Day 77, 78, 79

4th, 5th, 6th July, 2011

The atmosphere here is wonderful. The days here are bright and sunny and the place looks like heaven.The chirping of birds whistling of cuckoos make the mornings marvelous. Gentle whispers of winds and tapping leaves on the trees, the croaking frogs and old classics on the radio of my roomie makes the nights beautiful. Yes, this is Panchgani - an experience in itself.

This week I conducted one more Focused Group Discussion with the girls of Godavali Village near panchgani. The village is on the foothills of Panchgani and it seemed a prosperous one. But talking to people revealed that even they have water problems in summers. The problem of garbage scattered all over was also apparent. But the FGD went good. Thanks to Pallavi for handling the translation part and the small talk. I had really nice time with the ladies there. I have found that girls are smarter than boys in the villages. Their potential is being suppressed and eventually lost under the societal pressure. Something must be done to utilize the women power optimally. This can change the villages 180 degree. Go through the following video to know the girl effect.

-SD

Day 74, 75, 76

1st, 2nd and 3rd July, 2011

It was a weekend on the verge. A lot of reading and interviews went on in the last week. I wanted to take sort of break. What can be better than being at panchgani for a break! Well, I went into relaxing mode for some time. But then realized the list of things to be done before the end of internship.

These days Rajmohan Gandhi, Grand son of MK Gandhi, is here. It is just a different feeling being with a person so near to the father of nation. He himself is an author, a professor and a philosopher. But as with every celebrities' son or daughter, he too was with this tag of Gandhi. I always knew him with reference to Mahatma. But in last few days, I got a chance to know him beyond being Gandhi. Had wonderful conversations with him and his wife Usha Aunty. Feel blessed to be here and to know all these wonderful people.

-SD

Day 71,72,73

28th, 29th and 30th June, 2011.

I just don't believe this. It has been more than 70 days I have been in MRA. One of its kind experience, I must say. But that reminds me of the end of internship, college and Pune. Back to Pune after 3 months would be a great fun. The changed hostels, new rooms, Gym getting closer, the new semester, new teachers and professors and of course the new crowd. On one had is this set of 'new' things and on the other hand is the set of 'MRA' things, rather Grampari things. But I recently heard this quote from the Red Indians - Past is like Ash, Future is like wood, but the present is the flame. We need to be brighter each moment to be more useful to the society and ourselves ultimately. So coming back to present, yes, I have still got quite a few days to complete quite a few things.

The last week I was busy with the BPO Story. It was really wonderful to talk to a couple of CxOs running some rural BPOs. I talked to the member of management team of Desi Crew - Mr. Ashwanth. He helped a lot with the various questions I had about the working of the BPOs. I also interviewed Mr Prashath, CTO of Sai Sewa Business Solutions Ltd. Let me give you a gist of the talks and a bit research that I did.

I was surprised to know that the total demand of business processing is estimated to be 1 trillion by one of Mckensy reports with a growth of 30% annually. If rural villages become a part of this growth story, it would be a great transformation for the villages. Talking about the rural BPOs, there are three major challenges faced. They are HR related, infrastructure related and business related.

The HR can be subdivided into acquiring and training. HR is a vital part of such services as they are a direct point of contact for the customers. They are the face to the customers in most of the cases unless it is a low skilled job. Both the companies mentioned that for acquiring the HR, they have stringent processes. Once they are acquired, they go through a rigorous training program. But both these sub processes are a big challenge for rural BPOs. The training starts from what to wear and reaches to SEO! But as Mr Prashanth said, the warm up period for rural graduates is quite long. But that may be due to lack educational infrastructure.

The second part is the infrastructure. It is not necessary to have 24x7 connectivity for low level jobs. But 24x7 electricity is definitely required. Moreover, when we talk about business to the clients, they expect us to be complete. We can not argue that just because we are a rural BPO, we cannot deliver as we did not have electricity!

The third aspect is the business. The initial push can be obtained from the networks, but sustainability is the key word. And the client would only come back if timeliness and quality work is delivered. Again we cannot say them - please understand, we are a rural BPO so can deliver only 80% quality!

The interviews also talked about various aspects like affect of BPO Job on coventional jobs. We got a few cases where 1 person is milkman in the morning and agent in the evening! That's interesting now! But the community has been affected a lot - positively. The Sai Sewa has the women to men ration of 6:4. The kids earn more than their parents. They have a white collar job. The economic condition has improved a lot. Moreover the conventional BPO malpractices like graveyard shifts have been avoided.

Thus overall if we see, the BPO would be a good option. But to make it run smoothly, the BPOs should make business sense! Only then they can think of the foreseen transformation.

More Later
SD