ashis Nandy, a political psychologist.

With India in the midst of a monthlong national election, the growing number of shoe protestations has prompted officials to tighten security, ask party workers and supporters to come barefoot or, in Gujarat state, build an iron safety net to stop airborne shoes in mid-flight for Narendra Modi(C.M of Gujarat).

I feel that "Shoe-throwing is a really become expression of the frustration of the people and also become a method to attract the attention of the other people on the issue". However No civilized society can forgive this way of expressing disapproval in a democracy.

There are so many other ways to express your feelings and this is absolutely a wrong way to express your feeling.