Outsourcing In India: Call Centers

Articles: 

BT opens Indian Call Centers

The Philippines: The world's hotline

Bangalore is best Indian city, says global survey

Comment:

In a survey that was conducted, and according to the ‘Global Services Location Index” it is the most attractive place for global services. The most popular for these services is Bangalore. According to an article by the BBC, the global survey showed that Bangalore is the “best Indian city to live in”. 

One of the most popular services that India has to offer are its call centers. In 2003, 2,000+ UK employees lost their jobs because the giant BT telecom opened call centers in India and hired over 2,000 workers in Delhi and Bangalore. However, the Philippines has emerged as the country with the most call center workers in the world. The Philippines has an estimated value of 350,000 call center employees while India has 320,000. They say that the reason why people prefer the Filipino workers is because of their ability to put on an American accent that is easy to understand. Many of these workers put on an American accent and create a fake American name to be able to converse with the foreign clients. 

Even through the Philippines has more telecom employees, the majority of the call center companies that come to the Philippines are offshoot companies that already exist in India. According to the BBC article, “Last year India's overall business process outsourcing (BPO) revenue was $70bn, compared to the Philippines' $9bn”. 

Question:

In the article it mentioned that India “outsourced their outsourcing”. What does it mean? 

European Union: Subjecting Russian and Ukrainian officials may lead to new conflicts

Crimea vote could "create new conflicts"

• Boarders and such are becoming a problem again in Europe because of Crimea and Russia
• The 28 Foreign Ministers in the EU have chosen Russian and Ukrainian officials that will be subjected to travel bans and a freezing of assets because of the conflict. 
• Officials worry that the tense situation may lead to war. 

NY Times: Crimea vote could "create new conflicts"

Barbie In the Philippines

One of the most popular toys for girls in any country are dolls, and one of the most popular doll brands is non other than Barbie. Barbies are sold all over the world, they have many outfits and other accessories choices. However the image of barbie is primarily a white blonde with a tiny waist and long legs. In the Philippines, Barbie is very popular among young girls, and they have been for many years. However, because the image of barbie is looked upon as perfectly pretty, young girls grow up with that mindset. They take it as being white is more beautiful. In the Philippines, whitening creams and moisturizers are very common because everyone wants to be white. If you look at all the Filipino artistas that are looked at as an image of beauty, you’d notice that most of them are white and not very filipino looking. By brining in the brand of barbie to the Philippines, this is 

Pros and Cons of Globalization

PROS	CONS
Globalization is can help the economy by providing more job opportunities for the people. By providing more job opportunities it helps improve the economy and the livelihood of the people. This happens when people from LEDC's go to MEDC's to work. The economy gains from this because of the remittances.	Many times the workers in the MEDC's lose their jobs to the people from LEDC's. The presence of overseas workers reduces the amount of job opportunities for the people from the MEDC's. By having less job opportunities, it will hurt their economy.
Companies are able to work together, which increases productivity. This can benefit the companies because they can get more ideas from different perspectives.	If there are so many different opinions and ideas being presented then the company may have a problem in making decisions because of the presence of so many viewpoints.
People are able to connect with one another through the internet and other forms of communication. The sharing of ideas and knowledge can be made easier.	The accessibility to connection through the internet can be a negative because it opens the door to cyber bullying and online stalking. This could be dangerous to the emotional and maybe even the physical health of the people(suicides due to cyber bullying). It also makes it more difficult to protect information when it is put online.
Globalization has made countries more open to foreigners and tourists. This is good because it promotes diversity and the sharing of cultures. Because countries are becoming more open it also makes it easier to travel.	By letting foreigners and tourists in, the country is risking bringing in viruses and diseases from other regions to their country. Such diseases are H1N1, Swine Flu and HIV.