BPO Brou-ha-ha


The recent issue of siliconindia (June 2002) extols Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) as the biggest thing to hit India, and
calls it the "buzzword du jour." Before we get carried away with all this hype, let us first ask "Exactly what is all this BPO?"
BPO has absolutely nothing to do with the hiring of technically trained Indians to perform tasks commensurate with their
skill level. It is a euphemism for the call-answering industry, which exploits the use of technically educated Indians (in
India) for semi-skilled, low-paid jobs. It is comparable to the use of immigrant Philippine workers in the U.S. to clean
bedpans in hospitals, because few U.S. citizens will take on this job at a marginal salary.Your picture on page 23 showing
trained engineers working the phones in open cubicles, says it all. BPOs are part of the push towards globalization, hyped
by arch conservatives as who tout it as the solution to the economic problems of the poorer nations of the world.
However, in order to see how ephemeral and devastating this type of "solution" can be, one need only look at Mexico,
where 19,000 U.S. jobs in the auto industry were shifted to low-paid workers in Mexican "maquiladoras." Mexico was
delighted, but their delight was short lived. Today, U.S. companies are shifting this work force to China, where labor is
even cheaper. This globalization push is now being experienced in the IT industry, wherein 150,000 workers have been
laid off in the U.S. over the last twelve months. Many of these were Indians, lured to this country because the technological
streets were thought to be paved with gold.The U.S. is now short of workers for the BPO industry, since few technically
trained US citizens will take on these low-paying jobs. Consequently, U.S. companies are bottom-fishing in India. If India
buys into this exploitation, we should close down our fine IITs, and replace them with one-year trade schools. Over the
last fifty years, I have noted (with pride) the ready acceptance of Indians in the U.S. as persons whose training, discipline,
work ethic and talent are superior to those of their U.S.-born counterparts. Pretending that BPOs will be the answer to
our problems in India is a step backwards.They will only benefit a few managers.

Sorab K. Ghandhi

Professor Emeritus: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Troy, NY 12180

TiE coming untied

Despite the fact that worldwide TiE chapters observe and adhere to TiE's goals, in all fairness it would be improper to club
all TiE chapters under the general aegis of TiE, as described in your editorial. On a limited basis, I do agree with the views
offered in this editorial. I was miffed when I received a total of nine email reminders for TiECon 2002, from various cofounders/
officers of TiE & TiE Silicon Valley (SV), and at one point, I even opined that the conference organizers' messages
resembled sending spam! While I can't specifically comment on TiE SV or other TiE chapters, I do believe TiE's Seattle
chapter continues to embolden TiE's mission and vision, both, in letter and spirit. Personally, I have benefited
tremendously from receiving advice and counsel from a few of the charter members in Seattle, when I was involved with
a start-up, a year ago. There is always room for improvement, but as a long-time, dedicated volunteer on behalf of TiE
Seattle (in fact, only one other individual continues to regularly volunteer since the chapter's inception in March 2000), I
can emphatically state that we have and continue to propel the original values and entrepreneurial philosophy of TiE,
serving Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.

Tushar J. Mehta

Bellevue,WA 98007

My non-profit trade group of Communications and IT Manufacturers exhibited at the TiECon trade show in June and
elicited very few leads towards membership in our association and our SUPERCOMM INDIA 2003 exhibition. In an
effort to recover some of our investment, we have repeatedly tried to obtain pre-registration or actual attendance data
from TiE, with no luck.This is surely unprofessional and unhelpful to exhibitors. I can’t think of any other trade show or
non-profit group that does not provide such lists free or for a nominal cost.

Henry Wieland Jr.

VP-Mktg Services, Telecommunications Industry Association

Arlington,VA

I thought your editorial piece made very interesting reading. Undoubtedly, the need of the hour is entrepreuner mentoring
and I would think TiE should take a leadership role in this aspect.You are also right about the perception of TiE being an
association of Indian entrepreuners.... there is nothing wrong with it. So why try to change this image? Not knowing that
one has to be within "an inner ring," most entrepreuners expect TiE to give a hearing and try to help out. But one hears
the stories as given by Jyoti Das of Ask Software Corp in SI July edition. I hope TiE will live up to its original charter and
help the new Indian entrepreuners gain the expertise to become good managers as well.

Srini R. Srinivasan

Sunnyvale, CA 94085

2nd generation Indians


I disagree with the author’s
categorization of “typical” Indian
teenager into either a conniving
member of a club who is using their
brown skin as a pathetic attempt to
make friends, or a ghetto wannabe.This
isn’t true of all second-generation
Indians and secondly, it’s not just the
Indians. There are just as many
Caucasians who say “yo dawg” and think
they can rap. Then there are all the
Americans who are wear karma beads
and bindis, put on mehendi as
temporary tattoos, take yoga classes,
and think they know what Nirvana is.
Just because people of a particular
ethnicity adopt aspects of a second one,
it doesn’t mean that they don’t know
what country they’re from. It just shows
their interest in different ideas and their
experimentation. When it comes to
ethnic clubs, if they have “just a racist
agenda of associating only with other
Indians,” then I don’t see how they are
too different from a sorority or a
fraternity. Both tend to be cliquish and
focus around a central theme. However,
neither ethnic clubs, nor sororities and
fraternities, discriminate against a
particular race.When someone asks me
where I’m from, there is no confusion
or hesitation that arouses. The answer is
simple. I live in America, and I am an
Indian. What category does that place
me in? One with hundreds of others. As
for that question, “Who am I?”… Well
it’s something I’m going to be figuring
out to my last day, but I can say that it’s
much influenced by my ethnicity.

Namrata Jain

Hinsdale, IL