BPO Industry

Media Influence on Society

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In the last 50 years the media influence has grown exponentially with the advance of technology, first there was the telegraph, then the radio, the newspaper, magazines, television and now the internet. We live in a society that depends on information and communication to keep moving in the right direction and do our daily activities like work, entertainment, health care, education, personal relationships, traveling and anything else that we have to do. A common person in the city usually wakes up checks the tv news or newspaper, goes to work, makes a few phone calls, eats with their family when possible and makes his decisions based on the information that he has either from their co workers, news, tv, friends, family, financial reports, etc.

What we need to be aware is that most of our decisions, beliefs and values are based on what we know for a fact, our assumptions and our own experience. In our work we usually know what we have to do based on our experience and studies, however on our daily lives we rely on the media to get the current news and facts about what is important and what we should be aware of. We have put our trust on the media as an authority to give us news, entertainment and education. However, the influence of mass media on our kids, teenagers and society is so big that we should know how it really works.

Of all the media distribution channels the most influential has been the television, we are constantly exposed to thousands of images of violence, advertising, sex, celebrities and much more, in fact a its known that a child is exposed to about 40,000 ads a year. Years ago there was more diversity in companies, but they have merged so now they are just a few and they have the power to shape the opinion and beliefs of us and our kids. So its important to be aware of what your kids are exposed to every day and you should also try to look at things from different perspectives and not just from the one the media gives you.

The media makes billions of dollars with the advertising they sell and that we are exposed to. We buy what we are told to be good, after seeing thousands of advertisings we make our buying decisions based on what we saw on Tv, newspapers or magazines to be a product we can trust and also based on what everyone else that we know is buying and their decision are also base don the media. These are the effects of mass media in teenagers, they buy what they see on Tv, what their favorite celebrity advertise and what is acceptable by society based on the fashion that the media has imposed them.

Media Influences on Violence

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Television executives are also quick to deny the influence of media violence. Yet the entire economy of television hinges on viewers' suggestibility. When NBC sells time to Microsoft and Toyota, it does so by hawking the tube's power to move minds. (The fact that individual commercials may fail to result in purchases is immaterial here.) Media's ability to influence people is a no-brainer for the simple fact that media is everywhere and everything; it is central to American culture. To argue that people aren't influenced by media is to argue that they aren't influenced by culture, and you don't need to be Margaret Mead to know that's insane.

When Fonzie brandished a library card on Happy Days library registration shot up nationwide. After a popular Budweiser campaign, people began greeting their pals, "Whassupp!" (To capitalize on the spots' popularity with children, J. C. Penney even sold "Whassup" kiddie T-shirts.) When Ally McBeal wore a certain style of pajamas, thousands of viewers asked retailers for them. It's the same thing with movies. ET and Reese's. Tom Cruise and Ray-Bans. Dirty Harry and . 44 Magnums. And it's not just companies that exploit media's influence. Many large nonprofit groups--from the NAACP to the White House drug office to the American Medical Association--hire people to lobby Hollywood for favorable coverage.

Does violence in the media influence the real world? Of course it does. Cop shows and crime reports make us scared of other people, of going out at night, of helping out strangers. That is perhaps its primary effect. But there should be no doubt that watching violence can also lead to violence. To say that it can is not to say that it does in most circumstances, with most people, in most places. Nor is it to say that violent media creates violent behavior out of nowhere. Whether someone's violent tendencies originated with an abusive parent or with Dirty Harry is on a certain level irrelevant; the fact remains that a steady diet of media blood and guts isn't good for some people, some of the time.

To say all this is simply to acknowledge an uncomfortable truth, one for which there is no easy solution. Censorship by righteous experts or government officials is not the answer. Even if you ignore the serious First Amendment issues involved, censorship schemes could at best treat only the symptoms. The real problem with the media is not overt violence, but an unchecked market that churns out content strictly for bucks. The only solutions, then, are far more radical: the establishment of a truly public broadcasting system, as opposed to the limp vessels of PBS and NPR. Let the corporate-owned networks program whatever garbage they like. Providing true alternatives to commercial media would give viewers more choices. And even if a fraction of the audience watches the alternative channels, their presence would help put things in perspective, onscreen and off.

Children abuse by Media

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Life on many television shows and movies is far from normal. They often glamorize potentially destructive behaviors like drinking, drugs, affairs, and intimate teen relationships. As a parent you can counteract the media's influence by pointing out how the actions of the people on screen are potentially dangerous. Alcohol commercials never show the hangovers the next day. Rarely does a teenage girl get pregnant or someone contract a sexually transmitted disease in the media. Research done by both RAND and the University of North Carolina also shows that teenagers who are exposed to more sex talk and acts in the media are more likely to engage in those same behaviors themselves.

Dr. Brown, one of the researchers says, "Teens are defaulting to entertainment media for sexual information because they aren't getting this information in other places. Unfortunately, the media aren't the best sex educators. The media tend to leave out the crucial three C's: commitment, contraception and consequences." The study on media influence on children also pointed out that parents could have a greater impact on their teen's sexual behavior than the media when they talk about it. Taking the time to discuss the things that our children view in the media will ensure that they are learning the things that we want them to and not the lessons that the media might be teaching thus avoiding negative influence of media.

Life on many television shows and movies is far from normal. They often glamorize potentially destructive behaviors like drinking, drugs, affairs, and intimate teen relationships. As a parent you can counteract the media's influence by pointing out how the actions of the people on screen are potentially dangerous. Alcohol commercials never show the hangovers the next day. Rarely does a teenage girl get pregnant or someone contract a sexually transmitted disease in the media. The majority of child abuse cases stem from situations and conditions that are entirely preventable in an engaged and supportive community.

A community that cares about early childhood development, parent support and maternal mental health, for instance, is more likely to see families nurturing children who are born healthy and enter school ready to learn. Cities and towns that work to create good school systems and who come together to ensure that affordable housing is available in good, safe neighborhoods are less likely to see stressed, isolated families who don't know where to turn. Child Abuse Prevention Month is about connecting all of these dots so that the solutions to child abuse receive the attention the public craves.

Bad Influence of Media on Children

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At an early age books, movies, television, and the Internet influence how our children think and act in a variety of ways. As children grow these media influences become even more powerful. The media influences on children is not always a good influence and parents need to counteract this influence by discussing and monitoring what their children are exposed to. The media often stereotypes people and races. Most children's programming deals in absolutes reinforcing the idea that people are good or bad, stupid or smart and because of their inexperience children will latch onto stereotypes that they see.

Parents can counteract this stereotyping by commenting when a group is portrayed inaccurately. Let your children know for example that every blond isn't stupid, and wearing black doesn't make you a bad guy. Point out that everyone has good and bad traits. So, often in the media a character is either good or bad, but in real life this is not the case. The media uses its influence on children to market items and influence your child's desires making them think that they need certain items to be popular or cool.

My children often comment on things that they saw in commercials. The other day my son told me that I should get a kitchen chopper, because it can cut things up so much faster than I can using a knife. I replied that I don't need a kitchen chopper because a knife works just fine. Every year children influence their parents spending by convincing them to buy things that the media has portrayed as "cool". Children recognize name-brand products at an early age because they see them in the media. My children recognized the McDonalds sign by age three even though we never eat there, because they saw commercials on television.

Counteract the marketing by pointing out the faulty logic in commercials. Ask your child if they really think having the latest toy will make them more popular or happy. Children often don't realize that a Barbie won't move around like it does on the commercials or that the elaborate set doesn't come with the toy. Parents can teach their children that things do not equal happiness. Try rewarding with praise and time instead of objects. My children know that they don't get what they see on television and they rarely ask.

