Archive for the ‘Chetan’ tag

Fewer nights @ the BPO

Shyam Mehra, the protagonist of Chetan Bhagat’s One Night @ the Call Centre, was seen as a loser by his girlfriend’s mom and even his own family because he worked in a call centre. His girlfriend too dumped him briefly for a rich Microsoft bloke, when it looked like he wasn’t going to get far in life with his call centre job.

The book was written five years ago. Even today, for many people, the term BPO evokes images of rows of people in front of monitors, working in the middle of the night when the rest of the country is sleeping, taking on American names, speaking in accented English, and trying to convince some foreigner to buy a credit card or insurance policy. When I ask our illustrators to find a picture for a BPO story, they inevitably come with one of a girl wearing a headphone-cum-mic, or a row of similar such people.

The fact is, the BPO sector has changed dramatically. Nasscom’s most recent estimates show that the voice business of BPO is now down to just 43 per cent. In other words, those folks with headphones are no longer the norm. Most have regular day jobs, and often they are doing some very complex stuff.

The other day, a person working in Oracle Financial Services BPO in Bangalore told us her job is to analyse the investment portfolio of clients of a US-based investment bank. She has a degree in management, and hers is always a day job. When the Americans are sleeping, the team here goes about figuring out how a portfolio has done, and what changes may be required.

ANALYTICS AND RESEARCH

Such analytics is now a significant part of India’s BPO industry. Capgemini India BPO does securities market research. They have people capable of running through content such as Reuters, to help build people’s investment portfolios. They do portfolio tracking, based on the latest prices of securities. "We have over 100 chartered accountants, and a large number of MBAs and statisticians," says the company’s head, B L Narayan.

Genpact advises credit card companies on collection strategies. They look at the performance data of customers, stuff like how regular they have been in their payments, and then suggest which customers need not be called for reminders. After all, every call costs money. "If there is a 30 days’ delinquency, we predict what the chances are that he will never pay. The credit card company can then take appropriate action, may be send stronger, sharper letters," says Pankaj Kulshreshtha, business leader for analytics & research in Genpact, who has over 3,500 people in his division. More than 75% of these have a Master’s degree; some have even MBA and PhD degrees.

Kulshreshtha says he’s done loss forecasting and financial stress tests for auto companies in the US, some of that to enable them to submit reports to the US Federal Reserve during the crisis that auto companies went through during the recession.. Genpact advises on treasury management, things like raising debt, lending to different companies; they estimate yields, calculate the risks involved. They do supply chain inventory optimization, advising on consolidating vendors, putting controls.

They do budgetary planning for companies, including recommendations on which products should get more money and marketing support. They tell pharma sales reps which doctors are most likely to prescribe the drug they are trying to market; they tell hospitals how best to lay things out so that the workflow is the fastest.

And guess what, the CFO of a private equity firm with a corpus of half a billion dollars is a Genpact employee, sitting in the Genpact office in Bangalore. "He does all the work that the CFO of a PE firm does, including interview the CEOs of companies they plan to fund or acquire, do monthly assessments. And he does it with a 15 member team, all of whom are our employees," Kulshreshtha says.

Aditya Birla Minacs designs entire marketing campaigns and executes them, together with customers. They do underwriting of loans (the detailed credit analysis preceding the granting of a loan) and of medical policies. "Now there are customers that want us to even take decisions based on such analyses, because they find that they are not changing any of our recommendations," says Deepak Patel, CEO of the company.

DOCTORS, LAWYERS, ENGINEERS

There are BPOs that have lawyers to provide legal support including document reviews, legal research and patent research to foreign clients. There are BPOs such as Omega Healthcare that review US patients’ charts, reviews the diagnosis of doctors, reviews procedures; all of that to enable insurance companies to determine how much to reimburse the patients. Omega has over 900 science graduates, 75% of them with Masters’ degrees. There are BPOs that employ doctors to do more complex diagnosis or analysis.

Some provide engineering services. Capgemini has over 300 aeronautical engineers in Bangalore, many of who have worked in airlines and who now publish data for international aircraft manuals. Aircrafts and helicopters involve a lot of maintenance work, and given that there is frequent modification of aircraft, internal changes and new launches, manuals need to be constantly updated.

