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White-collar job boom sets B’lore abuzz

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CIOL Bureau
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Anshuman Daga

BANGALORE: In India's technology capital, eager graduates are literally fighting for a job. Scuffles broke out one Saturday morning last month when some 8,000 people started queuing as early as 5 a.m. for a walk-in test to join Tata Consultancy Services.



TCS, India's largest software company, had to call in the police to keep order.



Bangalore is a high-tech boom town, and employers are just as frantic to make sure they recruit the best of the crop. Banners advertise drop-by interviews and tempt job seekers with hostel accommodation close to the office. Staff in fast-expanding call centers are regularly targeted by headhunters for rival firms.



"With so many companies conducting walk-in interviews, I guess job seekers might have wanted to try their luck first with us," said Saju James, a senior human resources manager at unlisted TCS.



The hiring frenzy in India is the flip side of daily tales pouring out of the United States and Britain, where thousands of software and back-office jobs are being cut as companies take advantage of cheap communications offshore to drive down costs.



India, with a large pool of English-speaking graduates, is luring many of these jobs. The Philippines is its main rival.



Answering the phone or processing insurance claims may not be glamorous for someone with a university degree -- the industry is grappling with annual staff turnover rates as high as 40 percent to 50 percent.



But such jobs are hot in a country where liberal arts graduates find it tough to get decent work.



"I am not sure if all of them are in it for the long term, but they want to at least take a ride on it," said Pratik Kumar, human resources chief at New York-listed Wipro Ltd, India's third-largest software exporter.



ELITE CONSUMERS



In Bangalore, which has a population of six million, some 165,000 people work in the city's new technology parks.



Gleaming glass buildings -- often a stone's throw from shanties or slums -- house operations of about 1,200 firms including U.S. computer maker Dell Inc and European business software maker SAP.



Software workers with up to a year's experience are paid about 20,000 rupees ($442) a month in India -- roughly one sixth of what their U.S. counterparts earn. Newly hired call center agents get about $200 a month.



These are still princely salaries in a country where average per capita income per year is about $500. Even entry-level back-office workers count themselves among India's consumer elite.



With disposable incomes rising, pubs, coffee bars and designer boutiques are sprouting in hotspots like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Madras in the south; Bombay and Pune in the west; and Delhi and its satellite towns Gurgaon and Noida in the north.



In India as a whole, software and back-office firms employ around 800,000 people, five times more than seven years ago.



The figure is set to reach two million by 2008 -- impressive, but too small to make a difference to employment and jobless rates, given India's 400 million-plus workforce, economists say.



The IT sector's exports are projected to grow by more than a quarter, to about $12.0 billion, in the year ending this month.



India, which almost ran out of hard currency in 1991, has been able to build up more than $100 billion in foreign-exchange reserves, thanks in part to the industry's take-off.



"Youngsters have some question marks but know it has the potential to boost India's economy," Wipro's Kumar said.



Retaining stressed and bored workers is one challenge in the industry, but managers say another concern is poaching by rivals, which is fast driving up salaries.



Srinivas Sudarshan, 26, switched jobs after an argument with his manager and now earns $350 a month. He spends money on casual wear and upgrades his mobile phone every other month.



"Call centers have given me a chance to develop a career that I never thought I would have," he said.



© Reuters

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