Consumerism

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We are all susceptible to the messages we see in the media, but the influence of media on children is particularly powerful. Many of our basic beliefs are formed in our early years and media can hold sway if not monitored and regulated by parents. Per Wikipedia, consumerism is the "equating of personal happiness with the purchasing of material possessions and consumption." Nearly all forms of media are filled with both overt and subliminal messages encouraging us to buy. Academic experts have attributed depression, anxiety, and other emotional maladies with consumerism.

It is said by some to be leading us to a social/financial catastrophy, and certainly even religious leaders have seriously challenged the value of our consumer based culture. Reports have indicated that many families in the US have their TV on an average of 6 ¾ hours per day potentially giving their TV a stronger foothold in a child's education than their school teacher. According to The Sourcebook for Teaching Science, the average child in fact, views 1500 hours of television per year compared to spending only 900 hours per year in school.

With so much time to educate and entertain, it becomes clear that television is indeed a powerful force in how we perceive things; both for adults and for children. Certainly for advertisers, children are a desirable target as they are even less likely to be consciously aware that those who promote products are attempting to shape they way they think and behave. There are a number of ways parents can exert some control over the influence of media on children. With younger children it isn't too complicated to limit their exposure to television and other types of media.

However, it becomes increasingly important for parents to take an active role in how kids evaluate what they see in print, on television, and on the internet. With media advertising often targeting children specifically, it is important for parents to learn what they can about the techniques used by ad companies. The resources below will help. Parents can then engage their kids in looking critically at the marketing that is thrown at them in an effort to thwart the influence of media on children. Several of the links below will discuss the types of questions parents can use when talking to their children about these topics.

Media and its influences

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Television can be a powerful entertainment and education tool for children given the right programming. However, studies have shown that television, and media in general, can also have a very negative influence. Some studies indicate it can shorten attention span, distort body image, work in conjunction with other factors to escalate obesity, create fear, and increase agressive and anti-social behaviors if exposure is unmonitored and unlimited. Learn about what the research shows regarding the influence of media on children.

The dangers, and how to counteract the potential negative influence here on this page as we cover what parents need to know. The influence of media on children extends to health related issues. Although television has the power to educate on nutrition, exercise, and a wide variety of health related issues, it can also be a negative force through images and advertisements which influence viewers to make poor food choices or to overeat. In addition, excessive television viewing can result in inactivity which further contributes to excessive weight gain and poor fitness levels.

Children are specifically targeted by some advertisements and are even more vulnerable than adults to their influence. Adults must assist children in questioning and thinking critically about the messages they see on TV. Limiting television viewing time and encouraging physical activity are precautions that parents should consider. The influence of media on children also extends into how we view ourselves and others. Television shows portray women in a certain way. Generally focusing primarily on their attractiveness; or at least Hollywood's version of it.

These images from movies, television, and all kinds of advertisements bombard women; often with the effect of creating an unattainable image in their minds of how they should appear. Anorexia, bulemia, low self-esteem and a host of other problems can result. These images of course, can also effect the expectations that men have regarding how women "should" behave and look. Talking with young girls about the images they see and giving them better role models can be important.

Wetlands

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Through the ages, urban wetlands have been the lifeline of most cities in India. They were preserved and looked after by the people as their main source of water supply for drinking and irrigation. These wetlands are found all over the country and are either natural or built by people. Over the years, they have gradually depleted, leading to a number of problems in urban areas such as flooding, water scarcity, and water logging. Tanks were constructed in the catchment areas of cities that were not located near a river or a large lake.

Rainwater or run-off would collect during the monsoons and be stored for the rest of the year in these tanks and lakes. The city would get its water supply from these. In southern India, the towns were built around a temple, which always had a tank at the centre. Wells were located in the tank, which served as a link with the aquifers. There were innumerable tanks dug by the rulers, most of which have been destroyed. In fact, in some areas tank building by the ruler was considered a noble deed. In Karnataka, the Hoysalas built tanks all over the state.

Some of these still exist. Festivals were organized around tanks; cleaning and de-silting the tanks were a part of the rituals. But over the years, human activity steadily destroyed these wetlands. In Bangalore, the city bus terminus has been built on the Dharmambudhi tank. A part of the Sampangi tank has given way to the Kanteerva stadium and the remaining to a housing colony. Another lake was filled up to house the city market. Once upon a time, these urban wetlands maintained a steady supply of water for the city, recharged the groundwater, cooled the city, and prevented flood as they were a natural drainage system.

Over the years, these very tanks and wetlands have been neglected, encroached upon either to accommodate more houses or to dump waste. This has caused large-scale water crisis and monsoon flooding and water logging, leading to misery and disease. These wetlands that have been protected for centuries are now being ravaged and destroyed in the name of development. People in the urban areas must learn to live in harmony with nature in their own habitat. The wetlands, the green belts, and the flora and fauna of these areas have to be preserved for urban areas to survive and remain healthy.

Other Indian Lakes

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Deepor Beel : This is a permanent freshwater lake, in a former channel of the Brahmaputra river, south-west of Guwahati city. It is a large natural wetland having great biological and environmental importance and is also the only major storm water storage basin for Guwahati. The beel is endowed with rich floral and faunal diversity. In addition to a huge congregation of residential water birds, the Deepor ecosystem harbours a large number of migratory waterfowl each year. It is now threatened with large scale encroachment, brick making factory and soil cutting within the beel ecosystem, and construction of railway line along the southern boundary of the beel.

The Hussain Sagar Lake: This is one of the largest man-made lakes in Asia, located in the heart of Hyderabad, contributing to its immense beauty. It is a sprawling artificial lake that holds water perennially. It was built during the reign of Ibrahim Qutub Shah in 1562, on a tributary of the river Musi. The Tso Morari Lake : This is one of the largest in the Ladakh region and is almost like an inland sea. Situated at an elevation of about 4,900m, it is about 22km long, with a width varying from 5 to 7km and a depth of more than 30 m at the deepest point.

The lake is probably a leftover from the Ice Age, formed by the melt waters of the ice masses left behind by the retreating glaciers. The waters from the surrounding areas drained into the lake. The huge amounts of water present in the beginning evaporated very fast in the desert-like atmosphere and what was fresh water became brackish and finally salty, unfit for human consumption. One of the most spectacular lakes in Ladakh is the Pangong Tso, which lies across the Changla Pass from Leh.

At an altitude of almost 4,500 metres, the Pangong Tso is only 8 km wide at its broadest point, but is an amazing 134km long. The Pangong is considered to be the longest lake in Ladakh. It is a saltwater lake formed in much the same way as the Tso Morari lake during the Ice Age. There is considerable uncertainty about defining the difference between lakes and ponds. For example, limnologists have defined lakes as waterbodies which are simply a larger version of a pond or which have wave action on the shoreline, or where wind induced turbulence plays a major role in mixing the water column. None of these definitions completely excludes ponds and all are difficult to measure.

Indian Lakes

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Keoladeo National Park: This is an important habitat for waterfowl. It is the only wintering site in India for the central and western Asian population of Siberian cranes, a highly endangered species. The population of Siberian Cranes has decreased in the last two decades. In a programme now underway, reared Siberian crane chicks are being brought to Keoladeo from USA and Siberia. Loktak Lake. The measures undertaken for the conservation of Loktak Lake so far, include afforestation of indigenous species including fruit trees; control of silt; catchment area treatment; removal of floating lands locally called phumdis in some pockets of the lake; and generating awareness about the values and functions of the wetland.