And from whatever we hear, the quality of India’s BPO work is outstanding. "Our customer satisfaction is stellar," says Genpact’s Kulshreshtha. Earlier this year, Hubert Giraud, CEO of Capgemini’s global BPO business, had this to tell us: "Over 95% of our customers are overwhelmed by the quality of the work done here. And India is now managing some of our operations globally, for clients that have operations in different geographies. It’s possible that some of our people in say, Brazil, Guatemala, Poland, etc are reporting to the India lead. So, for us, India is not just a back office, it’s driving things, it’s also the front office."

In other words, like IT, once derided as body shopping but now transforming into a technologically sophisticated business, BPO too is changing into something vastly sophisticated and different from Chetan Bhagat’s call centre world.

SC to decide on night traffic in tiger reserves

The Supreme Court  is likely to decide whether to allow night traffic through tiger reserves or not by this week. The decision can impact tiger protection as night traffic is not allowed in several tiger reserves because of its adverse impact on wildlife and the accidents that kill animals. Chetan Chauhan reports.

States can’t denotify forests: SC panel

A Supreme Court committee had said that state governments have no powers to denotify forestland without approval of the Supreme Court and central government. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Saina to lead Indian charge at CWG

Ace shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Chetan Anand will spearhead the Indian challenge in the badminton event at the Commonwealth Games. HT reports.

COMMENT: Whose boycott?

Writing in the Sunday Times of India, Chetan Bhagat made an impassioned plea to all of us common citizens not just of Delhi but of all of India to boycott the Commonwealth Games.

Reduce CWG Puppeteers!

The platform to host sporting events and to infuse a feeling of oneness and solidarity and improve infrastructure and image has only revealed how some ill minded elements have collectively ruined the euphoria surrounding Commonwealth Games (CWG) by unleashing forces of corruption.

As has been put forward by Jug Suraiya that Chetan Bhagat’s argument to boycott CWG to denounce corruption will merely make for an “excellent argument” is very true.

Now taking the argument a bit further we have to acknowledge that boycott of CWG, if it can ever be achieved, will have no impact in terms of viewer-ship of the much celebrated event.

Rather the fewer the “masses” attending the games the more relieved will be the managing committee and law and administration authorities as they will have lesser numbers to handle.

In any case there will be those humongous number of “classes” (read Very Important Persons) from distant and not so distant various parts of the country to view CWG on free and/or complimentary tickets.

In this melee to cry hoarse against the high level of corruption we have failed to ponder over loopholes that let corrupt elements to flout laws and flourish.

If we are to attempt a close examination we may land up with solutions to cure an acute and chronic ailment that afflicts management of events and also civic affairs of our cities, particularly mega ones.

Of course there may not be inhibitions in accepting that corruption and mismanagement are not new to India or Indians or for that matter any one else.

Despite the fact that rules have to be obeyed, still this saga points to a whole lot of questions that arise about the way rules have been framed.

Therefore our responses cannot just be a mere boycott of events that are being handled by an elected set.

First things first: Who was the person (s) who decided that the CWG should be held in Delhi in the first place?

Was he or they in a position to ascertain what would be the effect of holding big scale events on Delhi’s population and conditions of living? If yes, then how are these people responsible to the local residents?

Perhaps a smaller and less populated city could have been a better venue and laying out such expansive sports infrastructure would have accelerated development of that city and its surroundings.

The second point of concern is the way Indian cities and major ones are being managed (mis).

It is weird to see how modern day local city councils are largely based on c.1882 format when cities were few and not as complex.

Further state governments have always been seen to hold local governments as some sort of rivals, which is implied by the latter being subject of State List and governed by State Statutes or Union Parliament (in case of Union Territories).

This has therefore resulted in these local bodies being insufficiently empowered, which prevents them being good service providers to the local electorate.

Shortcomings of structural governance are reflected in mega cities becoming islands of prosperity in a sea of decay and crumbling infrastructure.

The never ending chaotic coordination of activities comes from a bewildering array of government bodies that push and pull governance in various directions.

In a classic case of “too many cooks spoiling the broth” the innumerable government bodies impede overseeing basic services like roads, water and housing and roads by the Mayor and his Council.

