BPO and Indian youth

The advent of IT age was a great boon on the students of India. Now they could stop cribbing that there is no money for the highly educated youth and that business is what takes you places.

Even then IT jobs, specially the ones in the MNCs and in the Indian giants like TCS and Wipro were accessible only to the engineering graduates. So the rule was simple, either get an engineering degree (preferably Computer science) or ...

With the advent of BPO things changed. India has an army of English speaking graduates. So the mere fact that they can converse fluently in English got them a job with a 5-7000 rupees salary. Though this is not much, but good enough for most fresh graduates to buy financial freedom.

I met a guy from Jalpaiguri. If you do not know where that is then don't be surprised most Indians do not. Its a town in West Bengal at the foot hills on Himalayas. He did graduation in Commerce. Then a recruiter went to their town(!!!!) and took interviews and he landed himself a job in Delhi. He is now in the collection department in Dell, calling people all over US asking them to pay up their dues.

This is amazing; couple of year back he would have to be content with finishing his Masters and then running around offices looking for jobs in Kolkata. After a lot of perseverance he would have got one as a sales representative. Which gives me another thought, how many sales representatives in US or the developed countries have crossed high school !!!

Bangalore vs Noida


Having come to Noida from Bangalore, there are a lot of difference that I see.

For one Bangalore's weather was great. Its called the air conditioned city. In the same lines Noida or Delhi should be called the Freezer that comes with a free griller.

The aura in Bangalore is also great. You can smell computer and software in the air. You step into a road side dhaba or resturant, irrespective of the shabby interiors, you are always sure to get a guy from GE, DELL, Oracle, Intel or Texas Instruments in it. If you step into a pub it is generally filled with people from BPO and service sector companies like Wipro or Infosys. Generally people with very good background in academics make it into the high profile companies and they are on the timid side and venture less into the pubs. The are the docile type. Not that there are no exceptions.

The local Karanaticas are also very nice people. Unlike most other south indian states they do not have opposition to use Hindi and are fluent in it. They are educated and you may be surprised with the quality their English speaking.

Bangalore expanded too fast. It was a city for the retired army and governemnt officers. Its roads and design were far suited for a quaint old Portuguese town than an IT hub. Its now stretched to its limits. People do not buy car because they do not want to take the botheration of parking it 1 mile away from the destination and walking the rest.

Noida being more planned and a young city does not have these issues. But the issues it has other than weather are many. For one lack of education, civic sense, make it dificult to live here. Administration is also poor. It is cheaper than Bangalore in many respects and you get decent appartments at affordable rents. But the restaurants are really expensive.

All in all I'd prefer Bangalore to Noida any day. You just need to have a car in Bangalore and stay a little outside the city.

I was hearing about this blog thing every where. One of my colleagues told me that I have lot of strong opinions and views. He suggested that I blog. And so I started.

What I will be blogging? My views and opinions about Indian, Bengal, computer engineering and life in general.