Anshuman Rawat

The pain of not being a top BPO destination often comes out during conversations in Ahmedabad. We rue the fact that Bangalore and Hyderabad, once smaller cities than Ahmedabad, have now edged past us. However, we believe that
the greater pie remains to be won. That of KPO. And that can have an Amdavadi signature. If we play it right.

Rarely does a conversation about Bangalore and Hyderabad end without us feeling sorry for missing out on the BPO bus. And then invariably begins the post-mortem of the demise. Usual suspects like lack of language skills, prohibition, occasional social unrest and lack of good higher education institutes are handed over the blame and the conversation is then repeated all over again.

Without going into the merits (or the lack of it) of the aforementioned arguments, let’s rather look ahead to the immediate future. A future where Ahmedabad would have a rightful place under the IT Sun.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the leveraging of technology or specialist process vendors to provide and manage an organization’s critical and/or non-critical enterprise processes and applications. The most common examples of BPO are call centers, human resources, accounting and payroll outsourcing. Business process outsourcing may involve the use of off-shore resources.

BPO is a part of the Outsourcing Industry and is dependent on Information Technology; hence it is also referred to as Information Technology Enabled Services or ITES.

Maybe we all know about that. The curiosity might actually be about what exactly constitutes a Knowledge Process Offshoring (KPO) and how it is different from a BPO.

Well, in a way, KPO is an upward  extension of a BPO. The latter is getting differentiated on the basis of the level of skill and knowledge required for the job. As one moves towards KPO, the employee skill levels required increase.
Fields of work that the KPO industry focuses on include intellectual property or patent research, content development, R&D in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, market research, equity research, data research, database creation, analytical services, financial modeling, design and development in automotive and aerospace industries, animation and simulation, medical content and services, remote education, publishing and legal support.

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Infrastructure and language alone would not win future battles of the present players

Rising infrastructure costs and salaries are making BPOs sweat in India these days. It’s hitting bottom lines of those companies. Add to it the fact that a lot of smaller, developing countries are brushing up their language skills and offering competent infrastructure at much more competitive prices. Neither the rising costs here nor the challenge by new kids on the block would be able to decimate India’s BPO but it would definitely bring down the number of players and the extent of margins on business in the long run.

The scenario is simple. There are players who revel in small cameos in domestic 20-20 cup matches and then there are some who graduate to ODIs and later to test matches. The first format is like the fast moving but not-worth-investing-in-the-long-run scrips at the BSE. The format has its own utility – especially with regards learning the basics and spreading the game (business); but does not provide lasting avenues for any long term loyalty (strong business relationships) amidst the two sides. The last format, however, is the most evolved state of interaction – there is a complete sense of fulfillment & attainment (revenue) for the players and an intimate, deep-rooted passion (stake) by the crowd (consumers / market).

The basic idea of every product, brand or idea is to move up the value chain. The time has now arrived in India to move beyond and above ’pure’ BPOs. The industry realises that and hence the transformation of the small and big BPOs of today into KPOs of the future. It’s a good time to board the bus, Ahmedabad!

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MBAs, PhDs, engineers, doctors, lawyers and other specialists can hope to be able to quote handsome price for their knowledge. Add to it the fact that a mere internet can turn the aforementioned (individual) specialists into knowledge hubs big enough to compete and better some lower end BPO companies.

It has to be noted that already some of the BPO work meant for India has started to go to countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Phillippines and Ireland – depending upon where the work originated. So in a way, the hope that some of the work that comes Bangalore’s or Hyderabad’s way would come calling us in Ahmedabad has been nipped at the bud itself. The lower end work would soon increasingly start leaving India. As it should, if India has to become a real IT superpower via cutting edge research and solutions for the world in general.

So, why should Ahmedabad be hoping to catch the KPO bus?

Simply because it has got what it takes to be a key KPO player. English language was never the city’s best pal, but understanding of some key faculties has always come naturally to it.