Any wish to bring in de-centralization that would lay the road for more systemic responses to pressures of urbanization by means of further amendment of 74th Amendment remains only in commission reports on local government.

Unlike in the West where the Mayor has real executing powers, the Mayor of an Indian city like Delhi is reduced to a mere figurehead as he/she is chosen through an indirect election by councilors from amongst themselves and for a year’s term.

Then there are constant overlaps of functions of urban bodies with state agencies that aggravate incoherence, non-clarity in demarcation of responsibilities, non-accountability, and non-collaboration.

The real task would be to fix this weak link in the Indian management system.

Evolutions in urban governance affairs will require capacity-building, quality-control and consideration of prevalent ground conditions.

The significant point is for the citizens and media to scream and clamor for rights at the right time.

As the popular Indian saying goes: “Dig up wells, well in advance, not just when you are thirsty!”

 

 

Valley blooper in new BJP ad

The Delhi unit of BJP has embarrassed the party’s top brass with an advertising folly. The party used photograph of an NGO, Anhad, protesting the use of security forces in Kashmir to accuse the UPA government of failing to tackle terrorism in the valley on eve of party’s Kashmir Bachao Divas, reports Chetan Chauhan.

DD ready with a ‘Sorry For Interruption’ board

With the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee failing to prepare and provide most of the venues in time, the Games host broadcaster, Prasar Bharati, is racing against time to install and test the sophisticated equipment that it will use to cover the Games. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Games magic: Even DD goes HD

Commonwealth Games 2010 will be available on high definition (HD) mode, considered best in the world, through Direct To Home platforms to millions of viewers across India. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Centre can crack down on illegal mining: Law officer

Indian top law officer has told the Centre that it has powers to curb illegal mining under existing laws if its wants to conserve minerals. Chetan Chauhan and Nagendra Sharma report.

Azharuddin’s ‘new flame’ Jwala too filing for divorce?

The media reports of Jwala-Azharuddin affair seems to be taking a new turn. Twenty six-year-old shuttler Jwala Gutta is reportedly now filing for divorce from her husband Chetan Anand , also a shuttler.

After Azhar, Jwala too filing for divorce?

It’s the latest twist in the Jwala-Azharuddin-Sangeeta amorous tale as ace shuttler Jwala Gutta is now filing for divorce from her shuttler husband Chetan Anand.

After Azharuddin, Jwala too filing for divorce?

It’s the latest twist in the Jwala-Azharuddin-Sangeeta amorous tale as ace shuttler Jwala Gutta is now filing for divorce from her shuttler husband Chetan Anand.

Is Sharath our best table tennis player yet?

Who is India’s best table tennis player of all time? The question is prompted by our modern great, Achanta Sharath Kamal, winning the Egyptian Open on the heels of the US Open.

Is it Sharath because he all but beat the three-times world champion Chinese Wang Liqin at the last Asians in Lucknow?

Or Is it Chetan Baboor, who had a stunning five-game victory over the then reigning Olympic champion Liu Guoliang in the inaugural Asian Top-12 tournament in Kish Island, Iran, in March, 1999 and later beat top Chinese player Ma Wenge in Iran in 2000?

Or is it Kamlesh Mehta who beat Lui Lin (China) in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, who went on to win the doubles gold?

All this will be endlessly debated as the Commonwealth Games near and Sharath lines himself up for gold, which he has won before at that level.

India has produced a number of fine players like Uttam Chandrana, V Sivaraman, Kalyan, Jayant, Krishna Nagaraj, Sudhir Thackersey, Gautam Diwan, Farokh Khodaiji, Niraj Bajaj, Manjit Dua, Jayant Vora, Mir Kasim Ali, Venugopal Chandrasekhar, Kamlesh Mehta and Manmeet Singh, among others.

Among women they are Gool Nasikwala, Sayeeda Sultana, Meena Parande, Usha Sundarraj, Kaity Chargeman, Indu Puri, Shailaja Salokhe, Rupa Mukherjee, Niyati Shah, Mantu Ghosh, Mouma Das have been India’s top performers.