Several measures have been adopted to control the prolific growth of phumdis and water hyacinth. Weevils have been introduced for biological control of water hyacinth.Harike Lake: This wetland sustains a large number of waterfowl. Demarcation of the wetland has been attempted, and fencing has been carried out of some ponds. Afforestation of catchment area has been carried out in some critical areas to control siltation. One of the major problems faced by this wetland is the prolific growth of water hyacinth.

Wular Lake: This wetland is the source of drinking water for Srinagar, and also acts as an absorption basin for floodwater. It is an important waterfowl habitat. However, Wular Lake is subject to heavy siltation due to loss of vegetal cover in the surrounding area. Sambhar Lake: Located in the arid zone of Rajasthan, the Sambhar Lake is one of the largest inland saline lakes in India. This wetland is one of the most important wintering areas for flamingoes and pelicans. Salt extraction is one of the major activities in the wetland.

The Bhoj Wetland in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh : It consists of two man-made lakes (upper and lower lakes). The upper lake was created in the 11th century by constructing an earthen dam across the Kolans river and the lower lake was constructed nearly two centuries ago. The wetland supports a wide variety of flora and fauna. Diverse flora provide ideal habitat for a large number of avifauna. Biotic interaction and natural selection have led to the development of a characteristic relationship between vegetation and the avifauna.

Lakes

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A lake is a low-lying part of the Earth's surface in which rainwater, surface water run-off, outflow from a river, and water from other sources accumulates. There is a great variety of lakes on Earth: there are freshwater lakes and saltwater lakes, ranging in size from small fish-ponds to huge waterbodies such as Lake Superior in USA which is the world's largest freshwater lake. The Caspian Sea in Europe and the Sambhar lake in Rajasthan are examples of saltwater lakes. India has a large number of lakes spread all over the country, from Kashmir to Kerala and from Rajasthan to Assam.

Among the better-known fresh water lakes in India are the Dal lake in Srinagar and the Nainital lake. Whether natural or manmade, all lakes are major sources of water. Lakes are homes to a large variety of aquatic life, with one notable exception: the Dead Sea, a saltwater lake in Israel does not have any form of life. There is too much salt in its water to sustain life. Almost half of the world's lakes are degraded, depleted, and contaminated mainly by human activities. The main causes are inflow of domestic sewage, agricultural run-off, discharge of industrial effluents, over-fishing, introduction of exotic species and habitat degradation from population growth, expansion of cities.

As more water is withdrawn for human use and more of it is returned to lakes and rivers badly polluted there is less available to maintain vital freshwater ecosystems. The deepest lake is Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia. The deepest point of the lake is known as the Olkhon Crevice; it has a depth of 5,370 feet. The largest saline lake is the Caspian Sea, spread over parts of Iran, Russia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan with a surface area of 1 43 560 square miles and an estimated volume of 21 500 cubic miles. The most threatened lake in terms of size is the Aral Sea, which has shrunk due to extraction of water for irrigation.

Natural lakes on Earth are generally found in mountainous areas, rift zones, and areas with ongoing or recent glaciation. Other lakes are found in endorheic basins or along the courses of mature rivers. In some parts of the world, there are many lakes because of chaotic drainage patterns left over from the last Ice Age. All lakes are temporary over geologic time scales, as they will slowly fill in with sediments or spill out of the basin containing them.

Prevention of Ground water Contamination

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It is important to realize that groundwater is not a resource that could be utilized unmindfully simply because it is available in abundant quantities. Problems and issues such as water logging, salinity, agricultural toxins, and industrial effluents, all need to be properly looked into. Other than legislation and checks to conserve and improve the quality of groundwater, society itself plays a very important role. During the last decade there has been a rising awareness among the common people on the need for conservation and development of groundwater.

Water use has to be integrated effectively with water regeneration, as was done in many traditional technologies. Renovation of forest tanks in drought-prone regions will have a significant impact on wildlife and forest cover. Similarly, in some urban cities there is a need to regenerate groundwater aquifers because of the high degree of dependence on them for drinking water. Rainwater harvesting schemes have been taken up in many cities and even made compulsory in some of them. Temple tanks need to be renovated and urban wetlands protected. All these will contribute to a rise in the groundwater level and a reduction of salt water ingress. Community awareness and management of freshwater resources should be enhanced.

The government should implement effective groundwater legislation and regulations through self-regulation by communities and local institutions. External support agencies should support freshwater resource management. Environmental restoration should be promoted along with household water security.No single action whether community based, legislation, traditional water harvesting systems, or reliance on market forces will in itself alleviate the crisis in India. The effective answer to the freshwater crisis is to integrate conservation and development activities – from water extraction to water management – at the local level; making communities aware and involving them fully is therefore critical for success.

All this will ultimately pave the way for combining conservation of the environment with the basic needs of people. In India, the Water (Prevention and Control) Act was passed by the Parliament in 1974, and by 1990 all the states adopted the act. In 1986, the Environment Protection Act was passed by the Parliament. Under both these acts, the states and the central government developed environmental norms for air emissions and waste water discharge for different types of sources.

Ground Water Contamination

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Groundwater is an integral part of the environment, and hence cannot be looked upon in isolation. There has been a lack of adequate attention to water conservation, efficiency in water use, water re-use, groundwater recharge, and ecosystem sustainability. An uncontrolled use of the borewell technology has led to the extraction of groundwater at such a high rate that often recharge is not sufficient. The causes of low water availability in many regions are also directly linked to the reducing forest cover and soil degradation. Pollution of groundwater resources has become a major problem today.

The pollution of air, water, and land has an affect on the pollution and contamination of groundwater. The solid, liquid, and the gaseous waste that is generated, if not treated properly, results in pollution of the environment; this affects groundwater too due to the hydraulic connectivity in the hydrological cycle. For example, when the air is polluted, rainfall will settle many pollutants on the ground, which can then seep into and contaminate the groundwater resources.

Water extraction without proper recharge and leaching of pollutants from pesticides and fertilizers into the aquifers has polluted groundwater supplies. In addition, leachates from agriculture, industrial waste, and the municipal solid waste have also polluted surface- and ground-water. Some 45 million people the world over are affected by water pollution marked by excess fluoride, arsenic, iron, or the ingress of salt water. As far as the quality of groundwater is concerned, many states in the country have been identified as endemic to fluorosis due to abundance in naturally occurring fluoride-bearing minerals.

These are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil. The situation is aggravated by the problem of water pollution or contamination. India is heading towards a freshwater crisis mainly due to improper management of water resources and environmental degradation, which has lead to a lack of access to safe water supply to millions of people. It gives special attention to drinking water for both humans and animals over its other uses. The policy calls for controls on the exploitation of groundwater through regulation and an integrated and coordinated development of surface- and ground-water.

What is Ground Water

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The importance of groundwater for the existence of human society cannot be overemphasized. Groundwater is the major source of drinking water in both urban and rural India. Besides, it is an important source of water for the agricultural and the industrial sector. Water utilization projections for 2000 put the groundwater usage at about 50%. Being an important and integral part of the hydrological cycle, its availability depends on the rainfall and recharge conditions. Till recently it had been considered a dependable source of uncontaminated water.

The demand for water has increased over the years and this has led to water scarcity in many parts of the world. The situation is aggravated by the problem of water pollution or contamination. India is heading towards a freshwater crisis mainly due to improper management of water resources and environmental degradation, which has lead to a lack of access to safe water supply to millions of people. This freshwater crisis is already evident in many parts of India, varying in scale and intensity depending mainly on the time of the year.

Groundwater crisis is not the result of natural factors; it has been caused by human actions. During the past two decades, the water level in several parts of the country has been falling rapidly due to an increase in extraction. The number of wells drilled for irrigation of both food and cash crops have rapidly and indiscriminately increased. India's rapidly rising population and changing lifestyles has also increased the domestic need for water. The water requirement for the industry also shows an overall increase. Intense competition among users — agriculture, industry, and domestic sectors — is driving the groundwater table lower.

