Is India to be the World's BPO?

Is India to be the World’s BPO??

Some recent trends and talks with friends indicate that more than a few people in the Information Technology and allied industries (that includes the Government) believe that India can be the back office of the world. I find this to be...(what!??!?!)

The foundations of the BPO industry is rooted in providing cheap labour to perform a repetitive job that is no longer viable to maintain under tougher regulations and more difficult economic conditions any longer.

Deriving from this first principle (it could be my hypothesis), I infer such an industry to be a function of the following variable:

1. that India will continue to produce labour that is qualified as ‘cheap’ labour, currently, this means knowledge of English language and knowledge of Computers


2. that such labourers will continue to work for the kind of salaries that are being offered now and the rate at which it may grow in future; that forever and ever the Indian mind will always convert USD to INR and perceive its value, that it cannot recognize the futility of such a conversion in a global economy


3. that we continue to produce labourers who would enjoy performing repetitive, sedentary jobs and consider working at all odd hours that may not comply with their own clocks; perhaps at a future date India will become the biggest market for clocks that would show time in different countries, so that individuals working for each country can set themselves as remote citizens of that land


4. that the cost factors in India will be favourable to continue to set up BPO businesses, that the business will move from cities to big towns (which is happening now), and from big town to small towns and from small towns to villages and villages to hamlets and from hamlets to every back woods and at a future date every Sadhu sitting in every crevice in the Himalayas will have to strap himself with a head-set and microphone on wireless net connection and perform his mandatory ablutions for being an Indian citizen; that such networking will continue being viable and businessmen will continue scouting for the last Sadhu to attend to the world


5. we will never regulate the speed in which the BPO vehicle will drive on the roads, continue to expand / build more structures to house them, nor question the employing of minors in the call centres, will relieve BPO employees from all possible regulations that will require them to stand in queues or answer anyone but their client in the other end of the world, the government will recognize (and regulate) the importance of sex trafficking in the call centres and ensure that there is a automated condom reminder to every man entering the BPO and there are pills liberally available for women to avoid complications (and this will be kept secret from the strict Catholic societies for which the centres may work); the government will go on-line on every possible service to ensure that it stays in touch with the citizens; all national holidays will be revised to ensure that every citizen of India can avail of national holidays of any country he or she is servicing and is not bound by any needless constraints that would limit their availability on the terminal or the telephone


6. that all this would happen as we continue to improve the infrastructure and all other facilities through the policies of governments with grants and loans from international funding agencies which would never cease and for which no BPO need to pay (as they would enjoy tax benefits) and the only people who will pay will be the farmers and other allied producers and manufacturers of this country who refuse to join the BPO (and thereby can be declared as AWOL) and are willing to pay the price to forego the privileges of being the BPO citizens…

Whew! Does that sounds like development?