Training Program Analysis At Bharti AXA

Introduction

Bharti AXA Investment Managers Pvt. Ltd. is a joint venture between Bharti Ventures Limited, part of Bharti group - one of the foremost business groups in India, AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) and AXA Asia Pacific Holdings (AXA APH) (through NMIPL). They focus on excellence and performance, with their professional fund management taking care of our imperative financial needs, keeping tomorrow in check while tracking a dynamic today.

Bharti AXA Investment Managers Private Limited was incorporated on 13th August, 2007 and is headquartered in Mumbai, the commercial hub of India. With a presence in more than 34 locations across the country within one year of the launch, Bharti AXA Investment Managers boasts one of the largest footprints for any AMC in the country during launch. This indicates the retail focus of the AMC. With best practices brought in from world leaders in financial protection, Bharti AXA Investment Managers aim to be an aggressive player in the Indian Asset Management Industry.

Bharti AXA Investment Managers employs stringent risk control methodologies. With risk management at the forefront and knowledge sharing amongst nearly 500 professionals worldwide, our fund managers have access to an overwhelming pool of research. Risk Management is also an integral part of product development. With processes in place, our investment teams are empowered to take necessary decisions and are made accountable for every investment process.

Fund management constitutes an intricate understanding of global and local economic conditions. Always on the lookout for promising investment ideas, the fund managers are keenly tuned to the global and the local economy by accessing the research pool. This research capability coupled with the unimpeachable local understanding is an effective combination that Bharti AXA Investment Managers are equipped with.

Training program conducted recently at Bharti Axa:

Recently and every year the Pre – license training is held for new advisors. New and willing aspirants who wish to take agency as a career have to compulsorily go through this training before they actually give the final test. The training program is a 1^st level mandatory program set by Ritu Nanda Insurance School. It is a 50 hrs online IRDA training, which consists of 11 chapters.

After the online training the agents go for a 3 day mandatory IRDA refreshers training at the insurance company. It is a 50 marks test with objective questions which is held 5 days prior to the final test.

After passing the test the agents are given product information and company introduction. A report of the code of conduct and product training for license is made by the HR manager of the company.

Apart from this STO i.e. Sales take off training is also held which is a skill based training held for enhancing the selling skills of the agents. And whenever a new product is launched a training program is held for all the agents within a few days of the launch.

Reasons for conducting the training

The pre – licensing training is held for all the new members willing to join the insurance industry. The training is held to make the new comers aware of all the work that is done in the insurance industry and its rules and regulations. It makes the agents aware of what they have to do and how.

Every agent has to sell at least 12 policies in a year so their license is not terminated. To see that the agents have proper selling skills the STO is conducted when the agents underperform.

 Achievement of results from training

  The insurance company achieves the desired results from all the training programs held. The effectiveness is measured by comparing the past results with the present.

For the pre – licensing training program the percentage of agents passing the test states the effectiveness of the training. After the training 60% pass the test and join the company. This means that the training program is effective enough for helping the agents join the company.

For the STO training effectiveness is measured by comparing the number of policies sold by the agent prior to the training with the number of policies sold after the training. The percent increase is the percent effectiveness of the training.

Suggestions

The training programs conducted by the company revolve completely around the selling skills only. I would suggest the management to give importance to communication skills, behavior, personality and nature of the agents as well. As, when communicating with various people the agents will require good communication skills and lots of patience. The personality of the agent should attract the client’s interest in what he is selling. In this way they will be able to have better sales.   

Transportation In India

Introduction

Transport in the Republic of India is an important part of the nation's economy. With a land area of 3,287,240 km2 (1,269,210 sq mi), and an estimated population of 1,028,737,436, transport in India is both a necessity as well as a convenience. Since the economic liberalization of the 1990s, development of infrastructure within the country has progressed at a rapid pace, and today there is a wide variety of modes of transport by land, water and air. However, the relatively low GDP of India has meant that access to these modes of transport has not been uniform. Only around 10% of households own a motorcycle (about 102,873,744 people). Cars are owned by the wealthier few — around 0.7% of households owned one in 2007 (about 7,201,163 people). Public transport still remains the primary mode of transport for most of the population, and India's public transport systems are among the most heavily utilized in the world.

Despite improvements, several aspects of transport are still riddled with problems due to outdated infrastructure and a burgeoning population, and demand for transport infrastructure and services have been rising by around 10% a year. Taxes and bribes are common between state borders, and Transparency International estimates that truckers pay annually $5 billion in bribes. Although India has only 1% of the world's vehicles, it accounts for 8% of the world's vehicle fatalities. India's cities are extremely congested — the average bus speed is 6–10 km/h in many large cities. Because of the congestion in Indian roads the fuel efficiency of the vehicles is also very low. This increases the overall fuel consumption of the country besides creating huge pollution since the engines run very inefficiently at such low speeds. India's rail network is the longest and fourth most heavily used system in the world. India's growing international trade is putting strain on the ports in India. The country's overburdened airports have just begun to get a makeover, with modernization work and greater investment in the aviation sector. In general, public transport suffers from outdated technology, incompetent management, corruption, over staffing, and low worker productivity.