The quality of groundwater is getting severely affected because of the widespread pollution of surface water. Besides, discharge of untreated waste water through bores and leachate from unscientific disposal of solid wastes also contaminates groundwater, thereby reducing the quality of fresh water resources. As far as the quality of groundwater is concerned, many states in the country have been identified as endemic to fluorosis due to abundance in naturally occurring fluoride-bearing minerals. These are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil.

Glaciers

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Glaciers are large sheets of ice that flow down very high mountains and are often the source of snow-fed rivers. Glaciers, found mainly in places such as Antarctica and Greenland, cover almost 10% of the earth's landmass, varying in size. A glacier begins life as snowflakes. As more snow falls and gathers, the weight of the snow on top compresses the lower layers to form ice. The pile of snow and ice becomes thicker and heavier till the point when the layer of ice at the very bottom melts under the pressure.

It re-freezes almost at once; but the process is repeated over and over, and as a result the entire mass begins to slide downhill slowly along the rock surface. A glacier has an enormous impact on the topography of the area, pushing aside boulders, cutting through rocks, and denting its path as it moves. Most of the world's glaciers are found at the Poles, but they exist on all of the world's continents, even Africa. Australia doesn't have any glaciers; however, it is considered part of Oceania, which includes several Pacific island chains and the large islands of Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. Both of these islands have glaciers.

Glaciers require very specific geographical and climatic conditions. Most are found in regions of high snowfall in winter and cool temperatures in summer. The amount of precipitation (whether in the form of snowfall, freezing rain, avalanches, or wind-drifted snow) is important to glacier survival. In areas such as Siberia and parts of Antarctica, the lack of adequate precipitation prevents glacier development. Dokriyani: This glacier is believed to be as old as the Himalayan Mountains. Dokriani 'Bamak' is a well-developed medium sized glacier of the Bhagirathi basin.

The glacier is 5 km long and flows in a northwest direction terminating at an elevation of 3,800 m. It originates at an altitude of 13 000 feet in Uttaranchal's Garhwal district. It is one of the most studied glaciers in the world. A recent study says that it has been shrinking by a few metres every year. Gangotri: This is located in Uttaranchal's Tehri Garhwal. One of the oldest glaciers in the Chaukhamba range, it is where the river Ganga originates. The Gangotri is not a single valley glacier, but a combination of several other glaciers that are fed to it and form a huge mass of ice. The glacier covers 28km and terminates at Gaumukh (4,000m).

Other Rivers

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Brahmaputra: This mighty river rises in western Tibet in the Manasarovar region. It flows eastwards through the Himalayas, curves back across Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, then turns south to join the Padma and Ganga in Bangladesh and finally enters the Bay of Bengal. It is known by different names in different regions: as it flows through Tibet it is known as the Tsangpo., In the north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, it is known as the Siang or Dihang.

It is longer and more voluminous than the Ganga, and gushes down with enormous force for most of its course through the mountain regions and the forests of north-east India. A unique feature of this river is that it is navigable even at a height of 10 000 feet. Indus: Known as the Sindhu in ancient times, the Indus was the cradle of India's great Indus Valley civilization. It has its source near Manasarovar close to southwestern Tibet, at an altitude of 16,000 feet and flows westward, through the Himalayas into Ladakh, and then through Sind and Punjab in Pakistan into the Arabian Sea.

After flowing eleven miles beyond Leh, the Indus is joined by its first tributary, the Zanskar. When it enters the plains, its famous five tributaries - the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej - that give Punjab its name (land of the five rivers) join it. The name India is said to have its roots in Sindhu (Indus), the great river that constitutes the most imposing feature of that part of the subcontinent, home to some of the earliest civilizations.The river Sindhu has been invoked numerous times in the Vedic literature together with those of other gods and goddesses.

Mahanadi: This river is considered the lifeline of Orissa, through which it flows. It originates in south-eastern Madhya Pradesh near Raipur. In the upper drainage basin of the Mahanadi, which is centred on the Chhattisgarh Plain, periodic droughts contrast with the situation in the delta region where floods may damage the crops in what is known as the rice bowl of Orissa. The Hirakud Dam, constructed in the middle reaches of the Mahanadi, has helped in alleviating these adverse effects by creating a reservoir.

Major Rivers of India

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Ganga This is considered the holiest of all the great rivers of India. It has its source at the Gangotri glacier, where it flows from the cave Goumukh, as the Bhagirathi, which then joins the River Alaknanda as it flows towards Devaprayag. The largest tributary of the river is the Ghaghara, which flows from the northern Nepal region and joins it before Patna in Bihar. Another major tributary is the Yamuna originating in the Yamunotri glacier, and flows through Delhi and Agra. Others are the Gomti, Gandak, Son, Kosi, Chambal, Sarda, etc.

The Ganga is the lifeline for more than 500 million people living along its banks. The water of the river Ganges is considered so sacred that people keep it in their homes for use in prayers on important occasions such as at the time of death. Most cities along the river do not have sewage treatment plants and those that do have them can handle only part of the waste water. Millions of tonnes of untreated sewage are dumped daily into the river from the cities that lie along its banks. Bathing and washing also contribute to the pollution as most of the soap that is used is made from chemical substances.

The river is also polluted by human and animal faeces. Industrial units that lie along the banks of the river discharge all the waste into the river and only a few of them have proper treatment facilities. Yamuna : Rising from the Yamunotri glacier in the Tehri Garhwal District in the Himalayas, the Yamuna flows for about 1380 km almost parallel to the Ganga till they meet at Allahabad. It flows through a number of important towns, Delhi, Mathura, Brindaban, and Agra to name some. Since ancient times, the Doab region, where the Ganga and the Yamuna flow, has been considered one of the most fertile areas in the subcontinent.

Today however, this majestic river is polluted with domestic waste, silt, and industrial waste. The 22-km stretch between Wazirabad and the Okhla barrage in Delhi is only 2% of the catchment area, but it contributes about 80% of the river's total pollution load. The Hindon Canal also discharges waste from Uttar Pradesh in this stretch. Among the many casualties are birds and fish. There was a time when bird watchers had identified as many as 30 species of birds near the Yamuna, many of them exotic, such as the red-crested pochard and the godwit.

Rivers

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Most ancient civilizations grew along the banks of rivers. Even today, millions of people all over the world live on the banks of rivers and depend on them for their survival. All of us have seen a river - large or small, either flowing through our town, or somewhere else. Rivers are nothing more than surface water flowing down from a higher altitude to a lower altitude due to the pull of gravity. One river might have its source in a glacier, another in a spring or a lake. Rivers carry dissolved minerals, organic compounds, small grains of sand, gravel, and other material as they flow downstream.

Rivers begin as small streams, which grow wider as smaller streams and rivers join them along their course across theland. Eventually they flow into seas or oceans. Most rivers With the exception of the Nile, flow towards the Equator. The flow in most rivers is not uniform, which means that sometimes there are floods and sometimes no water flows in them. Flood control projects attempt to reduce the variation in flow. Unfortunately most of the world's major rivers are heavily polluted, but two of the world's largest river systems-the Amazon, that drains a vast area of South America and the Congo in sub-Saharan Africa- remain relatively healthy.

This is because both have few industries and a small human population in their watersheds. The Nile, 6695 km long, and the Amazon 6437 km long, are the world's two longest rivers. Sometimes, measurements of their lengths can vary according to the criteria used for measurement. An Arab philosopher and physician Avicenna suggested, nearly 1000 years ago, that landscapes changed largely as a result of the action of running water. His views were largely ignored until the 16th century.

