from India Masala:
India: More than just call centres
India is the land of colours, sound, and call centres -- or at least, that is what Western popular culture has been trying to reinforce over the past few years. "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel", starring Judi Dench, is Hollywood's most recent expedition to India, and it sticks to the formula.
The film is a comedy about a group of British retirees, shunned or underestimated in their own country, rediscovering their desires and ambitions in India.
They are lured to Jaipur, the city of palaces, with an online advertisement of a hotel that promises a life of leisure to the elderly -- only to find themselves in a building on its last legs, run by an incompetent, hyperactive Sonny, played by Dev Patel of "Slumdog Millionaire". Patel's love interest is a modern young girl who works at a call centre.
Made on a modest budget, the film is a commercial success and is inching towards the $100 million mark in ticket sales -- a remarkable run for a movie that has senior citizens as its main cast.
Like other Hollywood films such as "Outsourced" and "Slumdog Millionaire", this one ascribes mainly two roles to the local population -- the poor, downtrodden Indian and the English-speaking, call-centre agent -- and therein lies a problem.
While it is true that India is an outsourcing hub, it is not as if every college graduate aspires to make sales over the telephone. Only about 350,000 Indians are employed as call centre agents -- a minuscule percentage in a country with nearly 1.2 billion people. We have many more doctors, lawyers or school teachers, to name a few professions.
Neither is becoming a call centre agent the most desired or prestigious career choice because it could mean a lifetime of night shifts and having to deal with abusive customers.
Has India squandered its English advantage?
When the British were finally expelled from India in 1947, driven out of a country scarred by decades of imperialist rule, they left at least one parting gift: a linguistic legacy that has formed a crucial ingredient in the country’s economic miracle.
English proficiency is hailed as an invaluable foundation in India’s rise to the top of the world’s information technology and knowledge outsourcing industries, fuelling the country’s rapid growth with billions of dollars of business every year and streams of overseas investments into global IT centres such as Bangalore.
But, as Asian rival China surpasses India’s English proficiency rates for the first time, that advantage over other developing economies looks to have been squandered.
China was ranked one place above India in Education First’s 2011 English Proficiency Index, released last month, the first time India has been beaten by its neighbour and fellow BRIC economy in the international rankings of foreign countries English-speaking abilities.
“It appears that China is poised to surpass India in the number of English speakers in the coming years, if it has not already done so,” the report said.
The implications for India’s future IT and outsourcing prospects aren’t difficult to calculate.
I think most of us here are familar with the views of the TOI having read their opinion just a few days ago. But coming to this study I find it funny that there is hardly anything about India and Chinese comparisions in it and everyone is seeking to blow itup out of all proportions.
Take this example “the British Council estimated in 2010 that India had anywhere between 55 and 350 million English speakers while a report published by Cambridge University Press estimates that China has 250 to 350 million English learners.’
Look at the variation 55 to 350 million Indian speakers! Do you need a study to give such a wide variation?
Also, aren’t they comparing chalk and cheese here and that too manufactured at different establishments. If you indicate how many English ‘speaking; people there are in India and then compare that to how many are ‘learning’ english in China, what conclusion can you possibly draw?
Shouldn’t they be comparing how many curently speak english in both countries and also how many learners there are in both countries? Some meaningful information could then be extracted. This statement as it is seems absurd to me. It is not even a statisic of any value.
Could Obama’s loss be India’s gain?
As the pundits predicted, India will have the inauspicious honour of being the first country to host U.S. President Barack Obama following the largest shift in public support away from an incumbent President’s party in over 60 years.
But if the results show a clear message of dissatisfaction at Washington from U.S. voters, the fallout once the dust settles on Capitol Hill could well result in good news for India.
Here are three ways that a shift in Washington politics could play into India’s interests:
Republican candidates swept to power in the House of Representatives, and almost squared the Senate, largely on widespread disaffection with the country’s stagnant economy and large unemployment rates. The new-look Congress will feel immediate pressure to tackle these.
Washington is likely to look at stimulating international trade in order to boost the struggling economy. There’s a reason Obama will have representatives from over 200 businesses in tow when he lands in India, and striking lucrative deals for defence equipment and technology sharing is a priority that crosses the party-political divide.
