Kanpur, France in an English tie-up

English language teachers of Kanpur have started teaching the language to children in France. Local outfit BPO India, involved in e-learning and the call centre business, has facilitated this, with help from French company Playback, a publishing house specialising in children's books and magazines.

BPO India Chief Information Officer Sonam Saxena said that English had emerged as an international language, and therefore European countries, China, and Japan had realised the need to know English.

In France, the tutors charge between 30 and 40 pounds per hour. However, in India the rates are much lower. In Bangalore it is $7.5 per hour.

The method is this: When it is between 4 pm and 8 pm in France, a call is made to France and the student in France and the tutor in Kanpur open the same chapter and read from it. A month's results have been encouraging. The project is being supported both by the private sector and the French government.

"We have hired about ten teachers, who teach in schools till 2 am," Saxena said. BPO India provides them transport facilities.

"One teacher is able to deal with 12 to 16 children a day," Saxena said. From France, this is likely to spread to Germany and Japan as well. In China, the model is going to be different. It is not children, but adults who are learning the language. They are either businessmen, or executives, or the self-employed who want to go for international trading. For them too, we shall be making the same arrangement, with one difference. In France, only one child is taught at a time. But in China, the audience will be large. It will be based on the one-to-many concept. This should start working in the next two months' time."

The company hopes to earn about Rs1 crore in the calendar year 2006, said the company's chief administrative officer, Anuragh Srivastava.

BPO India started a call centre for the Asian Sky Shop. Since then, it has acquired many new clients.

The most important client is the Mahindra & Mahindra automotive division help line. The helpline functions for the whole country.

Whenever any of the company's models faces a breakdown, it is through the helpline that that the respective dealer is contacted, and the issue settled.

This 10-seat call centre is expected to fetch the company an annnual revenue of Rs 25 lakh.