The longest river in Asia is the Yangtze, which is 5472 km long. The world's highest waterfall are the Angel Falls in Venezuela, 979 m high, over 780 m of which is an uninterrupted drop. India has a large number of rivers that are lifelines for the millions living along their banks. These rivers can be categorized into four groups: Rivers that flow down from the Himalayas and are supplied by melting snow and glaciers. This is why these are perennial, that is, they never dry up during the year The Deccan Plateau rivers, which depend on rainfall for their water, The coastal rivers, especially those on the west coast, which are short and do not retain water throughout the year, The rivers in the inland drainage basin of west Rajasthan, which depend on the rains. These rivers normally drain towards silt lakes or flow into the sand.

Threat of Coral reefs to Ecosystem

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While coral reefs are sensitive to environmental changes, they appear to be able to recover effectively from physical disturbance or temporary pollution events provided the water quality is generally high. For example, the corals in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, for the most part recovered from severe overgrowth of algae after sewage inputs were diverted away from the Bay. The world has woken up to the magnitude of the problem and has taken steps to halt this degradation of one of the richest eco systems.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, has classified many corals as threatened species. The establishment of marine sanctuaries or preserves may help ensure the availability of this ecosystem in the years to come. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was established in 1975 and is the largest project undertaken to preserve the coral reef in the world. Initiatives for the preservation of coral reefs in India have been undertaken on a large scale in the Wandur Marine National Park in the Andaman Nicobar islands.

People on their part can play a role in preventing this depletion. Corals should not be collected, either alive or dead. All waste should be treated before it is released into the sea and no waste is to be dumped directly into the water. Once this awareness is built in the people the well being of these reefs can be ensured. The coral reef ecosystem is a diverse collection of species that interact with each other and the physical environment. The numerous species residing and depending on coral reefs represent a bank containing the genetic diversity necessary for adaptation to changes in the environment.

Sponges have been an important part of the coral reef ecosystem. Sea anemones provide shelter to the fish and other creatures in the reefs. Fishes play a vital role in the reef's food web, acting as both predators and prey. Bryozoans are microscopic invertebrates that form branching colonies over coral skeletons and reef debris, cementing the reef structure. The reef is also home to a variety of worms, shrimps, crabs, lobsters, starfish, sea cucumbers, and sea urchins. Octopuses, squids, clams, scallops, marine snails, and also some species of sharks, skates, and rays live on or near the reef.

Ecosystem

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Corals are small, sedentary marine animals that occur in dense colonies in warm shallow waters of oceans. Reef-building corals are scattered throughout the tropical and subtropical western Atlantic and Indo-Pacific oceans, generally between 30 degrees North and 30 degrees South latitudes. Coral reefs are formed by the skeleton remains of many generations of stony corals. Massive reef structures are built over thousands of years by tiny coral polyps aided by minute algae (zooxanthellae) that live in their tissues, calcifying algae, and other organisms that secrete calcium carbonate and adhesives.

Reef- building corals are generally found at depths of less than 46 m, where there is sunlight and clear water through which the sunlight penetrates better. Reef-building corals, along with the algae, require warm ocean temperatures (20–28° C) and are therefore found along the eastern shores of major land masses where the water is warmer. These reefs are amongst the earth’s oldest living communities of plants and animals. They vary in shape, size and colour. Coral reefs are sometimes referred to as ‘tropical rainforests of the deep’ since they are one of the most diverse, productive, and beautiful marine ecosystems in the world.

The extraordinary diversity of reefs makes them biologically important and, like rainforests, they have provided valuable scientific insights into the nature of underwater ecology. It is a diverse collection of species that interact with each other and the physical environment. The sun is the initial source of energy for this ecosystem. They are considered to be one of the most sensitive to any change. When they are environmentally stressed they lose much of the algae that gives them the colour along with other pigments.

When this happens the corals appear white in colour and are referred to as bleached. Excessive growth and accumulation of phytoplankton and seaweed would be detrimental to coral vitality and diversity, and low nutrient conditions are needed to prevent this. Diverse and abundant populations of grazing fish and invertebrates also keep the growth down. The crown of thorns, a starfish, is a well- known predator of coral. Large numbers of these starfish can devastate reefs, leaving behind only the calcium carbonate skeletons. Parrotfish use chisel-like teeth to nibble on hard corals and eat the algae within the coral. Eels are one of the reef's largest predators and feed on the small fishes, octopuses, shrimps, and crabs.

Oil Spills in Water

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Among the most dangerous of all water pollutants is fuel oil. Oil spills from tankers at sea or leaks from underground storage tanks on land are very difficult to control as oil tends to spread very fast, affecting a large area in a very short time. They are a major menace to the environment as they cause severe damage to surrounding ecosystems. Oil spills at sea decrease the oxygen level in the water and cause grave harm to the creatures living in the sea. Since crude oil is lighter than water, it floats on the surface and poses the threat of swift-spreading fire.
Oil spills are rather common as oil tankers can meet with accidents either in deep sea or offshore, while waiting to be loaded or unloaded. During the Gulf War, several oil reservoirs were destroyed at sea and the effect on marine life was devastating. Seabirds and fish were washed ashore, their bodies covered with oil. On land crude is transported through pipelines or tankers which can get damaged and spew out crude oil over the land, thereby contaminating it. Enormous quantities of organic and inorganic compounds are released into the environment each year as a result of human activities.

In some cases these releases are deliberate and well regulated (e.g. industrial emissions) while in other cases they are accidental (e.g. chemical or oil spills). Petroleum and its products are one of the most common environmental pollutants. They are a fire hazard, threat to marine life, and a source of air and groundwater pollution. They contaminate land and water bodies by accidental spills like the Alaska Oil spill in 1989 and oil spills during the Gulf War, leakage from pipelines, and other human activities. Detoxification of the contaminated sites is expensive and time consuming by conventional chemical or physical methods.

Bioremediation consists of using naturally occurring or laboratory cultivated micro-organisms to reduce or eliminate toxic pollutants. Petroleum products are a rich source of energy and some organisms are able to take advantage of this and use hydrocarbons as a source of food and energy. This results in the breakdown of these complex compounds into simpler forms such as carbon dioxide and water. Bioremediation thus involves detoxifying hazardous substances instead of merely transferring them from one medium to another. This process is less disruptive and can be carried out at the site which reduces the need of transporting these toxic materials to separate treatment sites.

Preventions of Water Pollution

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Water-borne epidemics and health hazards in the aquatic environment are mainly due to improper management of water resources. Proper management of water resources has become the need of the hour as this would ultimately lead to a cleaner and healthier environment. In order to prevent the spread of water-borne infectious diseases, people should take adequate precautions. The city water supply should be properly checked and necessary steps taken to disinfect it. Water pipes should be regularly checked for leaks and cracks.

At home, the water should be boiled, filtered, or other methods and necessary steps taken to ensure that it is free from infection. In Minamata, Japan, inorganic mercury was used in the industrial production of acetaldehyde. It was discharged into the nearby bay as waste water and was ingested by organisms in the bottom sediments. Fish and other creatures in the sea were soon contaminated and eventually residents of this area who consumed the fish suffered from MeHg (methyl mercury) intoxication, later known as the Minamata disease.

The disease was first detected in 1956 but the mercury emissions continued until 1968. But even after the emission of mercury stopped, the bottom sediment of the polluted water contained high levels of this mercury. Various measures were taken to deal with this disease. Environmental pollution control, which included cessation of the mercury process; industrial effluent control, environmental restoration of the bay; and restrictions on the intake of fish from the bay. This apart research and investigative activities were promoted assiduously, and compensation and help was offered by the Japanese.