   

    A) Local transport

Public transport is the predominant mode of motorized local travel in cities. This is predominantly by road, since commuter rail services are available only in the four metropolitan cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and Kolkata, while dedicated city bus services are known to operate in at least 17 cities with a population of over one million. Intermediate public transport modes like tempos and cycle rickshaws assume importance in medium size cities. However, the share of buses is negligible in most Indian cities as compared to personalized vehicles, and two-wheelers and cars account for more than 80 percent of the vehicle population in most large cities.

Traffic in Indian cities generally moves slowly, where traffic jams and accidents are very common. India has very poor records on road safely—around 90,000 people die from road accidents every year. A Reader's Digest study of traffic congestion in Asian cities ranked several Indian cities within the Top Ten for worst traffic.

Public transport

1. Buses

Buses take up over 90% of public transport in Indian cities, and serve as a cheap and convenient mode of transport for all classes of society. Services are mostly run by government owned state transport corporations. Most passenger buses use the standard truck engine and chassis and are not economical for city use — there are virtually no buses in India specifically designed for urban conditions. As a result, available urban mass transport services are overcrowded, unreliable, and involve long waiting periods. However, after the economic liberalization, many state transport corporations have introduced various facilities like low-floor buses for the disabled and air-conditioned buses to attract private car owners to help decongest roads. Bengaluru was the first city in India to introduce Volvo B7RLE intra-city buses in India in January 2006.

New initiatives like Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems and air conditioned buses have been taken by the various state governments to improve the bus public transport systems in cities. Bus Rapid Transit systems already exist in Pune, Delhi and Ahmadabad with new ones coming up in Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad. High Capacity buses can be found in cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Nagpur and Chennai. Bengaluru is the first Indian city to have an air-conditioned bus stop, located near Cubbon Park. It was built by Airtel. The city of Chennai houses Asia's largest bus terminus, the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus. On the first of June , 2009, to celebrate their first anniversary, the Government of Karnataka and the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation flagged off a pro-poor bus service called the Atal Sarige. The service aims to provide low-cost connectivity to the economically backward sections of the society to the nearest major bus station.

2. Auto Rickshaws

An auto rickshaw is a three wheeler vehicle for hire that has no doors and is generally characterized by a small cabin for the driver in the front and a seat for passengers in the rear. Generally it is painted in yellow, green or black color and has a black, yellow or green canopy on the top, but designs vary considerably from place to place.

In Mumbai and other metropolitan cities, 'autos' or 'ricks' as they are popularly known have regulated metered fares. A recent law prohibits auto rickshaw drivers from charging more than the specified fare, or charging night-fare before midnight, and also prohibits the driver from refusing to go to a particular location. Mumbai is also the only city which prohibits these vehicles from entering a certain part of the city, in this case being South Mumbai. In Chennai, it is common to see auto rickshaw drivers demand more than the specified fare and refuse to use fare meter.

Airports and railway stations at many cities such as Bengaluru, and Hubballi-Dharwad provide a facility of prepaid auto booths, where the passenger pays a fixed fare as set by the authorities for various locations.

3. Taxi

Most of the traditional taxicabs in India are either Premier Padmini or Hindustan Ambassador cars. In recent years, cars such as Chevrolet Tavera, Maruti Esteem, Maruti Omni, Mahindra Logan, Tata Indica, Toyota Innova and Tata Indigo have become fairly popular among taxi operators. The livery of the taxis in India varies from state-to-state. In Delhi and Maharashtra, most taxicabs have yellow-black livery while in West Bengal, taxis have yellow livery. Private taxi operators are not required to have a specific livery. However, they are required by law to be registered as commercial vehicles.

Depending on the city/state, taxis can either be hailed or hired from taxi-stands. In cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, taxis need to be hired over phone, whereas in cities like Kolkata and Mumbai, taxis can be hailed on the street. According to government of India regulations, all taxis are required to have a fare-meter installed. There are additional surcharges for luggage, late-night rides and toll taxes are to be paid by the passenger. Since 2006, radio taxis have become increasingly popular with the public due to reasons of safety and convenience.

In cities and localities where taxis are expensive or do not ply as per the government or municipal regulated fares, people use share taxis. These are normal taxis which carry one or more passengers travelling to destinations either en route to the final destination, or near the final destination. The passengers are charged according to the number of people with different destinations. A similar system exists for auto rickshaws, known as share autos.

The city of Mumbai will soon be the first city in India, to have an "in-taxi" magazine, titled MumBaee, which will be issued to taxis which are part of the Mumbai Taxi men’s Union. The magazine is set to debut on the 13 July, 2009.

4. Rail

The present suburban railway services in India are extremely limited and are operational only in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi. The first rapid transit system in India, the Kolkata Suburban Railway, was established in Kolkata in 1854. First service ran between Howrah and Hooghly covering a distance of 38.6 km (24 miles). This is followed by Mumbai Suburban Railway which began services in Mumbai in 1867. It transports 63 lakh (6.3 million) passengers everyday and has the highest passenger density in the world. Apart from these, Kolkata has acicular rail line and Chennai has an elevated rail transit called MRTS. Kolkata was the first city in India to possess a subterranean rapid transport system, the Kolkata Metro, whose operations commenced in 1984. At present, three metro lines are operational in Delhi and more are under construction there. Rapid transit systems are also under construction in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Ahmadabad and Mumbai.

