Population Growth + Call Centers: India

choi

(1) Mark Magnier, India's Population Hurtling Toward the Top. Los Angeles Times, Dec 3, 2011.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nati ... ia-billion-20111203,0,211651.story

Quote:

"India enacted more coercive methods from 1975 to 1977 during the so-called emergency period, which left a bitter taste.

"A report released recently found that the poor in India were better fed 30 years ago, and that India is worse off than its neighbors and many sub-Saharan African countries. The picture is similar in health, hygiene, education and women's status.

"If anything, rising wealth has reduced women's stature, sociologists say, because the cost of dowries has skyrocketed, leading to more female infanticide and abortions after the sex of a fetus is determined. Indians were shocked recently to find that hundreds of girls in eastern Maharashtra state had been named Nakushi, a word that means 'unwanted' in the Marathi language. Maharashtra has some of the lowest girl-to-boy ratios in the country.  

Note:
(a) The report begins with a girl named Aastha Arora who was the billionth Indian when born on May 11, 2000.
(b) Maharashtra
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtra
(the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India; the richest state in India, contributing to 15% of the country's industrial output and 13.2% of its GDP in 2005-06)

(2) Vikas Bajaj, A New Capital of Call Centers. New York Times, Nov 26, 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/2 ... lippines&st=cse
(400,000 Filipinos works in call centers serving Americans, compared with 350,000 Inidians; because Philipinos are "steeped in American culture" and due to "a preference for American English")

"The Philippines [] has a population one-tenth as big as India's, overtook India this year.

"Executives say the growth was not motivated by wage considerations. Filipino call center agents typically earn more than their Indian counterparts ($300 a month, rather than $250, at the entry level), but executives say they are worth the extra cost

"Entry-level American call center agents earn about $20,000 a year, about five times as much as similar agents in the Philippines and six times as much as Indian agents.

"In addition to language skills, the Philippines has better utility infrastructure than India — so companies spend little on generators and diesel fuel. Also, cities here are safer and have better public transportation, so employers do not have to bus employees to and from work as they do in India.

Note:
(a) The report quotes an Indian as saying, " I will revert on the same."

revert (vi; Latin revertere from re- + vertere, verti to turn): "to come or go back (as to a former condition, period, or subject)"
www.m-w.com
(b) hot button (n): "an emotional and usually controversial issue or concern that triggers immediate intense reaction"

I can not find the origin of this phrase, but it is pretty recent, circa 1978. It is American English, informal.
(c) The foreign exchange rate is $1 = 43.25 PHP (Philippines pesos)
(d) Murthy can be Indian given or family name. Derived from Sanskrit murti for manifestation or image, the name appears to have evolved from the final element of compound names such as Krishnamurthy ‘manifestation of Krishna.'
(e) GDP per capita (PPP) is the same $3,500 for both India and the Philippines (both 2010 est.), according to CIA World Factbook.