Thursday, May 23, 2013
Thursday, May 9, 2013
The IT Outsourcing and Job Loss Debate Published 8th May 2013 www.travelculturemag.com
Paul is 45 years of age, lives in small town near San Jose, California state, USA. He works as a software programmer for a local mid-sized company, is respected for his skills and quality of code that he writes. One morning, he is called to the office of his boss. He is told that the global slowdown has hit the firm hard; the company needs to cut costs and has decided to offload code writing to an outsourcing firm in Bangalore, India. The world comes crashing down on Paul. He is without a job.
Sridhar studied in the local engineering college in Vizag a port town in the South of India. His parents had sold their only possession, a piece of agricultural land, to pay for his education. Sridhar finally got a job with an IT outsourcing firm in Bangalore. Sridhar first priority in life is to earn enough to repay his father’s debt and get his parents out of penury. A stint in the US is his dream. He is determined to compete, work hard, save a lot and finally own a house and lead a good life free from poverty and deprivation.
Paul and Sridhar may be fictional characters but their stories are true. These are getting repeated across continents in Asia, Europe and North America. Both are qualified engineers. One works for $90 per hour the other at $30. The job, they both do, is the same. One has just lost a job to Bangalore and the other has gained one. Both deserve a good life.
The IT outsourcing and job loss debate is not about technology but about profit, shareholder value and people. It is about trying to redress the trade balance between countries. It is about countries seeking to protect their citizens from pain.
India has 1.2 billion people, produces 600,000 IT graduates, 1 million graduate engineers and 16 million engineering diploma holders each year. IT outsourcing is the main export of India and helps to keep the trade deficit from going out of control. The IT outsourcing industry of India has an average age of thirty. The supply is continuous, although there is shortage of experienced resources. Average annual cost to company in India is only $6,500 as compared to $60,000 in the US.
Over time, the global IT industry has adopted the Indian Global network delivery model (GNDM). Herein companies have opened delivery centres called GDCs (Global Delivery Centres) across countries in different parts of the world. GDCs have been built across North America, Europe, Latin America, China, India, Australia and across the ASEAN region. This innovative model seeks to leverage advantages of each location.
At some places like India, China, Mexico, ASEAN region and Latin America cost is low and availability of manpower is comparatively good. GDCs help companies leverage local opportunities and expand their customer base. They also add to linguistic capabilities so critical while operating in non English speaking markets. In these low manpower cost countries size of GDCs are huge with a GDC manpower strength reaching up to 5,000 people.
In an expensive location like North America and Europe, manpower deployed is relatively small and is rarely over 500 people. Hereto, all efforts are made to induct cheaper qualified resources from India. Work visas like H1B and L category for the US become critical to maintain profitability of these companies. This staffing mode is common to both Indian, North American and European companies. Under pressure from local governments, companies have started hiring local manpower. They will continue to do so till such time, this does not significantly erode their profits.
Research, innovation, new product development companies have also moved in a big way to countries like India. New product development work is now being conducted at offsite RDCs (Research Development Centres).
The recent effort to increase cost of applying for a visa, forcing outsourcing companies seeking to induct cheaper resources into the USA by insisting on their paying prevailing market rates to their employees deployed in the US will inevitably result in drying up of inward traffic to the US. Technology resources are a fungible commodity. It will move where it gives the best Return of Investment.
Companies, globally in different times innovate and adapt to new challenges. Protectionism is not new to the world. The GNDC could play an important part in this counterstrategy. Free trade agreements, regional free trade agreements between North America and Latin American countries will come in play. Instead of Indian manpower, the onsite deployment will happen from Latin America. Paul will not get his job back soon. His job will be replaced by a Mexican Paul instead of an Indian Sridhar.
Technology will also be deployed to counter this challenge. Cloud based solutions, may not require onsite deployment of human resources in numbers. Most of the work can happen offshore. Government efforts in protectionism will lead to disruption but will this lead to increased jobs in the US and elsewhere? The jury is still out on this one.