Rapid transit systems have been proposed in Thane, Pune, Kanpur, Luckhnow, Amritsar and Kochi. Mumbai will soon be one of the two cities in India to have a monorail network, the Mumbai Monorail, which is presently under construction. There is also a monorail system being planned in Kolkata. The Konkan Railway Corporation had patented a suspended monorail system called the Skybus Metro in Margao, but this is yet to be implemented anywhere on a commercial scale following an accident in 2004. A two-track elevated corridor has been proposed above the existing Western Railway line between the stations of Church gate and Virar in Mumbai for air-conditioned EMUs.

5. Two – Wheelers

Motorized two-wheelers like scooters, small capacity motorcycles and mopeds are very popular as a mode of transport due to their fuel efficiency and ease of use in congested traffic. The number of two-wheelers sold is several times that of cars. There were 4.75 crore (47.5 million) powered two wheelers in India in 2003 compared with just 86 lakh (8.6 million) cars. Hero Honda, Honda, TVS Motors and Bajaj Auto are the largest two-wheeler companies in terms of market-share. Royal Enfield, an iconic brand name in the country, manufactures different variants of the Bullet motorcycle which is regarded as a classic motorcycle that is still in production.

Manufacture of scooters in India started when Automobile Products of India (API), set up at Mumbai and incorporated in 1949, began assembling Innocenti-built Lambretta scooters in India post independence. They eventually acquired license for the Li150 series model, of which they began full-fledged production from the early sixties onwards. In 1972, Scooters India Ltd (SIL), a state-run enterprise based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, bought the entire manufacturing rights of the last Innocenti Lambretta model. API has infrastructural facilities at Mumbai, Aurangabad, and Chennai but has been non-operational since 2002. SIL stopped producing scooters in 1998.

Motorcycles and scooters can be rented in many cities. Wearing protective headgear is mandatory for both the rider and the pillion-rider in most cities.

6. Automobiles

Private vehicles account for 30% of the total transport demand in urban areas of India. Averages of 963 new private vehicles are registered every day in Delhi alone. The number of automobiles produced in India rose from 63 lakh (6.3 million) in 2002-03 to 1.1 crore (11.2 million) in 2008-09. However, India still has a very low rate of car ownership. When comparing car ownership between BRIC developing countries, it is on a par with China, and exceeded by Brazil and Russia. Compact cars, especially hatchbacks predominate due to affordability, fuel efficiency, congestion, and lack of parking space in most cities. Maruti, Hyundai and Tata Motors are the most popular brands in the order of their market share. The Ambassador once had a monopoly but is now an icon of pre-liberalization India, and is still used by taxi companies. Maruti 800 launched in 1984 created the first revolution in the Indian auto sector because of its low pricing. It had the highest market share until 2004, when it was overtaken by other low cost models from Maruti such as the Alto and the Wagon R, the Indica from Tata Motors and the Santro from Hyundai. Over the 20 year period since its introduction, about 24 lakh (2.4 million) units of the Maruti 800 have been sold. However, with the launch of the Tata Nano, the least expensive production car in the world, this is under threat.

India is also known for a variety of indigenous vehicles made in villages out of simple motors and vehicle spare-parts. A few of these innovations are the Jugaad, Maruta, Chhakda, and the Fame.

In the city of Bengaluru, Radio One and the Bangalore Traffic Police, launched a carpooling drive which is has involved celebrities such as Robin Uthappa, and Rahul Dravid encouraging the public to carpool. The initiative got a good response, and by the end of May 2009, 10,000 people are said to have carpooled in the city.

7. Utility vehicles

The first utility vehicle in India was manufactured by Mahindra and Mahindra. It was a copy of the original Jeep and was manufactured under license. The vehicle was an instant hit and made Mahindra one of the top companies in India. The Indian Army and police extensively use Mahindra vehicles along with Maruti Gypsy for transporting personnel and equipment.

Tata Motors, the automobile manufacturing arm of the Tata Group, launched its first utility vehicle, the Tata Sumo, in 1994. The Sumo, owing to its then-modern design, captured a 31% share of the market within two years. The Tempo trax from Force Motors till recently was ruling the rural areas. Sports utility vehicles now form a sizeable part of the passenger vehicle market. Models from Tata, Honda, Hyundai, Ford, Chevrolet and other brands are available.

    B)  Long distance transport

1.  Railways

Rail services in India, first introduced in 1853, are provided by the state-run Indian Railways, under the supervision of the Ministry of Railways. Indian Railways provides an important mode of transport in India, transporting over 18 million passengers and more than 2 million tonnes of freight daily across one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world. By 1947, the year of India's independence, there were forty-two rail systems. In 1951 the systems were nationalized as one unit, becoming one of the largest networks in the world. Indian Railways is divided into sixteen zones, which are further sub-divided into sixty seven divisions, each having a divisional headquarters. The rail network traverses through the length and breadth of the country, covering 6,909 stations over a total route length of around 63,465 km (39,435 mi). It is the world's largest commercial or utility employer, with more than 1.4 million employees. As to rolling stock, IR owns over 200,000 (freight) wagons, 50,000 coaches and 8,000 locomotives. It also owns locomotive and coach production facilities. It operates both long distance and suburban rail systems on a multi-gauge network of broad, metre and narrow gauges, and is in the process of converting the entire metre gauge (14,406 km (8,951 mi)) into broad gauge in a project called Project Uni- gauge.

