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05 Jul 2003
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Choosing a career: facing the cultural dilemma

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Dear Friends,

We are publishing an article by R Ravichandran, COO, ELICO
Limited, Hyderabad, on the issues facing young Indians on the
verge of making a career choice.
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Indian Family Ideals:

In India, people learn the essential themes of cultural life within
the bosom of a family. In most of the country, the basic units of
society are the patrilineal family unit and wider kinship
groupings. The most widely desired residential unit is the joint
family, ideally consisting of three or four patrilineally related
generations, all living under one roof, working, eating,
worshiping, and cooperating together in mutually beneficial social
and economic activities. Patrilineal joint families include men
related through the male line, along with their wives and children.
Most young women expect to live with their husband's relatives
after marriage, but they retain important bonds with their natal
families.

Parental expectations and the children's aspirations:

Against this backdrop of the Indian family ideals we need to
understand the decision making process. All social interaction
involves constant attention to hierarchy, respect, honor, the
feelings of others, rights and obligations, hospitality, and gifts
of food, clothing, and other desirable items.

From birth onward, a child learns that his "fate" has been
"written" by divine forces and that his life will be shaped by a
plan decided by more powerful beings.

The society is build around respect for traditions and elders in
the family tree. So much so the Elders command an unquestionable
influence on any decision within the family that would related to
the type of education, the qualification aspirations, the college
to study, the coaching class to attend, etc. etc. The
decision-making process is actually hijacked by the generation that
is not current to the opportunities that an individual (in this
case, the son/ daughter/ grandchild/ Nephew/ Niece) has exposure
to, through his peers, his various interactions with the society
immediately around him, including Mentors, Teachers, Trainers, etc
Young people have a body of experience and knowledge which is
unique to their situation. They have views and ideas, which derive
from that experience. They are social actors with skills and
capacities to bring constructive resolutions to their own
situation. Yet too often, there is still a failure or even a
refusal to recognize the legitimacy of young people's contribution
to programs, policies and decision-making. There is a lot of
confusion that is forced into their thinking process that results
in loss of self-confidence and thereby allowing the decisions to be
influenced by their family seniors.

This dependence on decision making & resulting confusion is more
pronounced in the lower middle class and middle class family strata
that has typically moved into an urban environment, wherein the
family head is breadwinner and the decision maker.

........to be continued.
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Cheers!!!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"
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NEWS AND VIEWS :
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1) Perot Systems to acquire Vision Healthsource

NYSE-listed Perot Systems is to acquire Chennai-based healthcare
claims processing company Vision for an aggregate value of $10
million. "We realized that pure offshore Indian BPO companies have
no future," says Anurag Jain, chief executive officer and founder
of Vision Healthsource. "You need to have an offshore, onshore, and
near-shore presence to the customer. Also BPO companies have to be
focused by vertical or processes, and offer end-to-end solutions."

Vision handles more than $1 billion in healthcare provider claims
per year for physicians, physician specialties and hospital-based
physicians across the U.S. The company's claims processing and call
centers in Chennai process more than 25 million transactions and
670,000 phone calls per year.

http://www.idg.com.sg/idgwww.nsf/unidlookup/0CF394730B03CF3A48256D5
9000986C5?OpenDocument

2) Clarity in service tax

Realising that BPO services have significant potential for
employment generation and earning foreign exchange, in the BAS
(business auxiliary services) category, call centre services,
medical transcription services and commission agency services have
been exempted from service tax. It is not clear whether the
exemption to call centres will still be available where such
services are provided through any other medium other than
telephone, such as in person, email or Internet.
http://in.biz.yahoo.com/030630/26/25jn0.html

3) Carlyle eyes BPO cos, sets aside $100m for India

US private equity investor, The Carlyle Group, is scouting for BPO
(business process outsourcing) acquisitions in India, in line with
its strategy to build offshore outsourcing centres for its
portfolio companies in US.

The firm is eyeing local companies in healthcare, insurance and
telecom segments for outright acquisitions, or significant equity
investment deals.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow
?msid=60368

4) CIO features guide to HIPAA security

The current issue of CIO magazine looks at how health care
organizations can begin preparations for the HIPAA security rule,
which takes effect in 2005. So far, less than 10% of HCOs have
implemented the required security policies and procedures, and
based on the 22% of covered entities that failed to meet the
privacy rule deadline earlier this year, many organizations may
postpone their compliance programs and wait to see what happens to
noncompliant entities, CIO reports.

http://www.ihealthbeat.org/members/basecontent.asp?oldcoll=3&conten
tid=25311&datevalue=07/02/2003&collectionid=100&program=1&contentar
ea=119885

5) Apollo Floats US Arm To Tap Medical BPO Market

Apollo Health Street Ltd chief executive officer Vikram JS Chhatwal
said that the company has already made its debut by bagging a major
order from a leading US medical service provider.

He said the MBPO market requires a certain level of skills and
Apollo, by virtue of its expertise in the field, has the required
manpower with the skill-sets needed to implement the project with
over 95 per cent accuracy. The MBPO projects span from low-end
medical transcription through bill processing and claim settlement
to clinical process outsourcing.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=37243

6) Kerala: IT Dept to facilitate ITES training centres to tide over
manpower shortage

"The main objective of the programme is to create a large pool of
employable manpower for ITES industry. Through the empanelment of
ITES trainers, the Government is trying to co-ordinate the ITES
industry and training providers. It will also help to create a
structure for evolving skill set standards for ITES industry,
development of course curriculum and cost-effective delivery of
ITES training", sources said.

The training providers will have to conduct courses accredited by
the industry panel and the candidates will be given Government
authorised certificates.

http://www.keralanext.com/news/index.asp?id=12734
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