IT/ITES Industry
BPO employees fight for rights on the Net
July 28, 2008 The Times of India
The concept of employee unions was given a whole new direction with the formation of an e-union for BPO employees. The nascent BPO sector which now employs a considerable number of people, has been often found to be ambivalent in terms of working conditions provided to the employees, with high levels of dissatisfaction reported frequently.
The big idea
January 30, 2008, Sudesh Prasad, Dataquest
This article discusses the increasing use of Web 2.0 technology by Indian IT companies. Once considered a waste of time, studies as well as experience have shown that the application of Web 2.0 leads to better employee interaction as well as higher professional collaboration.
TCS bells the cat
February 7, 2008, Shyamal Majumdar, Business Standard
Information technology companies have been traditionally excellent paymasters and yearly hikes for employees in this sector have often outperformed other sectors. However, it seems that external pressures like the rising rupee are having significant impact on the growth of IT salaries and a distinct slowdown can be expected. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the IT bellwether has provided an indication of the changed environment by effecting a small reduction in their employees pay cheques based on company performance, something which is very rare in the Indian information technology sector.
Women power set to take IT industry
December 13, 2007, Indiatimes
There is a perception that the Information Technology and Information Technology Enabled Services (IT/IT-ES) sectors have apparently provided a more level playing field in terms of employment opportunities without any gender bias. This claim seems to be borne out by the prediction that the percentage of women in such industries is set to rise dramatically in the coming years. However, there are still some glaring anomalies as pointed out by the article viz., the representation of women in upper management is significantly disproportionate to the overall percentages.
Unions find favour among BPO staff
December 7, 2007, Deccan Herald
Citing pressures of work, long hours, and job insecurity as their reasons, employees in ITES sectors -- including BPOs and call centres -- are increasingly joining employee unions. This article presents some of the findings about industry-employee relations in the BPO sector that are revealed by an independent study by the Strathclyde Business School and IIM-Ahmedabad that surveyed several hundred members of the Union of IT Enabled Services Professionals (UNITES Pro).
Employment and exclusion in the Indian IT industry
2006, Dr. Carol Upadhya, National Institute of Advanced Studies
The IT industry in India is often represented as providing employment opportunities to wider sections of the population than is the case for most managerial, professional, and white collar jobs in other more traditional industries. Support for this claim is based on the assumption that employment in this industry does not depend on social connections (influence) or ascriptive social status, but rather is based entirely on merit. This, together with the spread of higher education (especially engineering colleges) in semi-urban and rural areas, have created new employment opportunities for rural youth, the socially and economically disadvantaged, as well as for women.
Health policy for BPO staff: Govt
September 28, 2007, Indiatimes Infotech
Business process outsourcing (BPO) is fast rising among India's major industries, and this news article describes the government's plan to institute a dedicated health policy for the BPO sector by 2008. Workers in the sector, from call centre operators to IT executives, are suffering from high blood sugar and cholesterol levels, heart attacks in their 20s and 30s, and other health problems caused by the stress of their jobs.
IT & BPOs will see wage moderation: NASSCOM
September 7, 2007, Indian Express
Steep and unsustainable high wages have been often criticised as the bane of the Indian IT industry. These wages are attributed to the high costs of living in those cities whose economies run exclusively on IT, thereby making it almost impossible for people in non-IT sectors to afford a decent standard of living.
What does it take to become a software professional?
July 29, 2006, Anirudh Krishna & Vijay Brihmadesam, Economic and Political Weekly
Rather than place of origin (rural vs urban) or economic background, the most common characteristic shared by newly recruited software professionals in Bangalore are two educated parents. A survey of three software firms showed that fathers of all new recruits have at least a high school degree; while 75 per cent are college graduates. More than 80 per cent of all mothers also have a high school education or better.
Employment, exclusion and 'merit' in the Indian IT industry
May 19, 2007, Carol Upadhya, Economic & Political Weekly
The Indian information technology industry is often represented as providing employment opportunities to a wider cross section of society than has been the case with other professional and white collar jobs. However, available data suggest that the social composition of the IT workforce is more homogeneous than is often supposed, in that the workforce is largely urban, middle class, and high/middle caste.