Kashmir Railway is the second highest in the world and the first phase was completed in 2009. Proposals have been made to introduce high-speed rail in India. A proposal has been made to build a Maglev track within the city of Mumbai, connecting it to the National Capital of New Delhi, as well as other parts of Maharashtra in the form of the Mumbai Maglev. Another proposal has been made to introduce a High-speed rail in India similar to that of the Shinkansen of Japan.

In 1999, the Konkan Railway Corporation introduced the Roll On Roll Off (RORO) service, a unique road-rail synergy system, on the section between Kolad in Maharashtra and Verna in Goa, which was extended up to Surathkal in Karnataka in 2004. The RORO service, the first of its kind in India, allowed trucks to be transported on flatbed trailers. It was highly popular, carrying about 1,10,000 trucks and bringing in about Rs.74 crore worth of earnings to the corporation till 2007.

2. Road

India has a network of National Highways connecting all the major cities and state capitals, forming the economic backbone of the country. As of 2005, India has a total of 66,590 km of National Highways, of which 200 km are classified as expressways. Under National Highways Development Project (NHDP), work is under progress to equip some of the important national highways with four lanes; also there is a plan to convert some stretches of these roads to six lanes. However congestion and bureaucratic delays enroute ensure that trucking goods from Gurgaon to the port in Mumbai can take up to 10 days.

As per the National Highways Authority of India, about 65% of freight and 80% passenger traffic is carried by the roads. The National Highways carry about 40% of total road traffic, though only about 2% of the road network is covered by these roads. Average growth of the number of vehicles has been around 10.16% per annum over recent years. Highways have facilitated development along the route and many towns have sprung up along major highways.

All national highways are metalled, but very few are constructed of concrete, the most notable being the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. In recent years construction has commenced on a nationwide system of multi-lane highways, including the Golden Quadrilateral and North-South and East-West Corridors which link the largest cities in India. In 2000, around 40% of villages in India lacked access to all-weather roads and remained isolated during the monsoon season. To improve rural connectivity, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (Prime Minister's Rural Road Program), a project funded by the Central Government with the help of World Bank, was launched in 2000 to build all-weather roads to connect all habitations with a population of 500 or above (250 or above for hilly areas).

As per 1999 estimates, the total road length in India is 3,319,644 km (2,062,731 mi); out of which paved roads cover 1,517,077 km (942,668 mi) and unpaved roads cover 1,802,567 km (1,120,063 mi). The Indian road network of 3,300,000 km (2,050,000 mi) is second largest in the world and consists of.

Type of Road	Length
Expressways	200 km (120 mi)
National Highways	66,590 km (41,380 mi)
State Highways	131,899 km (81,958 mi)
Major District Roads	467,763 km (290,654 mi)
Rural and Other Roads	2,650,000 km (1,650,000 mi)
Total Length	3,300,000 km (2,050,000 mi) (Approx)

Buses are an important means of public transport in India, particularly in the countryside and remote areas where the rail network cannot be accessed and airline operations are few or non-existent. Due to this social significance, public bus transport is predominantly owned and operated by public agencies, and most state governments operate bus services through a State Road Transport Corporation. These corporations, introduced in the 1960s and 1970s, have proven extremely useful in connecting villages and towns across the country.

3. Water transport

Maritime transportation in India is managed by the Shipping Corporation of India, a government-owned company that also manages offshore and other marine transport infrastructure in the country. It owns and operates about 35% of Indian tonnage and operates in practically all areas of shipping business servicing both national and international trades. It has a fleet of 79 ships of 27 lakh GT (48 lakh DWT) and also manages 53 research, survey and support vessels of 1.2 Lakh GT (0.6 Lakh DWT) on behalf of various government departments and other organizations. Personnel are trained at the Maritime Training Institute in Mumbai, a branch of the World Maritime University, which was set up in 1987. The Corporation also operates in Malta and Iran through joint ventures.

India has an extensive network of inland waterways in the form of rivers, canals, backwaters and creeks. The total navigable length is 14,500 kilometers (9,000 mi), out of which about 5200 km of river and 485 km of canals can be used by mechanized crafts. Freight transport by waterways is highly underutilized in India compared to other large countries. The total cargo moved by inland waterways is just 0.15% of the total inland traffic in India, compared to the corresponding figures of 20% for Germany and 32% for Bangladesh. Cargo transport in an organized manner is confined to a few waterways in Goa, West Bengal, Assam and Kerala. The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is the statutory authority in charge of the waterways in India. It does the function of building the necessary infrastructure in these waterways, surveying the economic feasibility of new projects and also administration and regulation.

4. Aviation

But rapid economic growth in India has made air travel more affordable. Air India, India's flag carrier, presently operates a fleet of 147 aircraft and plays a major role in connecting India with the rest of the world. Several other foreign airlines connect Indian cities with other major cities across the globe.