Gool Nasikwala won the triple crown in the inaugural Asian table tennis championship in Singapore in 1952. Krishna Nagraj reached the quarterfinals in the world championships in Tokyo in 1956, Thackersey was declared the best player in Asia in 1957 and the Indian men’s team secured the tenth place in the Swaythling Cup in the world championships in Dortmund (Germany) in 1959, which is India’s best ever ranking in the world table tennis. Kamlesh Mehta’s Indian team finished 12th in the world in 1985 in Sweden. In April 1997  India’s doubles pair of Chetan Baboor and S. Raman won a gold in the Commonwealth table tennis meet at Glasgow.

Bomi Amalsadvala, who knows Indian table tennis inside out being the Indian team coach, believes K Nagraj is our all-time great. In the 1956 World Championship Nagraj all but beat the world champion losing 20-22 the decider. He stood on the table after that match. Sadly his teammates were not there to watch as they had gone shopping.

Bomi believes Farokh Khodaiji never got enough credit for winning 20 of the 25 matches he played in the World Championships. Most Indian players win one or two nowadays. Kamlesh Mehta says the domestic and international performance count for the ratings and he says Sharath is among our best and Khodaiji  can lay claim to the best also.

It is a pity Sharath doesn’t get the mileage of the kind Sania Mirza gets despite losing or Saina Nehwal for winning. Maybe it is the  continuing jinx with beating a world champ. First it was Indu Puri who could not pull it off when so close agaginst the North Korean world champ.Then it was Niraj Bajaj who could not clinch it against Hsi En Ting of China in the final game, then it was Manjit Dua who was leading 20-17 in the first but lost. It happened to Sharath. He had three match-points in the fourth game against Wang Liqin.

The one player who beat a world champion is Uttam Chandarana. Way back in the 50s the Czech world champ came to India  for exhibition games. Chandarana beat him  in Mumbai.The winner of four men’s titles and four mixed doubles titles is spending a healthy life in Mumbai at the age of 92. He plays billiards every day at the PJ Hindu Gymkhana. Indeed table tennis could be the key to good living what?

Families did not know of boys’ beach plans

Rajaram Potle sobbed inconsolably as he waited for lifeguards to locate his 23-year-old son, Chetan. Chetan is among the two boys who went missing after they entered a creek near Juhu beach on Sunday. Authorities fear Chetan has drowned.

Doosra is like another man in a woman’s life: Bedi

Bishen Singh Bedi, the wizard of the Golden Quartet, harping on the subject of chucking was befitting the occasion: the second Dilip Sardesai memorial lecture at that home of cricket, the Cricket Club of India, on July 3. Sardesai, who died two years ago, was India’s best technically equipped batsman of his generation, a fact always stressed by Mr Perfect Vijay Merchant in his commentary, and was a stickler for perfection. He could not tolerate ordinary players or freaks.

One can easily imagine what great times Bedi and Sardesai must have had  because both liked to burst into laughter at the slightest provocation, often being the first to laugh at their own jokes. That was how they lived life. Bedi became bitter in  later life, but no such thing about Sardesai, nicknamed ‘Sardee Maan’ in the West Indies, where he effected the renaissance of Indian cricket by his 600-plus runs in the series made famous by Sunil Gavaskar’s thundering debut.

Bedi didn’t play his cards well, or with the likes of Bindra and Dalmiya on his side he could have been in a dictating position. He had no business to go after Gavaskar in the MCC affair. But when you let the head rule the heart that’s what happens. Gavaskar almost paid the penalty for this when asking Chetan Chauhan to come off the field after he was given out. An Mrmyman, Brig Shahid Durani, stopped him and averted a crisis.

A few years down the line, at another Sardesai lecture one may find another worthy criticising the batting ‘chuckers’, guys who use unusual but legal methods to hit the ball. That time is coming what with different kind of reverse hits making the scene and bats like ‘The Mongoose’ being devised. And the likes of Sardesai will turn in their graves.

One can easily understand  the pain for a perfectionist like Bedi to see the game he worshipped  being sullied. Remember, in Pakistan, skipper Bedi had the guts to concede the Sahiwal ODI when Pakistani bowlers were consistently bowling negative stuff, high over the batsmen and the umpire didn’t call wide. Bedi was victimised by his county, Northants, for leading the campaign against England bowler John Lever for the Vaseline incident.