But first, let’s see what KPO is all about. Broadly speaking, KPO stands for the following:

• Pharmaceuticals
• Biotechnology
• ICT
• Legal services
• Intellectual property
• Research and design
• Development of automotive and aerospace industries

 

Clearly, the workspace suddenly looks more promising for young Amdavadis. While the city is almost the home of India’s Pharmaceutical industry, allied field like Biotechnology are naturally advantaged by the presence of the former. Presence of Gujarat High Court in the city and the thousands of law professionals makes sure that legal services, including those related to intellectual property rights are well understood here. Furthermore, whether it is in the field of research or design, (English) language proficiency – the single biggest hurdle for Amdavadi youth – would count for much less than the voice dominated BPOs of the present times.

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BPO (In the blue corner) vs KPO (In the black corner)

• While a BPO job has got a lot to do with operating within fixed parameters (language, time, tasks, ready-made solutions etc), a KPO job actually demands human discretion, judgements and a continuos evolution of the fundamentals of the task
• While BPO providers specialise in managing repetitive and transactional chores like payroll and accounts, KPO offers the probability of a unique challenge in every new case regarding intellectual property, legal and medical research, pharma, biotechnology-related research and process outsourcing.
• Billing rates for KPO are higher at $30-45(Rs. 1500 – 2250) per hour compared to just $10-14 (Rs. 500 – 700) in the BPO business.
• KPO has a lower attrition rate – less than 20 per cent compared to over 40 per cent in BPOs.
• Skills required in KPO are different, generally much higher, from what plain graduates that a BPO manages with

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While an American MBA graduate earns $85,000 a year to start with, a mere $12,000 makes his Indian counterpart happy and loyal. Similarly, a Ph. D in the US could earn something close to $80,000 annually while an Indian Ph.D earns just about $16,000 per annum. The difference in the fees of lawyers of the two country is even starker.
But what would take the cake would the abundance of pharma / bio-chem / botany / chemistry students that Ahmedabad produces effortlessly year after year. The mind-numbing market of filing patents for drugs and / or a particular molecule should see increasing number of Amdavadi student professionals making a name for themselves.
The ingredients are all present to make a killing with this next big wave in the business horizon of modern Ahmedabad. The city is booming beyond imagination. There is a good concoction of local enterprise and global awareness building up in the city. Educational institutes like Nirma University and DAIICT, along with old guards like L D Engineering college are now bringing out much more focused youth. The freshers from these colleges are not only in good numbers but also of a very sound foundation.

Giving greater hope of an exciting future is the very aggressive wooing of IT majors like Satyam, Infosys by the Gujarat government. With IT cities like Mindspace by Rahejas coming soon, the city would truly start boasting of a cosmopolitan, KPO ready workforce – coming here to work from across the nation.

According to a CII study, India would soon become the most preferred destination for KPOs as it grows 46 per cent to touch 17 billion dollars by 2010. Let us be the driver of this one.

Aparna Popat couldn’t quite conquer the international arena that we had expected her too. In fact, apart from Prakash Padukone and P Gopichand, Indian shuttlers haven’t really lit up the international arena. But lately, a pretty and pretty talented girl from Hyderabad has got the hopes soaring higher again.

The country has been abuzz with the Sania mania on the tennis court for a couple of years now. But one equally pretty, pugnacious and prodigious talent promises to steal a bit of the thunder from right under Sania’s nose. And the name of that girl is Saina, Saina Nehwal.

Last year, Indian badminton’s latest find Saina Nehwal was been signed on by the Champions Trust floated by the richest Indian, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal.

While signing her, the trust had said, “She is an athlete with extreme talent and definitely one of India’s rising stars. She has been dominating the Indian circuit for the last year and will soon set her mark in the international scenario.”
Some say that she is just as good as her mentor, the former All-England Championships winner, P. Gopichand. While others strongly disagree; for, they believe that she can actually be better than him! With Gopichand himself being the successor of the great Prakash Padukone, the 17 March, 1990 born girl is already in a good league. What should help matters more is that Gopichand is also a member of the Advisory board of Champions Trust.