Kingfisher Airlines, Air India and Jet Airways are the most popular brands in domestic air travel in order of their market share. These airlines connect more than 80 cities across India and also operate overseas routes after the liberalization of Indian aviation. However, a large section of country's air transport system remains untapped, even though the Mumbai-Delhi air corridor was ranked 6th by the Official Airline Guide in 2007 among the world's busiest routes.

India's vast unutilized air transport network has attracted several investments in the Indian air industry in the past few years. More than half a dozen low-cost carriers entered the Indian market in 2004-05. Major new entrants include Air Deccan, Kingfisher Airlines, SpiceJet, GoAir, Paramount Airways and IndiGo Airlines. To meet India's rapidly increasing demand for air travel, Air India recently placed orders for more than 68 jets from Boeing for 7.5 billion USD while Indian placed orders for 43 jets from Airbus for 2.5 billion USD. Jet Airways, India's largest private carrier, has invested millions of dollars to increase its fleet, but this has been put on hold due to the recent economic slowdown. This trend is not restricted to traditional air carriers in India. IndiGo Airlines entered the limelight when it announced orders for 100 Airbus A320s worth 6 billion USD during the Paris Air Show; the highest by any Asian domestic carrier. Kingfisher Airlines became the first Indian air carrier in June 15, 2005 to order Airbus A380 aircraft. The total deal with Airbus was worth 3 billion USD.

Conclusion

The rapid growth of India’s urban population has put enormous strains on all transport systems. Rapidly increasing travel demand far exceeds the limited supply of transport infrastructure and services. Public transport, in particular, has been completely overwhelmed. Most bus and train services are overcrowded, undependable, slow, inconvenient, uncoordinated, and dangerous. Moreover, the public ownership and operation of most public transport services has greatly reduced productivity and inflated costs. India’s cities desperately need improved and expanded public transport service. Unfortunately, government’s financial assistance and the complete lack of any supportive policies, such as traffic priority for buses, places public transport in an almost impossible situation.

Indian cities cannot afford to cater only to private cars and two-wheelers and there has to be a general recognition that policy should be designed in such a way that it reduces the need to travel by personalized modes and boosts public transport system. This requires both an increase in quantity as well as quality of public transport and effective use of demand as well as supply-side management measures. At the same time, people should be encouraged to walk and cycle and government should support investments that make cycling and walking safer.

Passenger mobility in urban India relies heavily on its roads. Although rail-based transport services are available in a few megacities, they hardly play any role in meeting the transport demand in other million plus cities. Considering the financial health of various levels of governments (central, state, and local) and the investment required to improve the rail-based mass transport system, it is evident that bus transport will have to play a major role in providing passenger transport services in Indian cities in the future. It is amply clear that among the various modes of road based passenger transport, bus occupies less road space and causes less pollution per passenger-km than personalized modes

Business Process Outsourcing

Introduction

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a form of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of specific business functions (or processes) to a third-party service provider. Originally, this was associated with manufacturing firms, such as Coca Cola that outsourced large segments of its supply chain. In the contemporary context, it is primarily used to refer to the outsourcing of services.

BPO is typically categorized into back office outsourcing - which includes internal business functions such as human resources or finance and accounting, and front office outsourcing - which includes customer-related services such as contact center services. BPO that is contracted outside a company's country is called offshore outsourcing. BPO that is contracted to a company's neighboring (or nearby) country is called near shore outsourcing. Given the proximity of BPO to the information technology industry; it is also categorized as an information technology enabled service or ITES. Knowledge process out sourcing (KPO) and legal process outsourcing (LPO) are some of the sub-segments of business process outsourcing industry.

India has revenues of 10.9 billion USD from offshore BPO and 30 billion USD from IT and total BPO. India thus has some 5-6% share of the total BPO Industry, but a commanding 63% share of the offshore component. This 63% is a drop from the 70% offshore share that India enjoyed last year, despite the industry growing 38% in India last year, other locations like Eastern Europe, Philippines, Morocco, Egypt and South Africa have emerged to take a share of the market. China is also trying to grow from a very small base in this industry. However, while the BPO industry is expected to continue to grow in India, its market share of the offshore piece is expected to decline. Important centers in India are Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and New Delhi. The top five Indian BPO exporters for 2006-2007 according to NASSCOM are Genpact, WNS Global Services, Transworks Information Services, IBM Daksh, and TCS BPO.

Threats Possessed by BPO’s

 Risk is the major drawback with Business Process Outsourcing. Outsourcing of an Information System, for example, can cause security risks both from a communication and from a privacy perspective. For example, security of North American or European company data is more difficult to maintain when accessed or controlled in the Sub-Continent. From a knowledge perspective, a changing attitude in employees, underestimation of running costs and the major risk of losing independence, outsourcing leads to a different relationship between an organization and its contractor.

Risks and threats of outsourcing must therefore be managed, to achieve any benefits. In order to manage outsourcing in a structured way, maximizing positive outcome, and minimizing risks and avoiding any threats, a Business Continuity Management (BCM) model is setup. BCM consists of a set of steps, to successfully identify, manage and control the business processes that are, or can be outsourced.

