Killer Growth

Last time I had written about how and why India cannot
experiment with trade unions in the IT industry today. I now realize that
challenges to India's growth is much more from growth itself, rather than
anything else.

The recent incidents in Delhi's satellite towns-Gurgaon and
Noida-are the most unfortunate. In case of Gurgaon, a gang of robbers murdered
over two dozen people, some of them associated with the booming BPO and call
center industry, for petty sums of money. And, in the case of Noida, the
three-year old son of the CEO of Adobe India has been kidnapped.

I do not need to remind readers that Noida and Gurgaon are the
engines of growth, for Delhi as well as India. These are the places where lots
of new companies from the world over are setting offices everyday, and existing
companies are expanding.

Only the naïve would be surprised at these developments. We
have all seen the rapid change of face in many of these locations where the
sunrise industries including IT and BPO have come up. Gurgaon, for instance, was
actually a very small town till recently, even after Suzuki set up its
manufacturing JV with Maruti, some 25 years back. It is only in the last 5 years
that Gurgaon got dotted with IT and BPO/call center operations. Because of this
there is sudden emergence of a huge population here that consists of people in
the 20 to 30 years age group. This group has a completely different lifestyle,
and is openly seen spending lots of money in self-indulgence. Besides Gurgaon
and Noida, one has seen similar criminal incidents from other similar locations
such as Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Clearly there is a gap that is building up-gaps in terms of
haves and have-nots, and gaps in terms of culture. Besides these crimes, one has
been hearing of increasing fist-fights and hooliganism from the youth from local
villages, at the late night pubs and other joints where a lot of these young
executives get together for fun.

Without getting into too many of these issues, let me come to
the point. Some parts of India are growing, and crime and conflict is soon
following. The Indian IT and BPO industry must realize that they will loose the
most from this. There is going to be a lot of media that these incidents will
get, and both national and international companies and people will not be very
keen to move there. This can have a big and long-term impact. While the
Government is focusing on building infrastructure, they must keep these
challenges in mind.

Also, many companies have been working on corporate social
responsibility work. They must now have this aspect also in the entire planning.
How do they involve young men and women who have aspirations to be part of the
IT and BPO boom ? What can they offer to school children, who will be looking
for jobs in the next few years ? Obviously, all this is not the complete
solution. The IT and BPO industry will have to impress upon the Government and
police that it is important that heinous crimes do not come in the way of growth
of this sector. Because if this sector grows, most probably a significant part
of the country is going to benefit.

And finally, the companies must themselves have awareness
programs for their people, telling them how to conduct their life, both in and
out of office, at a time when a lot of things they are doing are new, and
different, and might lead to unwanted attention, and resentment from those who
are not benefiting directly from the booming industries.

The author is Group Editor of Dataquest. ibrahima@cybermedia.co.in