The Hindu : Candidates urged to clarify stand on hartal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 01, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Candidates urged to clarify stand on hartal

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MARCH 31. The former Technopark CEO, G. Vijaya Raghavan, has expressed fears about the huge loss in employment opportunities owing to the series of hartals, bandhs and general strikes.

In an open letter to all political leaders and people belonging to all walks of life, Mr. Vijaya Raghavan said that the time had come for the electorate of the State to use the power of the ballot to isolate those who support hartals, bandhs and general strikes as a method of protest.

He said that the country's GDP growth in real terms has been about 6 per cent a year. Fewer than 10 countries in the world have performed better. In contrast, Kerala's industrial and agricultural economy has been stagnating, with the State still heavily dependent on non-resident Keralites' remittances. He said that Kerala, which was perhaps the last bastion of Nehruvian socialism in the country, was in a time warp, except for the limited liberalisation that has taken place in the education sector.

Despite all the drawbacks that Kerala has at present, there are two major sectors, business process outsourcing and health tourism, which still held enormous possibilities for Kerala and which best suited the State in terms of compatibility with its resource endowments. According to Mr. Vijaya Raghavan, India will be the single largest source of surplus employable workforce with the widest range of skill sets to meet the global shortage in employable workforce.

"The economics of outsourcing are so compelling that it is a win-win proposition to both developed and developing countries. So far only a fraction of the companies are engaged in outsourcing and only a fraction of the services that can be outsourced are being outsourced," he pointed out. Quoting Forrester Research Inc. a global consulting group that specialises in Information Technology, Mr. Vijaya Raghavan said that it has been estimated that at least 33 lakh white-collar jobs and Rs. 2,30,000 crores in wages would shift from the U.S. to low-cost countries like India by 2015. India is emerging as one of the dominant players in the global offshore services market. Unlike in the past when companies in the software sector were talking of employing hundreds of engineers, the BPOs are employing thousands of young graduates in science, economics and commerce.

Most of these BPOs are located in and around Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. Although Kochi has tremendous cost advantages, the number of units the city has attracted was very low mainly because of the work culture and environment. Mr. Vijaya Raghavan contended that most of the BPO services like call centres operate for 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 52 weeks a year and are hyper sensitive to work disruption, be it hartal, bandh, strike or work to rule.

As far as health tourism is concerned, the developed countries are heading for a health crisis of incredible proportions. Health care costs are going up alarmingly, the population is ageing, and access to health insurance facilities are coming down, and health care system has become vulnerable. Countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore have been deriving huge benefits from health tourism. In Kerala, several leading hospitals could combine their resources - expertise, facilities and services for a joint campaign to promote the State as a destination for high-quality low-cost medical services. But this would be possible only if the State was free from work disruption such as hartal and bandhs.

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