Business Process Outsourcing in India

The business process outsourcing industry in India refers to the services outsourcing industry in India, catering mainly to Western operations of multinational corporations (MNCs).

As of 2008, around 0.7 million people work in outsourcing sector (less than 0.1% of Indians). Annual revenues are around $11 billion, around 1% of GDP. Around 2.5 million people graduate in India every year. Wages are rising by 10-15 percent as a result of skill shortage.

History

Airlines

In the early 1980s several European airlines started using Delhi as a base for back office operations, British Airways being one among them. The BA captive was finally spun off as a separate organization called WNS Global Services in 2002.

Amex

In the second half of the 1980s, American Express consolidated its JAPAC (Japan and Asia Pacific) back office operations into New Delhi and NCR region. This center was headed by Raman Roy, and has been a source of several leading names in the Indian BPO Industry.

General Electric

In the 1990s Jack Welch was influenced by K.P. Singh, (A Delhi based realtor) to look at Gurgaon in the NCR region as a base for back office operations. Pramod Bhasin, the India head of G.E. hired Raman Roy and several of his management from American Express to start this enterprise called GECIS (GE Capital International Services). Raman for the first time tried out voice operations out of India, the India operations also was the Beta site for GE Six sigma enterprise. The results made GE ramp up their Indian presence and look at other locations. In 2004 GECIS was spun off as a separate legal entity by GE, called Genpact. GE has retained a 40% stake and sold a 60% stake for $500 million to two equity companies, Oak Hill Capital Partners and General Atlantic Partners.

Third party BPO's

Until G.E most of the work was being done by "captives"- a term used for in house work being done for the parent organization. In 2000 Raman Roy and some team members from GECIS quit, and with VC funding from Chrysalis Capital started Spectra mind. At the same time an organization called EXL started in Noida and Efunds started in Mumbai and Gurgaon, and Daksh in Gurgaon. However, recently most of the Indian BPO's even smaller and mid-sized ones are actually setting-up their onshore presence. Most of the serious players are actually improving the outsourced business processes by leveraging on years of experience and now some of them are directly competing with their own older client base by marking this transition to KPO 's.

 Entry of IT majors

In 2002 Spectra mind was bought by software major Wipro, and BPO by then had become main stream like the IT Industry in India. The team that had setup Spectra mind went on to start Quatrro in 2006, a BPO specializing in high end BPO/KPO services. By 2002 all major Indian software organizations were into BPO, including Infosys (Progeon), Inforlinx, HCL, Satyam (Nipuna) and Patni. By 2003 Daksh was bought out by IBM, and later in 2006 MphasiS was acquired by EDS. Even international 3rd party BPO players like Convergys and Sitel had set up shop in India, swelling the BPO movement to India. Then service arms of organizations like Accenture, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Dell also set up shop in India.

Emergence of Rural BPOs

Booming India Inc has led to skyrocketing real estate and infrastructure costs in Tier-1 cities. BPO industry has thrived all these years because of its ability to deliver services at a low cost. Increasing infrastructure costs, real estate costs, and salaries have raised BPO costs significantly and as a result Indian BPOs in Tier-1 cities are looking at Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities for operation.

Few entrepreneurs who had a vision of bringing the rural India into the mainstream of knowledge economy have found an opportunity here - setting Rural BPOs. The transformation of rural India started with the emergence of these Rural BPOs. The major hurdle that these BPOs faced is quality man power. As a result these rural BPOs have remained targeting low end jobs like data entry.

Challenges to outsourcing services in India

Many analysts believe that the growth of India outsourcing sector is widely optimistic and it will slow down in future. Both IT and BPO sector is extremely dependent in USA and if the US dollar depreciates can adversely impact the entire sector. Additionally countries like China, Mexico and Vietnam are also expanding outsourcing operations and often providing cheaper services.

Leading BPO cities in India

Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, NCR (New Delhi, Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, NOIDA, Greater Noida, Jaipur, Lucknow, Dehradun, Rewari, Ghaziabad), Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata are Tier I cities that are leading IT cities in India.

With rising infrastructure costs in these cities, many BPO's are shifting operations to Tier II cities like Nashik, Aurangabad (Maharashtra), Mangalore, Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum, Coimbatore, Madurai, Hosur, Nagpur, Kochi, Trivandrum, Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar, Jaipur, Vishakapatnam and Lucknow

Tier II cities offer lower business process overhead compared to Tier I cities, but may have a less reliable infrastructure system which may hamper dedicated operations. The Government of India in partnership with private infrastructure corporations is working on bringing all around development and providing robust infrastructure all over the nation.

BPO Attrition

Attrition means “A reduction in the number of employees through retirement, resignation or death”  In the best of worlds, employees would love their jobs, like their co-workers, work hard for their employers, get paid well for their work, have ample chances for advancement, and flexible schedules so they could attend to personal or family needs when necessary. And never leave. But then there’s the real world. And in the real world, employees, do leave, either because they want more money, hate the working conditions, hate their co-workers, want a change, or because their spouse gets a dream job in another state. There are massive costs associated with attrition or turnover and, while some of these are not visible to the management reporting or budget system, they are none the less real. 