Sudhir Ahluwalia moved out to the Corporate world after spending
over two decades in the Indian Forest Service. He headed multiple consulting groups
in Tata Consultancy Services and spent over a decade with them. He now operates
as a business consultant and is advisor to multiple companies. He does a bit of
freelance writing with focus on Information technology and nature: www.sudhirahluwalia.com.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Rape a Societal Malaise
My latest story on the Canadian travel and culture magazine- www.travelculturemag.com. This is my tribute to the oppressed Indian woman.
Rape in India: A Symptom of a Deeper Societal Malaise
Nirbhaya along with her friend got into a local bus that would take them home in an up market part of South Delhi on that fateful evening of December 16th2012 when five occupants in the bus violated, tortured the girl, beat up her companion and threw them out on the street to let them die. Nirbhaya passed away fighting her injuries in a Singapore hospital.
The middle class conscience of the youth in Delhi was shaken by this brutal incident that was carpet covered by the media. Demonstrations by young educated Indians shook the political establishment from its stupor. The movement spread across the length and breadth of India and the government was forced to acknowledge the poor state of women safety in the country.
A reluctant and often misogynistic politician class’s hand was forced. They had sensed that the vote of the youth in India is slipping out of their hands. A new women’s protection law was enacted and passed in Parliament in record time. This law seeks to bring about seminal changes in the legal and administrative framework of the country. This was India’s noisy democracy at work.
In spite of this horrible crime and all round national revulsion, such crimes continue unabated leaving a trail of victims- children, girls young and old, urban and rural, rich and poor, Indian and foreign. In due time, more courts will get set up, maybe the hand of the indifferent and corrupt police machinery could also be forced and perpetrators against Nirbhaya’s will be brought to book a bit more definitively and maybe faster too.
There are, however, larger and more seminal questions on attitude of Indian society towards its women that need urgent answers.
What lies behind this display of intolerance towards women? Do all men or the majority of them view women as inferior partners? Is exploitation of women a phenomenon restricted to urban, poor and less educated sections of Indians or this a nationwide phenomenon? How has Indian society viewed its women over its long and chequered recorded history of over 4000 years? Is there hope for change and if yes, how soon will this change come? Perhaps some of these questions are relevant, maybe in varying degrees, to other parts of the world too.
It is widely accepted that India continues to be largely a patriarchal society where the male is the inheritor of property, head of the household, bread winner, decision maker and family arbitrator in nearly all major and minor decisions. This attitude is seen across society irrespective of status and sex. Women in many cases are surprisingly reported to be more, or at least as, misogynistic then men.
However to be fair, there do exist matriarchal communities in the North Eastern and Southern parts of the India where the roles are reversed. Their number is albeit quite small.
Historically and traditionally in India, Hindu women had played and even today continue to play a major role in religious and cultural aspects of life. Over the centuries the status of women has undergone ups and downs. But at the core lies respect for the mother, wife and daughter who spiritually speaking, continues to be regarded as Devi- the female incarnation of God. Hindus continue to worship Goddess Kali and Durga as embodiments of power, death and destruction; Saraswati as the Goddess of Learning and Laxmi the Goddess of wealth. In spite of this widespread and deep rooted religious belief men continue to regard women inferior.
Patriarchal communities in the Northern States of Haryana, Punjab, parts of Western Uttar Pradesh in particular and rest of India, barring the North Eastern states, regard women as inferior family members. Discrimination against girls and women starts at a very early stage- female infanticide is commonly practiced. Interaction between the two sexes is minimal, separate schools for boys and girls are more common than co-educational schools, dress code for girls in the name of Indian culture is imposed, male child takes precedence over girl child in education, food, clothes and all activities from birth to death.
