What makes Noida preferred BPO destination

With the BPO sector logged in as the fastest growing industry in the country, companies are looking for greater talent pools and locations to expand their operations. According to industry estimates, around 2.5 lakh jobs will be created inIT-BPO sector alone. A hot destination for establishing BPO business due to various reasons, Noida seems to be all geared up to support the seemingly unstoppable growth of the sector. 

Noida is already the fourth largest destination for BPO industry in India with more than 400 IT-BPO companies. In 2008, Noida accounted for 8.6 per cent of the total IT-BPO exports. According to recent data, this industry in Noida created 1.3 lakh direct and 4 lakh indirect jobs. Though there are problems like shortage of power, talent and poor infrastructure, which act as an obstacle, companies have a host of other reasons to establish business in Noida. 

Why Noida?

"The reason why we have set up our company here is that the real estate prices are low as compared to other leading IT-BPO destinations. Also, the low cost of operations make Noida an ideal destination for BPO companies," said Pavan Bagai, president and chief operating officer, EXL. 

The Nasdaq-listed company, approximately employs 18,900 people globally, of which close to 15,000 are in India. The Noida-based BPO EXL Service Holdings Inc, reported a 43 per cent rise in its first quarter revenues to $105 million, up from the same period last year, backed by an increased cash flow from numerous acquisitions. 

"Noida has a rich talent pool, sound infrastructure and its connectivity through Metro within NCR is very good. All this attracts investors towards this place," he added. 

The popularity of Noida among employees is as much but due to some other reasons. "Like me, many people from North India come to Noida and Greater Noida in search of jobs," said Parvesh Kumar, an employee with Vcare Corporation. "It (BPO) is a growing industry that can absorb people in hordes, people readily move here in search of livelihood. I have been working with this company for the past seven years and would like to continue in this industry for the rest of my life." 

BPO-specific education model

According to Nasscom, facilitating the development of BPO-specific education model would increase employability and tap talent pools. Also, as the report mentions, this would help in capturing the huge addressable market of 280 billion in the next five years. 

"It's not only about BPO industry, it's true for all professions. Be it engineering, medicine or any other profession, you need to be presentable. So, either after class 10th or 12th, students should be given an opportunity to develop their soft skills. Also, there should be some kind of short term course, if not full time, to train people according to the requirements of this industry," said Mr. Kaveesh Kapoor, Chairman, Thee Zorba Outsourcing Pvt Ltd, a call centre which has 70 employees in India and an annual turnover of Rs 1.25 crore. 

People working with BPOs feel that time has come when students should start looking at this industry as a career option. "My career in this industry was unplanned," said Abhishek Kumar, an employee with EXL. 

"I joined out of compulsion to work in a big city but I have found in the past two years that it is an industry which is growing at a very fast pace. We have courses for engineering, medicine, IT etc. Similarly, there should either be full time course or training programmes for BPO industry. Some sort of training before people enter this field would take this industry to a new level," he said. 

Training modules

Training will help people in deciding which way to go. "Though both belong to the same industry, requirements for a domestic BPO is different from an international one. Since these two cater to two different cultures, a know-how of technological skills along with the ability to deal with the people of different cultures becomes a must. Also, people working here should be able to cater to different temperaments of individuals and should have the appetite to listen to the problems and solve them," said Jay Singh, who after working in the BPO sector switched to IT. 

"Training will help people decide whether they want to stay here or move to other sector as many people switch in a short period of time due to wrong decisions," he added. 

"I have been running this company for the last nine years and I have seen that those who are not satisfied with their management, medicine or other jobs join BPO company to earn big bucks. Structuring a course specifically for this industry will make this sector more systematic and give stability to employees," added Mr Kapoor of Thee Zorba Outsourcing. 

Doctors, engineers and lawyers are also moving in this industry as it is growing day by day. "We recieve applications from both experienced professionals and freshers. We have hired people who have BPO experience as well as from other sectors. We have employees from diverse professions such as management, accountancy, medicine, law," said Mr Bagai. 

Infra woes

If talent shortage is one problem, lack of supporting infrastructure is another. Power shortage, law and order and women safety are major issues. "It is human tendency to crib about things and it is happening in Noida. We have the best infrastructure in the country. Industrial township of Noida and Greater Noida are well established and we have provided everything for the smooth functioning of the city," said Mangal Sen, General Manager, Noida Authority. Talking about the law and order situation of the city, Mr Kapoor said, "Fault lies with the people as sometimes people engage in unwanted activities and later blame the government," said Mr Kapoor.