Perhaps the greatest HR challenge facing globally distributed back-office and customer care centers is the retention of talented employees. Interviewees described attrition rates ranging from 15 to 50 percent in particularly active labor markets within countries such as India. While some attrition in this industry is expected and may be beneficial, firms are concerned about not recouping their upfront investments in people. Clearly, employee retention is being influenced by a number of different factors. The demand for experienced individuals, particularly at the supervisory level, is prompting firms to use signing bonuses and salary increases to entice talented individuals to switch firms. Also, these back-office and customer care centers – particularly those that are focused on working directly with customers – are often high-pressure, stressful environments. Contact centers are often required to meet fairly stringent service level agreements regarding expected call volumes and
average call length. These expectations cascade down to employees, and, as a result, many front-line workers face extremely demanding workloads. Given these conditions, many workers opt to leave the company soon after the firm has invested in their recruitment and training.

Why People leave BPO’s

The reason for the high rate of attrition in the BPO sector particularly call centre segment range from lack of comfort of enrichment potential in terms of career growth. The growth of BPO industry is mainly depending on the cost effectiveness and quality of the manpower. Attrition is not a new problem and it has existed earlier and will continue to exist in any industry.

In spite of the salaries and facilities being high (especially for a graduate who starts his / her career with a BPO company) the average attrition rate is very high in this industry. There are numerous reasons for the attrition to be high which can be categorized into two broad classifications.

The first can be coined as “Drive Attrition” which is caused due to the employer; the second one can be termed as “Drag Attrition” which is caused due to the employee.

The reasons for Drive Attrition are due to employer’s policy / policies of terminating the employee at the end of the contract period for employment. Also the quality policy of the BPO companies guides them to retain only the most productive employee and hence makes them to terminate employee at regular intervals. A BPO company operates 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. Graveyard shifts and odd hours which suit the foreign clients create lot of problems to the employees. Symptoms of Insomnia and even depression are caused due to change of 24-hour biological rhythm of the body, and also, loss of employee’s personal life hence Drive attrition rate shoots up.
The companies do not have a particular day as weekly off for its employees. The employees are not even entitled for national holidays declared by Government of India, as the company works with client calendar. The call agents can avail leave (which should not affect the schedule) only with prior consent, and any unauthorized absence is a sufficient reason for terminating an employee.

Drag Attrition is basically due to the host of insecurities and vulnerabilities associated with the taking up a career with a BPO company. They are:-


1. No Career Prospects
The job of a call center agent (to start off) can be compared to a telemarketing or a telephone operator. Hence the scope to take up any other job (in case needed) or change of field is ruled out, as the experience gained in a call center will not be an iota of importance. Many others quit, as the chance to climb up the corporate ladder is bleak. Only a few very get promoted to the cadre of team leader and as soon as promotions are announced the many of frustrated employees quit.

2. Lack of Creativity
The work in the BPO Company needs no new creativity which adds to the enthusiasm of the employee. Voice Calls are the only thing which governs the activity of the BPO. Further BPO company work does not provide any scope for skill up gradation for the employee. The employer trains the employee to speak good English and nothing else which adds to the Drive attrition rate.

3. Monotony of work
The job remains same as to call clients and talk business. Same kind of lines repeated in the calls from the login point to logout point. Employees are bored of the same talks all through their working hours which lead to mental fatigue. Also the same kind of techniques and no manual intervention, everything is done technologically which makes a person as a robot which ultimately leads to fatigue.

4. Stressful Job
Also the nature of job in a typical BPO company is psychologically very stressful. The working hours are artificially created which affect the natural rhythm of human body. The symptoms of chronic fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, peptic ulcer, insomnia and even d The daily targets fixed to achieve push employees to work harder and harder leading to stress.

5. Switching jobs for high salaries
Poaching of employees by other competitive BPOs for higher salaries drives them to change jobs. The employees expect salary revision once in 4-6 months and if not they move to other organizations because of the rapid growth of the industry. Sometimes due to personal reasons like getting married (especially for the male employees) or falling in love or change of place.

6. Drive towards Higher Education
Most of the employees with professional degrees like BE, MCA and others appear for higher education or grooming them, for highly specialized courses quickly move out.

HR Strategies Adopted to control Attrition Rate

Companies have different other kinds of strategies adopted to tackle the problem of retaining human capital. It ranges from cash incentives to career concern for the employee. As only 5 out of 150 employees become team leaders in a year, companies like Daksh services and Global Vantedge believe that cash incentives are a great way to get employees to stay on. They are also offering management diplomas and MBA courses to their employees, as most fresh graduates want to study further.

1. Group Medi-claim Insurance Scheme; Personal Accident Insurance Scheme; This scheme is to provide adequate insurance coverage for Hospitalization expenses arising out of injuries sustained in an accident. This covers total / partial disablement / death due to accident and due to accidents. 

2. Subsidized Food and Transportation; BPO’S provide transportation facility to all the employees from home till office at subsidized rates or even at zero cost. Lunch is also provided free of cost.

3. Company Leased Accommodation; Some of the companies provides shared accommodation for all the out station employees,

4. Recreation, Cafeteria, ATM, gym and Concierge facilities; The recreation facilities include pool tables, chess tables and coffee bars. BPO’S Companies also have well equipped gyms, personal trainers and showers at facilities.