Informal community groups of men composed of village elders settle disputes within people in the same village. (Local name for one of the most notorious of community groups in the state of Haryana is khaps). These khaps adjudicate in their kangaroo courts, are widely reported, to pass one sided misogynistic rulings against girls and women. They give social approval to sexual exploitation of girls, maltreatment of women by men, disapprove and declare null and void marriages within same social sub group etc. These khaps continue even today, despite their being declared unconstitutional and illegal.
This is because khaps form pressure groups and influence local voting patterns. Politicians drawn from such societies do not hesitate to provide covert support to the illegal diktats of such groups. The local law and order machinery, drawn from the same societal milieu, also views women in the same light as khaps.
Women daring to speak up against atrocities perpetrated against them find themselves ranged against their families, society and the machinery of the State. No wonder, even though, discrimination being as rampant as it is, according to government statistics in 2011 only 23,582 rapes were reported to be committed in the country. Given the depth of society discrimination against girls and women, these figures could just be a tip of the iceberg.
In this rather depressing state of affairs, there emerges hope. Information, education, opportunity, demographics favouring youth, urbanization, exposure to information, vocal media, telecom and internet, economic development, rising aspiration levels is supported by the power of universal suffrage. Sections of communities that include women, minorities, backward communities are increasingly feeling empowered and have started fighting for their dignity.
Increasingly larger numbers of women are speaking out and publically raising issues that hitherto were taboo like marital rape, freedom to choose their life partners, freedom to love, freedom to wear clothes of their choice, freedom to work at the place of their choice and freedom to travel unaccompanied. There are increasing demands on the state to perform its duties to provide effective security, maintain law and order and to reform the colonial governance system to make it more responsive to the citizen.
This demand is still largely restricted to the bigger cities but girls from smaller towns are also joining the chorus. There is happening a clash of cultures. Politicians who largely represent the older misogynistic traditions are finding themselves at odds with the young electorate. Those who will be unable or unwilling to keep pace with this demand for change will find themselves pushed out of power. A new set of leaders with more egalitarian ideas on governance will emerge.
Till such time that this change is thrust, via the ballot, by the governed on the governing class, women will need to take care of themselves, get whatever support they can get and continue their struggle for equality, freedom from being raped, exploited and discriminated against. Global citizen support to India’s Devi is required. Democracy and constitutional freedoms that hitherto existed only on paper are aiding this change. This is democracy at work.
Sudhir Ahluwalia moved out to the Corporate world after spending over two decades in the Indian Forest Service. He headed multiple consulting groups in Tata Consultancy Services and spent over a decade with them. He now operates as a business consultant and is advisor to multiple companies. He does a bit of freelance writing with focus on Information technology and nature: www.sudhirahluwalia.com.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Saving the Palamau Tiger Travel Culture Magazine Canada
Call To Save The Tiger in Palamau Tiger Reserve, India
Palamau Tiger Reserve was constituted as a Tiger reserve in 1973 when Project Tiger programme was first instituted in the country. The tiger population was estimated to be 44 as per the census conducted in 1993.
The current state of affairs is a consequence of deteriorating ecosystem supported by overall apathy towards the state of wildlife in the state and the region. The Naxal movement that is still strong in the region, the near absence of tourism, lack of security that inhibits wildlife researchers and enthusiasts to come and spend time in the area, the geographical location of the place are all additive factors to the current state of affairs of the reserve. Indeed, Jharkhand is moving to acquire the dubious distinction of becoming the first tiger free forest area of the country. Jharkhand is a state of political uncertainty, a land poorly governed, where miners hold their sway and not too many city dwellers from the political metro of Delhi or the business metro of Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai like to visit.
The deterioration of the ecosystem has been happening over several decades and it is only that things have to come to a head now. While development appeared to reach the majority of the poor in this country, moving them out of starvation to a state of semi starvation, the tribal’s residing in dense forests are left behind. Their isolation from the rest of society only aggravated their condition. We left them alone on the premise that their unique lifestyle and culture requires to be respected. So, the tribal survived on what the forest gave. The only source of protein available to them came from the meat of the wild animals, the vitamins from forest fruits, the medicines from forest species and their life revolved around the forests.
