Society & Culture
Leaving a blogpost on a mobile
February 13, 2008, Sweena Munyal, Deccan Herald
Mobile blogging is a relatively new activity in India that is still establishing its presence in the online world. The article looks at the growth of this phenomenon and opines that this can become an extremely important generator of content. It also analyses some of the problems that are hindering the expansion of mobile blogging, among which low GPRS penetration is a major one.
Social networking sites take up just causes
November 2, 2007, Hindustan Times
The article looks at the growing role being played by social networking websites in promoting causes among the community. A recent example is the Mumbai Unplug campaign which focuses on global warming and attempts to involve people by a token act of switching off electrical appliances for a short while.
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.
Domain names in Indian languages soon
October 22, 2007,Indiatimes Infotech
With initial registration beginning in early 2008, Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) are opening up to the Indian market. The first domain names, available in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Punjabi and Sanskrit, aim to promote diffusion and accessibility of the Internet to rural areas, by facilitating websites' use of local languages in domain names as well as content. However, the opening up of IDNs to India also faces many challenges.
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.
The importance of being cautious
September 2, 2007, Nishant Shah, The Hindu
Social networking websites, which are the new (virtual) communities of today have become extremely popular recently, especially among the younger generation. However, the tragic deaths of two young people have thrown up larger issues with such relationships forged in cyber worlds and have even led to demands for regulation or censorship of such sites.
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.
