Off shoring knowledge based jobs is now the order of the day, from small household businesses to corporate giants. Whether you stress on the quality or cost or just both, this is the best and the smartest option you have in your kitty. And, the country which made so possible is India.
Knowledge Process Outsourcing or KPO involves high-end diagnostic work such as financial analysis, research, animation, replication, product development, engineering design and creative writing.
Given the projections from all reliable sources, the knowledge process industry is to see a growth of 45% by 2010, which is a whopping $ 16 billion, out of which $ 12 billion would be off shored from India. This is 70% of the global off shore market, way ahead of China and Russia as the preferred destination. And, Kolkata, is in the forefront in putting India firmly on KPO map.
A survey jointly carried out by Cyber Medias Global Services Magazine and Tholons inc., an investment advisory group, draws up a chart of top 50 outsourcing cities in India where Kolkata is emerging at the helm of the list. Let me tell you here that the KPO industry is expected to see an annual compounded growth of 46% over the next few years.
A good chunk of the credit surely goes to the local Government to get the city firmly on the IT map and promoting knowledge industry in a big way.
The KPO boom in Kolkata is clearly apparent from the huge investments by Information Technology (IT) companies to set up their base in the city.
Hewitt Associates, a leading human resources outsourcing and consulting services, which conducted a survey of Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) locations in India, on parameters like availability of creative talents, connectivity, power supply etc., rated this city very high.
The city is in the verge of emerging as the most coveted destination for off shoring back-office operations of multinationals in the KPO/ BPO/ ITES as well as call centers. The $ 28 billion IT Park, located on a 10 acre site on the eastern fringe of the city is scheduled to be ready by the middle of next year. It will be on a modern format of IT-enabled workspace integrated with global standards of services and amenities. This Park will provide 1.3 million square feet of office space for IT companies and will be able to ample spaces for the IT segment to expand their software development, KPO/ BPO and call centre operations.
Kolkata’s Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 119 per cent in the IT sector is the highest in the country, compared to Bangalore’s CAGR of 29 per cent. At present there are more than 200 KPO/ BPO and call centre companies operating in the city with 21,000 professionals which is again at the peak of the graph. The city expects to employ 1, 75,000 people in IT sector and another 2, 30,000 in the ITES sector by 2010.
An IT Hub of 37 million square feet of space in the Eastern fringe of the city is also coming up very fast.
The ITES companies in Bengal have a history of performing high-end analytical work for overseas clients and it is likely that their volume of work will increase with time.
Kolkata..the land of talents!
Kolkata has an enviable rich tradition of creativity and intelligentsia right from its birth. Whether literature, paintings, sculptures, music, cinema..this city has never seen dearth of creativity. Rabindranath Thakur, Satyajit Ray, Pt. Ravi Shankar, Amartya Sen…the list of creative legends goes on.
This city is now determined to match global expectations on writing and content development creativity .
Ghostwriting and Kolkata
With the KPO boom in Kolkata, it has also become a hub of ghostwriting organizations. Kolkata today boasts of some of the premier ghostwriting organizations of the world; each employing from a humble 10, to a few hundred ghostwriters. The process of selection during recruitment is also done on the basis of merit and experience. With more and more ghostwriting organizations flocking to Kolkata, where there is no shortage of talents, ghostwriting fees are now lower than ever. Ghostwriting is now no more restricted to the elite. Common people and small business organizations are hiring these ‘affordable’ ghostwriters more frequently than ever before.