While the average age of an Indian is now over sixty six years, the tribal rarely survives beyond fifty five. At twenty five the tribal woman reaches middle age. As more and more forest land was opened up for mining, the total available forested area came down and the natural balance between wildlife and the tribal got disturbed. Slowly the wildlife has been depleted and the prey species dwindled to the point that the average tiger territory that is normally around twenty square kilometres has increased to seventy square kilometres. The animal moves from one part of the forest to the other, covering large distances every day, in search of food. Survival has taken priority over breeding.
While the tiger population is moving towards extinction a similar story is happen at the forest guard end too. As against the sanctioned strength of 96 people the current level of staff in Palamau is just 11. Average age of staff is 55 years. The tiger and the forest guard population are both becoming old and the trend is the same- both are getting extinct one as a result of steady ecosystem degradation the other due to official apathy.
It is not that the current state of affairs is not known to forest managers and other decision makers in the State or at the Centre. The managers of the forest, the forest department do not publically raise the red flag. Everyone wants to protect his chair, no wants to state the facts as they are, afraid of being made a scapegoat. Bringing development to the tribal was not part of their mandate but in the government food chain, the pecking order of the forest departments is fairly low and their scalp is easy to be taken. The intent to protect may be there but survival has overtaken the intent of the forester.
I am sure the National Tiger Conservation Authority at the Government of India level is too aware of the current state but except for a stray report in a newspaper, things continue to be the same. The first phase of tiger monitoring across the country took place in 2008. The results came out in 2010. The verdict on Jharkhand forests and Palamau Tiger reserve was “insufficient data and therefore no inferences can be drawn”. The fourth national tiger monitoring is now due to be held in 2013. The result for Jharkhand again will be insufficient data and no inferences can be drawn.
The reason for not procuring the requisite infrastructure for undertaking a monitoring is a simple guess. Sufficient data captured and analyzed will bring out the inevitable result- it will put an official seal on the dire state of the tiger in the State. No one wants this to happen and therefore everyone drags their feet in essential procuring monitoring equipment. No one wants to bell the proverbial cat. The number of camera traps available in the park is 100 against the requirement of 565. Camera traps remotely record the movement of animals and are the best tool for wildlife census. This equipment has to be supported by Range finders and GPS that will help pinpoint the location of an animal.
Steps to reverse the degradation of the ecosystem need to be undertaken urgently. While the shortage of equipment can be easily overcome and generation of baseline data can be quickly accomplished the challenge lies in re-building the lost biodiversity of these forests. If concrete steps are not taken to reverse the rapidly degrading wildlife ecosystem in these forests, it is just a matter of time that herbivores, prey species and tiger will be gone and a new natural balance will emerge in which the leopard will be at the apex and elephants the major herbivore. The leopard is hardy and can survive on village dogs, cats, chicken and goats. A new man animal conflict will emerge in the area. Early warning signs of this happening have been visible for some time now.
A holistic approach to wildlife and ecological management will be required. This will require collaboration with the key stakeholders- the tribal and the forest department on the one hand and on the other wildlife specialists, media and the State. I understand that the three villages located in the 714 sq kilometres of the extended core area are voluntarily willing to move out of the forest centre to the fringe. Someone has to take the initiative to raise the decibel level and force the hand of decision makers to act. Tiger conservationists and wildlife enthusiasts are urged to raise their voice and demand action from both the national and state governments.
THE AUTHOR
Sudhir Ahluwalia moved out to the Corporate world after spending over two decades in the Indian Forest Service. He headed multiple consulting groups in Tata Consultancy Services and spent over a decade with them. He now operates as a business consultant and is advisor to multiple companies. He does a bit of freelance writing with focus on Information technology and nature: www.sudhirahluwalia.com
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