East to cash in on BPO boom

Kolkata is on the BPO radar of multi-national companies and is most likely to become a secondary delivery location, according to Webel India, and international BPO consultants.

Kolkata offers a unique and lucrative mix of access to qualified talent pool, a well balanced power infrastructure, road and air connectivity, a relatively lower cost of running business, and upcoming government incentives.

Leaders in the BPO business in the country are Bangalore, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune.

"The east is fast coming up as a challenger to these already established destinations with Bhubaneshwar and Kolkata catching up in the race to gain more BPO companies," said Vinu B Kartha, pricipal, Tholons Consultants.

"These cities have branded themselves well to place themselves on the BPO radar," he added.

A survey of the fresh graduates in the country shows that while Delhi-NCR accounts for three lakh available graduates, about 40 per cent of it is from the east migrating to Delhi. Kolkata and Bhubaneshwar together account for around one lakh graduates every year.

The salary at entry levels showed a marked difference, as well. This is reflected in the Consumer Price Indices for Urban Non-Manual Employees for October 2004 as per CSO ( Central statistical Organisation).

"The average salary range for fresh graduates in Kolkata ranges around Rs 1.1 lakh (for non-voice BPO) to 1.52 lakh (for Voice BPO), according to the survey done by leading HR agencies," informed Kartha.

"There is a potential saving of 20 to 40 per cent over Bangalore, if one shifts operations to the eastern cities," he remarked.

NASSCOM-Gartner ranks Kolkata's power availability and quality to be the best in the country.

"Our power infrastructure is much more reliable compared to the other industrial belts. And our state offers a competent tariff rate as well," commented Aloke Bhattacharya, advisor to Webel.

Another potential area for growth identified by Bhattacharya is KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing). "The global KPO is estimated to be at $17 billion dollars by 2010, of which around $12 billion is expected to be directed to India.