One night @ the rural call center

NEW DELHI: It’s 1.30 in the afternoon in the township of Nellore and Niranjan is getting ready for office. He picks up a neatly ironed check shirt and a pair of matching trousers to go with. Ask him where he is headed, and he will proudly tell you he is off to his BPO centre.

The exuberance is hard to ignore. This young man of 24 is one among the new breed of employees in upcountry India. Welcome to the world of rural BPOs-- an idea that has potential to dramatically change the way people look at rural and semi-urban workforce.

While rural BPOs are changing lives for the village youth, for many companies the trend accompanies a big relief from increasing costs and nagging attrition in their urban units. Little wonder then, rural BPOs are growing at an impressive 60 per cent clip, according to estimates.

Satyam’s GramIT, HDFC’s ADFC, Lason India and Datamation are among 15-20 companies that have already made a beginning. Analysts say many are waiting in the wings to transfer simple non-voice based operations like scanning and data processing to these BPOs.

Set up six months back in Nellore, HDFC’s ADFC employs around 500 people -- Niranjan being one of them -- engaged in non-core back office operations like translating data into customer database.

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