It cost him a bounty of a benefit for he couldn’t complete the 10 years playing requirement for the same having had eight years. There was no Dalmiya then to compensate Bedi for this. Years later I was thinking of asking another sardar who played for Northants, Monty Pansear, of organising a belated benefit for Papaji  Bedi for time is the healer as they say. I didn’t have the channels to do it. Would it have worked? Will, someone try, even now? Some enlightened NRI?

Bedi is not alone in denouncing the chuckers. The other day, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, remarked about how an India-Lanka match he watched on TV  how many bowlers were there  in the game (on either side) who were chucking. Then he said, "I once tried to chuck but just couldn’t do so."

Sandhu obviously had our great offspinner in mind. He had been the first to report to us in Mumbai about this offie who he saw as  a kid who turned the ball big at the age of 14. Bedi also had an indirect dig at this offie when saying that Virender Sehwag is the best off-spinner in the Indian team. Why? Because he has a clean action and also spins the ball.

Bedi said every team has at least 2-3 chuckers and it made him sick to see somebody bowling a dart ball at 90kmph and running around the ground in celebration. He said spinners have some role models. If you got rid of those, you would get a clean action, he said referring to the likes of Muttiah Muralidaran. He pointed to perfectionists like Anil Kumble, Shane Warne, Venkataraghavan and Erapalli Prasanna.

Bedi said he was concerned that while the BCCI had banned 132 spinners with suspect actions in domestic cricket, he had heard about no such steps from countries like Australia, and South Africa.

The much-talked about doosra for Bedi was akin to another man in a woman’s life. Was that acceptable? Cricket was a very social game. Doosra was not acceptable. It was an illegitimate delivery coming up from a man with a wrong action.

In the first Sardesai memorial lecture, Sunil Gavaskar spoke more about Sardesai before moving to contemporary topics like IPL becoming the be-all for youngsters who avoided domestic games to stay injury-fit for IPL.

Talking about his teammate, Bedi said Sardesai was the nervous type, which perhaps explained his failure at the international level and being a poor fielder. But he said he was a great talent scout and regretted and wondered why he never became a national selector. Bedi became  both selector and Indian coach. The answer is the typical politics of Mumbai cricket. Sardesai belonged to the  Bal Mahaddalkar Group which favoured Naren Tamhane ahead of Sardesai who was then a little removed from the game. The Manohar Joshi group was in power when Tamhane’s term was over. Merit has little value when power politics rules. The Joshi  group majority in the Mumbai Cricket Association forwarded the name of Ajit Wadekar for national selector because he was their  group’s star leader. Wadekar was everything a selector shouldn’t be, no recall  of  names, even when it came to Mumbai players. "God save Indian cricket," we muttered when Wadekar was named selector when he went to the BCCI meeting at Pune with a desire to become BCCI treasurer. God certainly did during Wadekar’s tenure, as captain, selector and manager. A sporting Dilip Sardesai stayed amused all the while.

What inspires Chetan?

Author Chetan Bhagat says cofee shops help him write.

Tiny but deadly, this pollutant is filling your lungs

A new study revealed a pollutant, called particulate matter (PM) 2.5, can cause lung cancer and cardiac ailments and can stay buried inside the body for years. A first of its kind, the study has been carried out to find the causes of air pollution, reports Chetan Chauhan.

India scores as US dilutes its stand

The US on Tuesday agreed to allow verification of supported voluntary domestic mitigation actions under the United Nations framework, in a major victory for India. The US had so far been insisting on the measurement, review and verification (MRV) regime outside the UN system under the WB or IMF, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Chetan, Saina fancied as Indian Open begins

Chennai, June 8: A handful of top-ranked international stars pulling out has taken some sheen off the Yonex-Sunrise Indian Open Grand Prix that gets underway at the Nehru Indoor Stadium on Wednesday, but nevertheless, it gives the Indians an opportunity to stake their claim.

A title here for Chetan Anand (World No. 19) and Saina Nehwal (World No. 6) will also mean a chance to improve their in

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Going up in smoke

Entrepreneurs Chetan Seth and Kunal Lalani hosted a friends only party to introduce their new ‘members only’ club at Pure.

Jairam walks on hot coals again?

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh could be heading into more political turbulence, this time with the PMO. Ramesh has rejected the coal ministry’s demand — backed by the PMO — to increase mining areas by 30 per cent, saying only five per cent is possible. Chetan Chauhan reports.