5. Personal Health Care (Regular medical check-ups); Some of the BPO'S provides the facility for extensive health check-up. For employees with above 40 years of age, the medical check-up are given once in a year.

6. Loans; Many BPO companies provide loan facility on different occasions like, during the times of medical emergency, at the time of their wedding, also new recruits are provided with interest free loans to assist them in their initial settlement at the work location

7. Giving employees a choice of rewards; Rewards are as different as the people who receive them and it doesn't make sense to give rewards that recipients don't find rewarding. Some people are excited about sports events, others about movies. Some employees would love a dinner in a romantic restaurant, others a book by their favorite author. Food, fun, education, improved work environment, gifts, travel, family-oriented activities - the options are endless. 

8. Performance Incentives; Bonuses and incentives are paid after every quarter if the employee sustains in the organization and he gets extra rewards if his performance exceeds the target assigned to him.

9. Present Recruitment Strategies Adopted To Retain Human Capital
The Recruitment Manager keeps on innovating new techniques to hire the best of the best people and the strategies are continuously renewed as per the changing scenario. Considering the High Attrition rates the organization plans a very effective policy at the entry level (recruitment) which ultimately helps in sustaining human resource for the benefit of the organization.

Exl Service.com and ICICI one source hires outstation candidate Mainly Non-Metros. Also for leading call centers like 24/7 customer and MsourceE non metro talent currently constitutes nearly 25-35 per cent of total hiring, and the main reason for this to happen is to reduce attrition rate
Many companies like HCL Tech BPO Services, GTL, Tracmail, and Vertex India use various IQ and EQ tests to get people who can work at night and can handle the monotony. They also believe that giving career counseling and planning career paths to its employee help to control attrition.

Some of the BPO firms have adapted to the strategy of employing housewives and retired school teachers. They believe that this would help in controlling attrition, as they feel that the tendency and the potential of the employed to get shifted would reduce drastically.
Where as some other BPO majors like Wipro’s Spectra mind believes that recruiting the undergraduates itself is a strategy to control attrition. Spectra mind removed the graduation prerequisite for their employees in order to keep human resource level from waning.
Selection of able individuals in the interview process with a tough HR Selection round , Which identifies able executives who have the innate skills required for the job and who are more likely to play a long innings in the organization.
As per IBM policy, recruitments are done in bulk considering the high attrition rate and recruitments are done regularly. Hiring in bulk reduces the supply factor of the equilibrium and it keeps the work of the organization going. The demand supply disparity is lessened with high availability of the staff and keeps the company at the safer side.
Employees with short span of experience (4 – 6 months) are hired and they are likely to be placed at a higher level which keeps them stable in the job and saves the training costs to the company. 

Conclusion

The Indian BPO industry has been growing and maturing and has established itself a major outsourcing hub. As of today, India’s share of the global offshore outsourcing market for software and back office services is more than 40 percent. The sector employees more than 7,00,000 people. However, comparing past growth trends with the significant future market opportunity, the Indian BPO sector can set itself a stretched target of US $ 50 billion in export revenues by 2012. Such a growth in the Indian BPO market will add nearly 2.5 percent directly to India’s GDP from exports earnings and provide direct employment to about 2 million people.

There are certain challenges arising out of the financial meltdown in the consumer markets of USA and Europe some of which is as under:

A. Emerging risks & exposure in the market place

• Increasing Global Competition
• Subprime mortgage crisis and subsequent financial problems
• Slackening Consumer demand and currency risks
• China is investing heavily to catch up in the service sector

B. Existing risks & exposure in the domestic industry

• Rising Cost and non-availability of labor
• Infrastructure deficiency and gaps which need to be covered on an immediate basis
• The ‘Talent gap’ would have huge consequences for the services sector and has the potential to be a dampener to the India growth story by as early as 2012.

C. Challenges arising out of fiscal & monetary policies

• STP Units are to lose income tax benefits
• High Interest Rates,
• Lack of foreign exchange liquidity and pressure on domestic liquidity

D. Challenges arising out of Non fiscal issues

• Terrorism , Threats of war , Global warming (State & City Level Responses , Citizen ID Program , Civilian and homeland security must be taken seriously)
• Risk to India’s GDP
• The likely impact of the slowdown in the Business Process Industry could effect as follows -
• Loss of jobs
• Loss of INDIA’S BRAND EQUITY in the global market as a leader in BPO services
• Loss of confidence level within Indian industry as BPO employees start hunting for jobs in other Industry verticals, as the BPO industry has always been associated with liberalization and reforms.

Suggestions

The likelihood and impact of the risk to GDP is significant for the Government to look at adequate response. We suggest the following risk response, sooner than later so that the negative impact gets addressed and contained well in advance:

1.     Financial Package at all levels of BPO’s as Domestic / International & Rural BPOs so that jobs can be generated. Each level of BPO’s work at different segments and price points. Together they make Indian BPO a competitive brand.

2.     Incentives for skill development and secondary education in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

      3. Removal of “Bank Guarantee/Large Deposits “for carrying out Domestic/         

            International Calling from the same premises.