Outsourcing jobs pushed to rural India

In India, a growing number of outsourcing companies are moving simple typing jobs from high-tech hubs to vast, poor rural areas. The move creates many jobs at a fraction of the cost of running a business near a big city.

RuralShores is one of the companies. The Bangalore-based consulting company set up three data processing centers in Bagepalli, a small town in rural Karnataka State in Southwest of India, hiring around 100 local young people. To get a job, candidates need a minimum of a high school education and once hired they're there to do data entry. "There is a lot of talent there, and we can train them to do the job," founder G. Srinivasan told the New York Times. In return, he said, the company can generate more profit and become more competitive. Srinivasan said companies in big cities like Bangalore need to pay about 7,000 rupees ($150 USD) a month for workers doing the same job, while in Bagepalli, $60 USD a month is considered "excellent." Though workers lack a college education and English-language skills, there is no problem for them to read forms, input data and even write simple E-mails in English. He said the company is planning to open 500 offices across rural india over the next five years. His confidence comes from the growing business; the three centers are serving a variety of clients including an Indian loyalty card company, a national insurance company as well as an American company that hired it as a subcontractor to track down truck drivers' work schedules. The tech boom in India often conjures up images of high employment in tech companies and call centers, but in reality the industry only employs about one million people. The population in India is more than one billion.