Internet revolution reaches India's poor
October 10, 2007, Anand Giridharadas, International Herald Tribune
ICTs are having increasingly far-reaching effects in India as IT companies and their employees are using technology to address the poverty in their own backyard. In Bangalore, a new networking site called Babajob is creating employment opportunities and bringing the networking revolution to some of India's poor. Founded by Microsoft Research employee Sean Blagsvedt, Babajob replicates online the real life hiring processes that connect employers to chauffeurs, maids and cooks through chains of personal connections. In addition to rewarding individuals for connecting their friends to employees, Babajob pays charities, Internet cafe owners, and other organisations to recruit job seekers and register them. Babajob is a promising start to opening up the marketplace to a wider range of socioeconomic levels, but the poorest of the poor may not belong to the networks that would bring them to the site.