March 21, 2001
Hi, I'm in Bangalore (but I Dare Not Tell)
(Page 2 of 3)
Unlike Taiwan or South Korea, which became known as low-cost producers of computer hardware, India made its name as an unparalleled customer service agent. While their American clients sleep, software writers churn out code, which is then beamed by satellite to the United States.
These services became so valuable that the founders of Infosys and Wipro were able to take their companies public at dot-com-like valuations. Mr. Murthy became a billionaire, and stock options showered unheard-of riches on even low-level employees. The man who serves tea to Mr. Murthy recently cashed in his options to buy a $100,000 house. His driver bought his own car.
About 2.8 million people work in India's technology industry, even with a steady exodus of top software developers to Silicon Valley or suburban Boston. Yet the industry, despite its breakneck growth, still accounts for only 2 percent of India's total economic output of $450 billion.
For all the talk about the Indian technology revolution, the technology industry has made only a glancing impression on the physical landscape of the country. Bangalore is ringed by technology parks that could be in Palo Alto or Austin. But the city itself is a mess, with potholed roads, crumbling buildings and a ramshackle, overburdened airport with no international flights.
For technology to make a dent in the pervasive poverty of this country, Mr. Murthy contends, it must account for 10 percent of India's gross domestic product. At current growth rates, India will have a $900 billion economy in 2010; technology would then have to be a $90 billion industry. "We need to broaden the base of technology in India," Mr. Murthy said. "This new business will be very valuable as a way to generate jobs for people who are not as skilled as software programmers."
Although back-office work is not particularly challenging for a company like Infosys, Mr. Murthy said he would consider expanding into it, if only to create thousands of more jobs in Bangalore.
Jobs in call centers are coveted here. While the salaries are hardly lucrative by technology industry standards — anywhere from $1,600 to $2,100 a year — they beat those for most clerical positions.
"In the U.S., these jobs are taken by housewives or kids who haven't decided what they want to do with their lives," said K. Ghanesh, 39, the founder of Customer Asset. "Here, they are career jobs for college graduates."
The back-office business may help cushion India from the economic slowdown in the United States. As companies cut their spending on new computer systems, Indian software producers are likely to feel the pinch.
But routine work, like processing insurance claims or settling credit card bills, goes on no matter what the economic climate. Indeed, as companies look for ways to cut costs, more of them may send such work to India, where wages often run half those in the United States.
Sending jobs abroad in uncertain times does not bring good publicity to American companies. None of the foreign clients of Customer Asset permit the company to disclose their names, and the offices are scrupulously bare of any reference to non- Indian clients. A spokesman said only that Ms. Anthony and Ms. Suman serve a telecommunications company based in the United States.
It would not be the first time that America's misery is India's opportunity.
Ashok Soota, a prominent technology executive who recently started his own software consulting firm, noted that India's high-technology industry was born in 1991, a recession year, when American companies first looked overseas for skilled, but cheap, programmers to update their computer systems.
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