All the buzz is barely undeserved. After all, Saina, with her title victory at the 2006 Philippines Open, is the first Indian woman to win a four-star badminton event. That’s not all, Saina Nehwal has won  the Asian Satellite Badminton Tournament (India Chapter) two times – once in 2005 (Delhi) beating Aparna Poppat and then in 2006 (Mumbai). No Indian girl has ever achieved that feat.

Unlike most Indian sports-persons across the various sports, Saina relies basically on ruthless power! A bit of the reason can be attributed to her impressive lineage of a state that borders on everything raw and physical, Haryana. Both her parents, Harvir Singh, a scientist at the Directorate of Oilseeds Research, and Usha Rani were former State champions in Haryana and it did not take long for Saina to start swinging the racquet.

She had moved to Hyderabad seven years ago and was trained by Dronacharya Awardee S.M. Arif for two years till his retirement from the SAI. Saina is currently coached by Pullela Gopichand’s Academy in Hyderabad.

She has been the runner-up twice in the National women’s single event, losing both times to Aparna Popat in the final and holds the Under-19 women’s single title.

Her career best world ranking was 21. Presently (as in February 2007) she is ranked 27th in the world.

By guiding a space capsule safely back home on Jan 22, 2007, Indian space scientists have propelled our nation into a special club of three countries that can launch as well as recover spacecraft. It’s time to rise and applaud.

With the successful recovery of a space capsuleon January 22, 2007 by scientists of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and allied organisations,  January 2007 would go down in  history as the month in which Indian space science had taken a major leap towards indigenously developing a space program that has not only perfected the art of launching satellites but also recovering them after the completion of their task in space.

The Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1) is an Indian experimental spacecraft which was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota on January 10, 2007 by ISRO. The launch was conducted using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C7) rocket, along with three other satellites.

Since its launch, SRE-1 was going round the earth in a circular polar orbit at an altitude of 637 km.

In preparation for its re-entry, SRE-1 was put into an elliptical orbit with a perigee (nearest point to earth) of 485 km and an apogee (farthest point to earth) of 639 km by issuing commands from the Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC) of ISTRAC at Bangalore on January 19, 2007. The critical de-boost operations were executed from SCC, Bangalore supported by a network of ground stations at Bangalore, Lucknow, Mauritius, Sriharikota, Biak in Indonesia, Saskatoon in Canada, Svalbard in Norway besides shipborne and airborne terminals.

It remained in orbit for 12 days before re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere and splashing down into the Bay of Bengal on January 22.

During its 12-day stay in orbit, the following two experiments on board SRE 1 were successfully conducted under microgravity conditions.

One of the experiments was related to the study of metal melting and crystallization under microgravity conditions.

This experiment, jointly designed by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, was performed in an isothermal heating furnace.

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Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1): Mission Overview

The SRE 1 was designed to primarily:

• Demonstrate the capability to recover an orbiting space capsule, and the technology of an orbiting platform for performing experiments in microgravity conditions
• Test reusable Thermal Protection System, navigation, guidance and control, hypersonic aero-thermodynamics, management of communication blackout, deceleration and flotation system and recovery operations

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The second experiment, is jointly designed by National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur and ISRO Satellite Centre Bangalore, was intended to study the synthesis of nano-crystals under microgravity conditions.This was an experiment in designing biomaterials that better replicate natural biological products. The experimental results will be analyzed in due course by the principal scientific investigators of the two experiments.

The de-orbiting operation (the process of bringing the capsule out of the orbit in which it was moving) was initiated at 9 am on January 22, when an onboard rocket motor was fired to slow down the speed of the capsule that was orbiting the Earth at 8 km per second. At 9.17 am, the capsule was reoriented for its re-entry into the atmosphere. It slipped into the atmosphere at 9.37 am at a speed of 8 km per second, protected from intense heat by the silica tiles on its outer surface.

The first set of parachutes opened at 5 km above sea level, and the main parachute at 2 km, allowing the capsule to slow down and strike the water at 12 metres per second. The flotation system, which was immediately triggered, kept the capsule floating. Recovery operations were supported and carried out by the Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy using ships, aircraft and helicopters.