Government to all those affected by the disease. The Minamata disease proved a turning point, towards progress in environment protection measures. This experience clearly showed that health and environment considerations must be integrated into the process of economic and industrial development from an early stage. The city water supply should be properly checked and necessary steps taken to disinfect it. Water pipes should be regularly checked for leaks and cracks. At home, the water should be boiled, filtered, or other methods and necessary steps taken to ensure that it is free from infection.

Diseases of water Pollution

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Water-borne diseases are infectious diseases spread primarily through contaminated water. Though these diseases are spread either directly or through flies or filth, water is the chief medium for spread of these diseases and hence they are termed as water-borne diseases. Most intestinal (enteric) diseases are infectious and are transmitted through faecal waste. Pathogens – which include virus, bacteria, protozoa, and parasitic worms – are disease-producing agents found in the faeces of infected persons.

These diseases are more prevalent in areas with poor sanitary conditions. These pathogens travel through water sources and interfuses directly through persons handling food and water. Since these diseases are highly infectious, extreme care and hygiene should be maintained by people looking after an infected patient. Hepatitis, cholera, dysentery, and typhoid are the more common water-borne diseases that affect large populations in the tropical regions. A large number of chemicals that either exist naturally in the land or are added due to human activity dissolve in the water, thereby contaminating it and leading to various diseases.

Pesticides. The organophosphates and the carbonates present in pesticides affect and damage the nervous system and can cause cancer. Some of the pesticides contain carcinogens that exceed recommended levels. They contain chlorides that cause reproductive and endocrinal damage. Lead. Lead is hazardous to health as it accumulates in the body and affects the central nervous system. Children and pregnant women are most at risk. Fluoride. Excess fluorides can cause yellowing of the teeth and damage to the spinal cord and other crippling diseases.

Nitrates. Drinking water that gets contaminated with nitrates can prove fatal especially to infants that drink formula milk as it restricts the amount of oxygen that reaches the brain causing the ‘blue baby’ syndrome. It is also linked to digestive tract cancers. It causes algae to bloom resulting in eutrophication in surface water. Petrochemicals. Benzene and other petrochemicals can cause cancer even at low exposure levels. Chlorinated solvents. These are linked to reproduction disorders and to some cancers. Arsenic. Arsenic poisoning through water can cause liver and nervous system damage, vascular diseases and also skin cancer. Other heavy metals. –Heavy metals cause damage to the nervous system and the kidney, and other metabolic disruptions.

Contaminants of Water

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Ground water can be contaminated through various sources and some of these are mentioned below. Pesticides. Run-off from farms, backyards, and golf courses contain pesticides such as DDT that in turn contaminate the water. Leechate from landfill sites is another major contaminating source. Its effects on the ecosystems and health are endocrine and reproductive damage in wildlife. Groundwater is susceptible to contamination, as pesticides are mobile in the soil. It is a matter of concern as these chemicals are persistent in the soil and water.

Sewage. Untreated or inadequately treated municipal sewage is a major source of groundwater and surface water pollution in the developing countries. The organic material that is discharged with municipal waste into the watercourses uses substantial oxygen for biological degradation thereby upsetting the ecological balance of rivers and lakes. Sewage also carries microbial pathogens that are the cause of the spread of disease. Nutrients. Domestic waste water, agricultural run-off, and industrial effluents contain phosphorus and nitrogen, fertilizer run-off, manure from livestock operations, which increase the level of nutrients in water bodies and can cause eutrophication in the lakes and rivers and continue on to the coastal areas.

The nitrates come mainly from the fertilizer that is added to the fields. Excessive use of fertilizers cause nitrate contamination of groundwater, with the result that nitrate levels in drinking water is far above the safety levels recommended. Good agricultural practices can help in reducing the amount of nitrates in the soil and thereby lower its content in the water. Synthetic organics. Many of the 100 000 synthetic compounds in use today are found in the aquatic environment and accumulate in the food chain. POPs or Persistent organic pollutants, represent the most harmful element for the ecosystem and for human health, for example, industrial chemicals and agricultural pesticides.

These chemicals can accumulate in fish and cause serious damage to human health. Where pesticides are used on a large-scale, groundwater gets contaminated and this leads to the chemical contamination of drinking water. Acidification. Acidification of surface water, mainly lakes and reservoirs, is one of the major environmental impacts of transport over long distance of air pollutants such as sulphur dioxide from power plants, other heavy industry such as steel plants, and motor vehicles. This problem is more severe in the US and in parts of Europe.

Health Impacts of water Pollution

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It is a well-known fact that clean water is absolutely essential for healthy living. Adequate supply of fresh and clean drinking water is a basic need for all human beings on the earth, yet it has been observed that millions of people worldwide are deprived of this. Freshwater resources all over the world are threatened not only by over exploitation and poor management but also by ecological degradation. The main source of freshwater pollution can be attributed to discharge of untreated waste, dumping of industrial effluent, and run-off from agricultural fields.

Industrial growth, urbanization and the increasing use of synthetic organic substances have serious and adverse impacts on freshwater bodies. It is a generally accepted fact that the developed countries suffer from problems of chemical discharge into the water sources mainly groundwater, while developing countries face problems of agricultural run-off in water sources. Polluted water like chemicals in drinking water causes problem to health and leads to water-borne diseases which can be prevented by taking measures can be taken even at the household level.

Many areas of groundwater and surface water are now contaminated with heavy metals, POPs (persistent organic pollutants), and nutrients that have an adverse affect on health. Water-borne diseases and water-caused health problems are mostly due to inadequate and incompetent management of water resources. Safe water for all can only be assured when access, sustainability, and equity can be guaranteed. Access can be defined as the number of people who are guaranteed safe drinking water and sufficient quantities of it.

There has to be an effort to sustain it, and there has to be a fair and equal distribution of water to all segments of the society. Urban areas generally have a higher coverage of safe water than the rural areas. Even within an area there is variation: areas that can pay for the services have access to safe water whereas areas that cannot pay for the services have to make do with water from hand pumps and other sources. In the urban areas water gets contaminated in many different ways, some of the most common reasons being leaky water pipe joints in areas where the water pipe and sewage line pass close together. Sometimes the water gets polluted at source due to various reasons and mainly due to inflow of sewage into the source.

Agriculture and Water

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Shelter belts of trees and bushes along the edge of agricultural fields slow down the wind speed and reduce evaporation and erosion. Planting of trees, grass, and bushes breaks the force of rain and helps rainwater penetrate the soil. Fog and dew contain substantial amounts of water that can be used directly by adapted plant species. Artificial surfaces such as netting-surfaced traps or polyethylene sheets can be exposed to fog and dew. The resulting water can be used for crops. Contour farming is adopted in hilly areas and in lowland areas for paddy fields.

Farmers recognize the efficiency of contour-based systems for conserving soil and water. Salt-resistant varieties of crops have also been developed recently. Because these grow in saline areas, overall agricultural productivity is increased without making additional demands on freshwater sources. Thus, this is a good water conservation strategy. Transfer of water from surplus areas to deficit areas by inter-linking water systems through canals, etc. Desalination technologies such as distillation, electro-dialysis and reverse osmosis are available. Use of efficient watering systems such as drip irrigation and sprinklers will reduce the water consumption by plants.

The most important step in the direction of finding solutions to issues of water and environmental conservation is to change people's attitudes and habits¾this includes each one of us. Conserve water because it is the right thing to do. We can follow some of the simple things that have been listed below and contribute to water conservation. Try to do one thing each day that will result in saving water. Don't worry if the savings are minimal¾every drop counts! You can make a difference. Remember to use only the amount you actually need. Form a group of water-conscious people and encourage your friends and neighbours to be part of this group.

