issue #14

India is still riding high on the BPO wave and it has brought about a sense of well-being among a sizable population. However, though "outsourcing" is a relatively new term for us, Indians are not knew to the "concept", which has been prevalent in several quarters of our society in different guises, and not always with benfecial results.

The first thing that comes to mind is the "outsourcing" prevalent among teachers in government sponsored schools in rural areas. For a long time now, many of these teachers are in the practise of recruiting local youth (of questionable educational background) to take charge of the school lessons for a small fraction of the money that they are paid by the government, while they live a dual life in the city and own flourishing businesses. That is one outsourcing that has cost our education system dearly.

And then, there is my housemaid! For months I have wondered why is it that she piles up my clothes dumped to be washed for a whole week (citing one excuse or the other- and I don't even understand her language enough to retort) and then, over the weekend the clothpile simple vanishes, and on Monday there are my clothes neatly laid out on the rack- not only cleaned but also ironed (of course she charges extra for that!). And then I managed to find out the truth- she outsources her work to the local dhobi(washerman) and manages to make a decent profit out of it!

On hearing this, my friend tells me that he's seen such incidents among municipal workers in his locality too! At B-Schools they say "delegation of work" is the key to management. I guess we Indians know that only too well.

-sumandatta
(editor)

PS1: thought you all should know, rags2riches predicted the FM's rehaul of all tax exemption sections, much before the budget proposal (in the new year resolutions article)! kudos to jksherdiwala.

PS2: please please please... comment on the works you read- even if it be a simple "good work" or "crap".... all of us here simple wait with bated breath for every single comment. thank you for helping us write better.

in today's issue:

shorts | rags2riches | critique | victuals