While it has to be noted here that USA and Russia had developed spacecraft re-entry and recovery capabilities many decades ago and China too is familiar with re-entry and has sent astronauts into space in a Chinese-made spacecraft, mastering a technology on one’s own has its own value. Add to that the fact that it still is a very small club.

Throughout the 46 minutes, telemetry signals from the capsule told ISRO scientists that all was going well. With each milestone, the engineers in the spacecraft control center clapped and cheered. And why not; the successful launch, in-orbit operation of the on board experiments and reentry and recovery of SRE-1 has demonstrated India’s capability in important technologies like aero-thermo structures, deceleration and flotation systems, navigation, guidance and control. SRE-1 is an important beginning for providing a low cost platform for micro-gravity experiments in space science and technology and return specimen from space.

“Through this capsule, we’re hoping to show the world a novel, inexpensive platform for micro-gravity science experiments,” said Kamanio Chattopadhyay, chairman of materials engineering at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, when asked about the success. “Until now, micro-gravity experiments have been done on the space station or on the US space shuttle — and both are expensive,” he said. “A capsule with science experiments can routinely piggyback on large satellites,”

It’s time to put our hands together for Indian space scientists.

(Field Reporter: Anshuman Rawat)

Chaos, the alluring annual festival of IIM-A lived up to its name during this year’s edition of the mega student confluence. Change of venue from the magnificent Louis Kahn Plaza to the immensely mundane dusty grounds of the new campus seemed to have taken a bit out of the feeling. Maybe we will get used to this new place soon.

For the moment though, the festifval was brought alive by the ‘duel under the stars’ between NIFT (Gandhinagar) and NID (Ahmedabad) on the stage, especially during the ‘Fashion Parade’.

The fashion parade’s themes were Halloween’ and ‘u cant’ (wear fabric. The unconventional section saw a great range of materials – from acrylic to plastic to wheel rims to hay to waste material to metal! Aided by creative props and complimentary music, the the fashion parade managed to ‘shock and awe’ the near-collegiate audience. Amidst a murmur of protest by flouting of rules by a team or two, the top prize in the ‘Fashion Parade’ was bagged by the team from NIFT.

The impressive and much-disappointed NID team took the runners-up trophy in the event. The two promise to lock horns again in the next edition of the festival. Consolation for NID came in the form of an NID-ian winning the best model of the evening award.

But what brought smiles on the faces of NID-ians was victory in the ‘Choreo’ (dance sequence) category. The theme was a competition within the competition wherein people in a village called ‘Sitapur’ compete with each other. Had to be seen to be believed. Be there, next year.

(Field Reporter: Anshuman Rawat)

Some events are meant to celebrate togetherness by means of extracting the best from each other.

The city recently played host to celebration of women power through ‘Bhagini Sevabhav’, a Lioness Conference at the ATIRA auditorium.

Hosted by The International Association of Lions Clubs – District 323/B-2006/07 under the chairmanship of Lion Nitin S. Parikh (District Chairman, Lioness), the event was studded by the who’s who of social, political and business circles, especially the women representatives of their respective fields.

Chief guest Parul Jayakrishna (Senior VP, Gujarat Chamber of Commerce & Industries) termed community service as the edifice of society building and lauded the contribution of the Lions / Lionesses across the globe for their contribution towards the great cause.

The highlight of the meet was an electric address by Sri Sri Ma Anantanand Tirth. She, along with all other speakers, particularly praised the present year’s theme, Perfection, and expressed confidence in the abilities of all the delegates in achieving great heights by virtue of following the conference’s vision of placing emphasis on perfection in life.

Around 300 delegates from 20 lioness clubs (from Ahmedabad and North Gujarat) had participated in the event and service activities of all clubs were shared by the respective co-chairpersons of those clubs. Club Presidents and Secretaries were duly felicitated for exemplary services carried out by them.

All past presidents and chairpersons were invited for the conference. District Governor Lion Milan Dalal and Vice District Governor Bharat Rao extended their warm greetings to the conference delegates, praised the publishing of the event bulleting and wished the Lioness Clubs a very bright future.