The Only Facebook Number That Matters: $104.2 Billion

Facebook became a $104.2 billion company Friday in much the same way it became the world’s biggest social network and a cultural game-changer: by stubbornly forging ahead despite criticism and calls that it couldn’t be done.

Last week, rumors turned into full-blown financial news stories that the initial public offering was getting a lukewarm reception in road-show presentations to investors in New York City, Boston and Palo Alto, Calif. CEO Mark Zuckerberg was criticized for wearing his trademark hoodie to the event in New York and skipping the event altogether in Boston, and some analysts said Facebook could open with a value as low as $75 billion.

And yet, by this week Facebook had raised its expected share price and was making more shares available to meet demand. By the close of markets Thursday afternoon, Facebook had set its opening share price at $38 (after considering levels as high as $40). Whatever happens in trading today, Facebook will be the third-largest IPO in history and will net the company $16 billion.

“It shows tremendous confidence in the guy wearing the hoodie,” Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, told Bloomberg. “He hasn’t specified how he’s going to do it, but he’ll have to do it to justify this price.”

Market Cap Now More Important than Number of Registered Users

But share price doesn't really matter. The most important number for now is that $104.2 billion. The $100 billion marker is symbolic, as is so much that surrounds Facebook’s evolution into a publicly traded company. Beyond the hoodie, Zuckerberg has been sending all sorts of signals that he’ll be a different kind of CEO, from his decision to not travel to New York to ring today’s opening Nasdaq bell, to celebrating the IPO not with champagne but with Red Bull (the company had one of its famed hackathons last night).

And while $104.2 billion can (and will) change as Facebook ebbs and flows through the ups and downs of being a publicly traded company, at least for now it makes the eight-year-old company more valuable than all but a handful of U.S. companies. Facebook is bigger than McDonald’s, bigger than Citigroup and - also symbolically - bigger than Amazon, arguably the biggest success story from the first dot-com boom.

“Facebook is here to stay,” Navin Chaddha, a managing director of the Mayfield Fund, a venture capital firm, told The New York Times. “It’s a virtual economy where people are spending more time than any other Internet property.”

Still, its stock is still highly speculative, leaving investors unsure of what to do. A steady stream of them have been interviewed on cable television and all make the same basic point: Invest in the company and you may see it wither, much as Groupon, last year’s IPO darling, did. Skip putting money down, however, and you may kick yourself if Facebook ends up like Google, which now trades about 100 times higher than its IPO price.

At its open this morning, Facebook was trading at 100 times its earnings for the previous 12 months. By comparison, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index trades at 14 times earnings. People who run the price up today are mainly buying into the hype, and may be too late: The true short-term winners are the company’s early investors, people who bought shares on private exchanges and Zuckerberg (his stake is now worth about $19 billion).

“It could take many years to calculate Facebook’s impact,” Martin Sorrell, chief executive of advertising company WPP, told The New York Times. “There’s a lot of pressure for them to monetize their content and demonstrate productivity, but you can’t do it overnight.”

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Indian Railways gets ISRO nod to use its satellite for internet in trains

Surfing the internet in trains without using data card seems to be a distinct possibility now as the Railways have got the much-awaited clearance from space agency ISRO for using the satellite for the purpose. 


The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has given the clearance for using the frequency from KU band for using the satellite for internet, said a senior Railway Ministry official, adding it will be for the first time that internet will be operational in moving trains through satellite. 


Though Railways had proposed two years back to provide internet in trains, the project could not take off due to the absence of ISRO clearance. 


"ISRO's clearance for using frequency from satellite for internet is mandatory. Now that we have got the clearance, work on the project will commence soon," said the official. 


As per the proposal, three rakes of Howrah Rajdhani will be uplinked with satellite for facilitating internet in coaches on a pilot basis. 


Since it is a pilot project the internet service will not be charged from the passengers, said the official. 


Railways have sanctioned Rs 6.30 crore for providing internet facility in Howrah Rajdhani. The work will be executed by a Mumbai-based company. 


Now custom-made antenna will be installed on the locomotives of the train and coaches will be linked through Wi-Fi connectivity, he said. 


According to the procedure to be followed, passenger will get a password in his mobile phoneafter dialling a number given by the TTE. The passenger can make the internet operational with the use of the password. 


If the pilot project becomes successful then other trains will also be linked with satellite for internet purpose.