Promote water conservation in community newsletters and on bulletin boards. Encourage your friends, neighbours and co-workers to also contribute. Encourage your family to keep looking for new ways to conserve water in and around your home. Make sure that your home is leak-free. Many homes have leaking pipes that go unnoticed. Do not leave the tap running while you are brushing your teeth or soaping your face. See that there are no leaks in the toilet tank. You can check this by adding colour to the tank. If there is a leak, colour will appear in the toilet bowl within 30 minutes. (Flush as soon as the test is done, since food colouring may stain the tank.) Avoid flushing the toilet unnecessarily. Put a brick or any other device that occupies space to cut down on the amount of water needed for each flush. When washing the car, use water from a bucket and not a hosepipe.

Agriculture

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Conservation of water in the agricultural sector is essential since water is necessary for the growth of plants and crops. A depleting water table and a rise in salinity due to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has made matters serious. Various methods of water harvesting and recharging have been and are being applied all over the world to tackle the problem. In areas where rainfall is low and water is scarce, the local people have used simple techniques that are suited to their region and reduce the demand for water.

In India's arid and semi-arid areas, the 'tank' system is traditionally the backbone of agricultural production. Tanks are constructed either by bunding or by excavating the ground and collecting rainwater.Rajasthan, located in the Great Indian Desert, receives hardly any rainfall, but people have adapted to the harsh conditions by collecting whatever rain falls. Large bunds to create reservoirs known as khadin, dams called johads, tanks, and other methods were applied to check water flow and accumulate run-off. At the end of the monsoon season, water from these structures was used to cultivate crops.

Similar systems were developed in other parts of the country. These are known by various local names ¾ jal talais in Uttar Pradesh, the haveli system in Madhya Pradesh, ahar in Bihar, and so on. Simple techniques can be used to reduce the demand for water. The underlying principle is that only part of the rainfall or irrigation water is taken up by plants, the rest percolates into the deep groundwater, or is lost by evaporation from the surface. Therefore, by improving the efficiency of water use, and by reducing its loss due to evaporation, we can reduce water demand.

There are numerous methods to reduce such losses and to improve soil moisture. Some of them are listed below. Mulching, i.e., the application of organic or inorganic material such as plant debris, compost, etc., slows down the surface run-off, improves the soil moisture, reduces evaporation losses and improves soil fertility. Soil covered by crops, slows down run-off and minimizes evaporation losses. Hence, fields should not be left bare for long periods of time. Ploughing helps to move the soil around. As a consequence it retains more water thereby reducing evaporation.

Rain water Harvesting

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In urban areas, the construction of houses, footpaths and roads has left little exposed earth for water to soak in. In parts of the rural areas of India, floodwater quickly flows to the rivers, which then dry up soon after the rains stop. If this water can be held back, it can seep into the ground and recharge the groundwater supply. This has become a very popular method of conserving water especially in the urban areas. Rainwater harvesting essentially means collecting rainwater on the roofs of building and storing it underground for later use.

Not only does this recharging arrest groundwater depletion, it also raises the declining water table and can help augment water supply. Rainwater harvesting and artificial recharging are becoming very important issues. It is essential to stop the decline in groundwater levels, arrest sea-water ingress, i.e. prevent sea-water from moving landward, and conserve surface water run-off during the rainy season. Town planners and civic authority in many cities in India are introducing bylaws making rainwater harvesting compulsory in all new structures.

No water or sewage connection would be given if a new building did not have provisions for rainwater harvesting. Such rules should also be implemented in all the other cities to ensure a rise in the groundwater level. Realizing the importance of recharging groundwater, the CGWB (Central Ground Water Board) is taking steps to encourage it through rainwater harvesting in the capital and elsewhere. A number of government buildings have been asked to go in for water harvesting in Delhi and other cities of India.

All you need for a water harvesting system is rain, and a place to collect it! Typically, rain is collected on rooftops and other surfaces, and the water is carried down to where it can be used immediately or stored. You can direct water run-off from this surface to plants, trees or lawns or even to the aquifer. Some of the benefits of rainwater harvesting are as follows, Increases water availability, Checks the declining water table, Is environmentally friendly, Improves the quality of groundwater through the dilution of fluoride, nitrate, and salinity, Prevents soil erosion and flooding especially in urban areas.

Water Conservation

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Our ancient religious texts and epics give a good insight into the water storage and conservation systems that prevailed in those days. Over the years rising populations, growing industrialization, and expanding agriculture have pushed up the demand for water. Efforts have been made to collect water by building dams and reservoirs and digging wells; some countries have also tried to recycle and desalinate (remove salts) water. Water conservation has become the need of the day.

The idea of ground water recharging by harvesting rainwater is gaining importance in many cities. In the forests, water seeps gently into the ground as vegetation breaks the fall. This groundwater in turn feeds wells, lakes, and rivers. Protecting forests means protecting water 'catchments'. In ancient India, people believed that forests were the 'mothers' of rivers and worshipped the sources of these water bodies. The Indus Valley Civilization, that flourished along the banks of the river Indus and other parts of western and northern India about 5,000 years ago, had one of the most sophisticated urban water supply and sewage systems in the world.

The fact that the people were well acquainted with hygiene can be seen from the covered drains running beneath the streets of the ruins at both Mohenjodaro and Harappa. Another very good example is the well-planned city of Dholavira, on Khadir Bet, a low plateau in the Rann in Gujarat. One of the oldest water harvesting systems is found about 130 km from Pune along Naneghat in the Western Ghats. A large number of tanks were cut in the rocks to provide drinking water to tradesmen who used to travel along this ancient trade route. Each fort in the area had its own water harvesting and storage system in the form of rock-cut cisterns, ponds, tanks and wells that are still in use today.

A large number of forts like Raigad had tanks that supplied water. In ancient times, houses in parts of western Rajasthan were built so that each had a rooftop water harvesting system. Rainwater from these rooftops was directed into underground tanks. This system can be seen even today in all the forts, palaces and houses of the region. Underground baked earthen pipes and tunnels to maintain the flow of water and to transport it to distant places, are still functional at Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh, Golkunda and Bijapur in Karnataka, and Aurangabad in Maharashtra.

Eutrophication

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When fresh water is artificially supplemented with nutrients, it results in an abnormal increase in the growth of water plants. This is known as eutrophication. The discharge of waste from industries, agriculture, and urban communities into water bodies generally stretches the biological capacities of aquatic systems. Chemical run-off from fields also adds nutrients to water. Excess nutrients cause the water body to become choked with organic substances and organisms. When organic matter exceeds the capacity of the micro-organisms in water that break down and recycle the organic matter, it encourages rapid growth, or blooms, of algae.

When they die, the remains of the algae add to the organic wastes already in the water; eventually, the water becomes deficient in oxygen. Anaerobic organisms (those that do not require oxygen to live) then attack the organic wastes, releasing gases such as methane and hydrogen sulphide, which are harmful to the oxygen-requiring (aerobic) forms of life. The result is a foul-smelling, waste-filled body of water. This has already occurred in such places as Lake Erie and the Baltic Sea, and is a growing problem in freshwater lakes all over India. Eutrophication can produce problems such as bad tastes and odours as well as green scum algae. Also the growth of rooted plants increases, which decreases the amount of oxygen in the deepest waters of the lake.

It also leads to the death of all forms of life in the water bodies. The amount of organic material that can rot in the sewage is measured by the biochemical oxygen demand. BOD is the amount of oxygen required by micro-organisms to decompose the organic substances in sewage. Therefore, the more organic material there is in the sewage, the higher the BOD. It is among the most important parameters for the design and operation of sewage treatment plants. BOD levels of industrial sewage may be many times that of domestic sewage.

