State cashes in on BPO boom

The trend has been there for sometime,according to heads of several firms such as Kaushal Mehta,founder and chief executive of Motif Inc,which started in 2000 with 15 employees in Ahmedabad and now employs 1,300 worldwide with operations in Costa Rica,the Philippines and an office in the US. “We are a small global company,” said Mehta.

Jaimin Shah,a former head of the Gujarat Electronics and Software Industries Association (GESIA) and whose company deals with IT infrastructure,estimates the BPO sector is growing at the rate of 15 per cent annually,and is strong in Ahmedabad,Vadodara and Surat.

“Non-voice (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) is picking up,but voice BPOs are still more or less confined to metros in India. Gujarat’s cities are usually considered safe and inexpensive,so I think quite a number of workers are coming from other states. A big boon for the industry is that office space at an average Rs 25 per sq feet is quite cheap compared to the metros,” said Shah.

Shomindra Chakravarti,VP of QX Pvt Ltd which has both voice and non-voice operations,has a similar view. “The cost of office space is cheaper in Ahmedabad compared to other metro cities of India,” he said. “Last year,we saw a 20 per cent growth in employees and with recent number of new clients coming in,we are expecting it to increase by over 40 per cent this year,” he said,adding that there were just five employees when the company was set up in 2004.

QX’s country head Rajiv Bhatia said the sorry state of the world economy could help the sector further,especially in the state,since cost-cutting would be a common feature and Gujarat’s cities are still competitive in that area due to various factors.

GESIA president and head of SAI Infosystems Ltd Sunil Kakkad attributes the boon here to adverse factors in other states. “The metros have stretched infrastructure now. Office space is costly,commuting time is long,manpower is expensive,and I think girls feel uneasy to work late nights because of safety concerns. That way,Gujarat is one of the safest states. Also,the infrastructure cost is low but its quality is good,” Kakkad said.

He added that Vadodara is another boom town for BPOs for two factors that are not as present in Ahmedabad — a large number of students and the mindset of people there to work in companies rather than start their own business.