Now the polls have closed, the anti-outsourcing rhetoric that Obama delivered at the stump to woo voters – attracting the ire of India’s business leaders – is likely to subside. Pro-business Republicans blocked anti-outsourcing legislation in Congress in September, and moving forwards, a GOP-controlled House of Representatives will most probably protect the cost-effective practice for U.S. firms that contributes $60 billion to India’s economy.
Moreover, in an attempt to divert attention from the ranks of Republicans moving into their new Congressional offices in Washington, and remind Americans that he is still commander-in-chief, Obama may well look to forge some big-publicity agreements with India, with defence and nuclear deals high on the U.S. agenda, and an endorsement for a permanent Security Council berth is New Delhi’s holy grail.
I know I keep reading about various polls which speak of Obama’s popularity in India.
Why is it then that most people I meet seem to have lost confidence in him and remember the Bush days with nostalgia?
The Security Council berth is already off the mat, with news of his dismissing it just three days before his visit, it certainly is not going to sit well with his hosts.
Even the defence deal is not something which many cheer, for the simple reason that the US has proved time and time again that it is not a reliable partner in delivering the goods. It has often shown a penchant for stopping the flow in mid stream. This is what bothers me about having to depend for supplies on the US. They suddenly pull out some internal legislation under which supplies get discontinued – often even after payment has been made. Even their current ‘staunch’ ally in the WOT, Pakistan, has not been spared – think F-16 deal.
Lauding defeat of US anti-outsourcing bill premature
The Senate might have quashed Democrat plans to force U.S. firms to produce jobs and profits at home, rather than overseas, but India Inc is wrong to think the danger has passed.
Over the past few weeks, India’s newspapers have been littered with stories surrounding U.S. President Barack Obama’s comments on curbing outsourcing, and India Inc’s gross indignation at the White House’s intentions.
No surprise, then, to see bullish headlines following the Senate vote that effectively ended legislation dubbed the Creating American Jobs and End Offshoring Act. ‘India Inc cheers defeat of anti-outsourcing bill in US‘, ran one leading daily, while another led with ‘Anti-outsourcing Bill dies a quiet death in the US‘. Death is wide of the mark.
With the crucial November mid-term elections looming, the biggest issue for U.S. voters is the economy, with many angry that the lauded economic stimulus Bill passed last year has not prevented the unemployment rate rising above 10 percent. The ball is in Obama’s court, and if he can’t rectify the situation, the Democrats will likely suffer at the hands of the electorate in two months’ time.
Thus for the Republicans — who if in power would surely be contemplating similar anti-outsourcing legislation to appease angry voters seeing jobs flourish in Bangalore instead of Baltimore — the goal is to show Obama and the Democrats as an incapable party, unable to govern and unable to fix the problems. And that means blocking legislation.
The Senate voted 53-45 for the bill, far short the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster, with four Democrats crossing the aisle. Democrats portrayed the Republicans as “job-killers” afterwards, but no political analyst would deny that Republicans play the patriot card far more often than their opponents.
This wasn’t all about jobs, it was also about politics. And that’s why India Inc is not out of the woods yet.
Outsourcing hurts all Americans!!
Don’t be fooled, corporations and foreign governments are heavily lobbying congress through outsourcing/H1B advocate organizations. Don’t let corporations and foreign governments be the only voice that congress hears. Call your local representatives and senators today. You can also visit and contribute to the American Engineering Organization to make sure your voice is heard: http://www.aea.org/
Can you outsource God?
– Saritha Rai writes for the GlobalPost, where this article first appeared. –
It is dawn in Kerala, a palm frond of a state in India’s South West. As the sun’s first rays hit the church steeple, a Holy Mass is being conducted in the local Malayalam language.
Only, the prayer is dedicated to a newborn by his Catholic family half a world away in the United States.
Requests for these so-called Mass Intentions, or prayers offered for a specific reason, pour into India from the United States, Canada and Europe, where there is a huge shortage of priests.
This outsourcing to faraway India is a quaint practice that has been called “religious outsourcing.”
But now, the severe global economic crisis and bankruptcies in Western churches are hitting even this unusual practice. In Kerala and other parts of India, where the Roman Catholic Church still thrives, outsourced mass intentions are dwindling and striking the income of poorer priests and impoverished churches.
Sebastian Adayanthrath, bishop of Kerala’s Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese, one of the oldest in the country, said he is observing a big slowdown in incoming requests for mass intentions from the West.
Good Article. Do you know one thing you can Outsource your child home Homework Also. – Dan