22 per cent drop in infant deaths in India: Study

India’s under-five child mortality rate dropped 22 per cent in the last 10 years, reputed international journal Lancet has said — a drop steeper than government and UN estimates. Chetan Chauhan reports. Too optimistic?

2010 could be hottest year ever

If you think summer has never been this hot, you’re quite right. What you’re experiencing could well be the hottest summer in 100 years. The first four months of 2010 have been the hottest on record. Chetan Chauhan reports. In pics: Delhi sizzles

405 million poor in India by 2011

The number of poor in India would increase by 35 million by March 2011, a panel of Union ministers on National Food Security law has been told, reports Chetan Chauhan.

India’s wastelands endanger 5m poor

A huge waste processing accident in Delhi, where one person died and seven were taken ill after radiation exposure, has caught the media’s attention. But far from the media glare, five million of the country’s poorest are exposed to hazardous waste — including radioactive — every day as India turns into the wasteland of the world. Anika Gupta & Chetan Chauhan report.

Unique ID will bring 60 pc poor into banking system

Nine months after leaving the posh corporate job to join the government as head of Unique Identification Authority, Nandan Nilekani is all set to roll out first set of unique numbers after August this year. In an interview with Chetan Chauhan, he speaks about benefits of UID in governance and how it will help in financial exclusion of the poor.

Unique identity project gets a new name, logo

A government project to give each resident a unique 16-digit identity number on Monday got a new name, Aadhaar (foundation), and logo. Chetan Chauhan reports. Unique ID will bring 60 pc poor into banking system

Plan panel to give food security cost proposals to EGoM

India’s proposed food security law will cost between Rs 44,000 crore and Rs 1,00,000 crore depending on the quantity of food grains and the number of people the government wants to feed, reports Chetan Chauhan.

New figure for poor: 372 million

As many as 372 million Indians will be categorised as poor in the proposed National Food Security Act, the Planning Commission said on Saturday. Chetan Chauhan reports. See special

Kaziranga, best for tigers

Corbett National Park may have to give up its status as the best home for tigers in India. A non-governmental organisation, Aranyak, has found that the Kaziranga National Park in Assam has 32 tigers for every 100 sq km, as compared to Corbett, which has 20 for the same area, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Chetan pulls out of Asian championships

The Asian Badminton Championships was dealt a blow on Friday when India’s star shuttler, Chetan Anand, pulled out, citing a knee sprain.

Man of the moment for Naxals – Thipri Thirupati

Thipri Thirupati alias Devji alias Chetan — with Rs 15 lakh award on him announced by Andhra govt and Rs 7 lakh by Chhattisgarh Govt, Thirupati is one of the most wanted Naxals who commands all Naxal Military operations in Bastar, reports Manish Tiwari.

Regime of multiplicity will end

The Bill provides for the maintenance of the industrial estates by the Delhi Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC). Commissioner of Industries & CMD, DSIIDC Chetan Sanghi says that there will be a transformation in these areas. Excerpts from an interview

Get 30% subsidy for installing solar panels

To encourage the use of solar energy, the government will soon announce a scheme by which it will bear 30 per cent of the cost of generating it on household rooftops, reports Chetan Chauhan.

India, US firm up climate plan

India and United States have agreed to set up climate research centres to find technological solutions for low carbon growth, reports Chetan Chauhan.

‘For free flow, clean Ganga of hydel-projects’

Let the Ganga flow unhindered for a “pristine future”, experts have told the government, calling for a 200-km hydel project-free river stretch, reports Chetan Chauhan.

India, Bangladesh join hands for Sunderbans

India and Bangladesh will launch a joint programme, the first such in South Asia, to save the Sunderbans from the onslaught of climate change, reports Chetan Chauhan. Green trail

Green ministry to clear all projects in 2-3 years

In an order issued on Thursday, the Environment Ministry said it would give environment approval for infrastructure projects in two to three years, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Ramesh takes on SC over Vedanta

After having locked horns with the Orissa government on the Vedanta mining project, Environment and Forest minister Jairam Ramesh has now taken a dig at the Supreme Court over the issue, reports Chetan Chauhan.

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