PRAKASH RAMACHANDRAIAH forwards a Discovery documentary The Other Side of Outsourcing. Reported, written and narrated by three-time Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist, Thomas L. Friedman, the 45-minute documentary tells of his experiences in Bangalore and of his reading about the future of global business.
While Friedman touches upon some of the potential downsides of this shrinking globe, he also points to the potential for a more efficient and level global playing field.
“Globalization 1.0 (AD 1492 to 1800) shrank the world from a size large to a size medium, and the dynamic force in that era was countries globalizing for resources and imperial conquest. Globalization 2.0 (AD 1800 to 2000) shrank the world from a size medium to a size small, and it was spearheaded by companies globalizing for markets and labor. Globalization 3.0 (which started around 2000) is shrinking the world from a size small to a size tiny and flattening the playing field at the same time.”
The following questions arise: Is the world really flat? Do innovations and discovery have no meaning in the world of globalization? Or is the world “flat” only for call centres and BPOs? Is India really contributing to this flat world? Or is it true, as someone put it, that “It’s not a Flat World. It is World of High Quality Low Cost Mountains and Low Quality High Cost Valleys”?
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It is certainly not a world of low quality high cost valleys. High quality needs to come at a cost that global enterprises can afford. The same goes for innovation as corporations, at the end of the day, have to show profits to their investors. Thus, when it became unaffordable to run call centers out of the US, many of these companies moved them to places like Australia, New Zealand and even Ireland, which helped them cut costs. More recently India has emerged as an even more cost effective option. Once the call center workforce becomes more expensive in the days to come, there will be new destinations- like Phillipines, China and even Africa. What will they do once they are done with Africa too?
Maybe somebody will mass breed parrots and train them to sit in call centers.
If people have seen the documentary . The only thing that was apalling was most of Call center employees( especially Females ) moving out of homes and living separate with friends in the same city .
Also I read a month back when the prinicpal of a reputed pre-university college denying admission cards to majority of students who skipped classes to attend call centers at night . When they should be studying they are working and making easy money .The question that needs to be answered is where is all this heading ?
Is this the effect of globalization? what would happen to students education and would they complete Graduation?
What would happen to areas such as Pure sciences , Journalism and History departments? I read in many universities they are closing the departments due to lack of students ?
Isnt this ecnomic independance among young generation ,in their 20s good for a nation which needs to grow in research as well?
Can our Country sustain on the Prowess of english alone and how long this can go on ??
These are some of very important questions that needs to be answered .
There BPOs/Call centers just for sake of cheap labour available in India.
Till now India is not able to produce a world class product to the world. All the folks graduated from IITs go abroad and settle . It is sad that government spends millions on rupees on those IIT graduates and they end up in some MNC in some foreign country. Mera Desh Mahan!
Can you send me the link
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