India's booming outsourcing industry takes toll on workforce

By Rajesh Mahapatra, AP

NEW DELHI -- The job came with a good salary, and good perks.

But, 26-year-old Vaibhav Vats will tell you, it was doing him no good. His weight had grown to 120 kilos (265 pounds) and he was missing out on social life as he worked long overnight hours at a call center. Eventually, he quit.

"You are making nice money. But the tradeoff is also big," said Vats, who spent nearly two years at IBM Corp.'s call center arm in India, answering customer calls from the United States.

Call centers and other outsourced businesses such as software writing, medical transcription and back-office work employ more than 1.6 million young men and women in India, mostly in their 20s and 30s, who make much more than their contemporaries in most other professions.

They are, however, facing sleep disorders, heart disease, depression and family discord, according to doctors and several industry surveys.

Pakistan luring Indian BPO executives (International Business Times)

By Debanjan Mullick

New Delhi - New Delhi - The success of BPOs in India has encouraged Pakistan to lure top brains from its neighbour to train their call centers' staff.

According to industry sources, people from call centers in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore are being hired by Pakistan-based BPOs to help in training, migration and integration and already 18-20 Indian BPO trainers are working in two newly-established call centers in Pakistan.

The Pakistan government is going all out to attract investment in the ITEs sector and at present there are 123 international and domestic call centers in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, with 30 more in the pipeline. On an average, these call centers employ around 3000 agents.