Dissolved oxygen is an important factor that determines the quality of water in lakes and rivers. The higher the concentration of dissolved oxygen, the better the water quality. When sewage enters a lake or stream, micro-organisms begin to decompose the organic materials. Oxygen is consumed as micro-organisms use it in their metabolism. This can quickly deplete the available oxygen in the water. When the dissolved oxygen levels drop too low, many aquatic species perish. In fact, if the oxygen level drops to zero, the water will become septic. When organic compounds decompose without oxygen, it gives rise to the undesirable odours usually associated with septic or putrid conditions.

Facts about Water

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75% of the earth's surface is covered with water, More than 97% of the earth's water is in its oceans, About 2% of the available drinking water is frozen leaving only 1% for drinking , The world's average rainfall is about 850 mm, Water regulates the Earth's temperature. It also regulates the temperature of the human body, carries nutrients and oxygen to cells, cushions joints, protects organs and tissues, and removes waste, 60% - 75% of the adult human body is water - 82% of blood is water; 70% of the brain and 90% of the lungs are made up of water.

Blood in animals and sap in plants is composed mainly of water, To cook 1 cup of rice you need 2 cups of water but to wash the pan in which it has been cooked you need 4-5 litres of water, A dripping tap can waste up to 6 litres of water in a day, More than half the creatures on the Earth are found under water, Life on earth probably originated in water, In the summer our bodies require about 2 litres of water daily. Here is the water content of some foods (approximate) - 95% in tomato, 91% in spinach, 91% in milk, 85% in apples and 80% in potatoes .

10% of the earth's surface is covered with ice There are more than one billion people particularly in North Africa and Western and South Asia, who lack access to a steady supply of clean water. Access to water and sanitation, so crucial to human well-being and development, has now become a priority for the international community. To underscore the need for immediate action, the United Nations has designated 2003 as the International Year of Freshwater. The importance given to water in ancient India is reflected in several hymns of the Vedas and epics and narratives from other valuable works such as the Arthasastra of Kautilya.

A large amount of water is wasted in agriculture, industry, and urban areas. It has been estimated that with available technologies and better operational practices, agricultural water demand could be cut by about 50%, and that in urban areas by about 33% without affecting the quality or economics of life. But most governments do not have adequate laws or regulations to protect their water systems. Due to the increase in population there has been a rise in the demand for food, space for housing, consumer products, etc., which has in turn resulted in increased industrialization, urbanization, and demands in agriculture thereby leading to both river and groundwater contamination.

Water

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When Neil Armstrong saw the Earth from the Moon, it appeared blue! This is because water covers more than two-thirds of the Earth's surface. But fresh water represents less than 0.5% of the total water on Earth. The rest is either in the form of seawater or locked up in icecaps or the soil, which is why one often hears of water scarcity in many areas. Water is continuously moving around the earth and constantly changing its form. It evaporates from land and water bodies and is also produced by all forms of life on Earth.

This water vapour moves through the atmosphere, condenses to form clouds and precipitates as rain and snow. In time, the water returns to where it came from, and the process begins all over again. Although water is constantly moving, its total quantity on Earth's surface is constant. Water is found in three different forms - liquid, solid or gas, depending on the temperature but it constantly changes from one form to another. Changes in temperature will determine which of these forms predominates in a particular area.

Water is usually encountered in the liquid state, because this is its natural state when temperatures are between 0° C and 100° C. 'Fresh' or drinking water is found as groundwater in underground aquifers, and on the surface in ponds, lakes, and rivers. Seas and oceans account for 97% of all water on Earth; but their waters contain dissolved salts and are therefore unfit to drink. In regions of young volcanic activity, hot water emerges from the earth in hot springs (examples are Garampani in Assam and Badrinath in Uttaranchal). How does this phenomenon occur? Surface water percolates downward through the rocks below the Earth's surface to high-temperature regions surrounding a magma reservoir, either active, or recently solidified but still hot.

There the water is heated, becomes less dense, and rises back to the surface through fissures and cracks. Ice is the frozen form of water. It occurs when temperatures are below 0°C (32°F). For a given mass, ice occupies 9% more volume than water, which is why when water enters cracks in rocks and freezes it causes the rocks to crack and split. Being less dense than water, ice floats. This property of ice is vital to aquatic life in cold regions. As the temperature drops, ice forms a protective, insulating layer on the surfaces of streams, pools and other water bodies, allowing water to remain liquid in the layers beneath and life to survive. Glaciers, icebergs, and ice caps are all frozen water.

Water Pollution

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When toxic substances enter lakes, streams, rivers, oceans, and other water bodies, they get dissolved or lie suspended in water or get deposited on the bed. This results in the pollution of water whereby the quality of the water deteriorates, affecting aquatic ecosystems. Pollutants can also seep down and affect the groundwater deposits. Water pollution has many sources. The most polluting of them are the city sewage and industrial waste discharged into the rivers. The facilities to treat waste water are not adequate in any city in India.

Presently, only about 10% of the waste water generated is treated; the rest is discharged as it is into our water bodies. Due to this, pollutants enter groundwater, rivers, and other water bodies. Such water, which ultimately ends up in our households, is often highly contaminated and carries disease-causing microbes. Agricultural run-off, or the water from the fields that drains into rivers, is another major water pollutant as it contains fertilizers and pesticides. Domestic sewage refers to waste water that is discarded from households.

Also referred to as sanitary sewage, such water contains a wide variety of dissolved and suspended impurities. It amounts to a very small fraction of the sewage by weight. But it is large by volume and contains impurities such as organic materials and plant nutrients that tend to rot. The main organic materials are food and vegetable waste, plant nutrient come from chemical soaps, washing powders, etc. Domestic sewage is also very likely to contain disease-causing microbes. Thus, disposal of domestic waste water is a significant technical problem. Sewage generated from the urban areas in India has multiplied manifold since 1947.

Today, many people dump their garbage into streams, lakes, rivers, and seas, thus making water bodies the final resting place of cans, bottles, plastics, and other household products. The various substances that we use for keeping our houses clean add to water pollution as they contain harmful chemicals. In the past, people mostly used soaps made from animal and vegetable fat for all types of washing. But most of today’s cleaning products are synthetic detergents and come from the petrochemical industry. Most detergents and washing powders contain phosphates, which are used to soften the water among other things. These and other chemicals contained in washing powders affect the health of all forms of life in the water.

Specific Air Pollutants

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Some of these gases can seriously and adversely affect the health of the population and should be given due attention by the concerned authority. The gases mentioned below are mainly outdoor air pollutants but some of them can and do occur indoor depending on the source and the circumstances. Tobacco smoke. Tobacco smoke generates a wide range of harmful chemicals and is a major cause of ill health, as it is known to cause cancer, not only to the smoker but affecting passive smokers too.

It is well-known that smoking affects the passive smoker (the person who is in the vicinity of a smoker and is not himself/herself a smoker) ranging from burning sensation in the eyes or nose, and throat irritation, to cancer, bronchitis, severe asthma, and a decrease in lung function. Biological pollutants. These are mostly allergens that can cause asthma, hay fever, and other allergic diseases. Volatile organic compounds. Volatile compounds can cause irritation of the eye, nose and throat. In severe cases there may be headaches, nausea, and loss of coordination. In the longer run, some of them are suspected to cause damage to the liver and other parts of the body.

Formaldehyde. Exposure causes irritation to the eyes, nose and may cause allergies in some people. Lead. Prolonged exposure can cause damage to the nervous system, digestive problems, and in some cases cause cancer. It is especially hazardous to small children. Radon. A radioactive gas that can accumulate inside the house, it originates from the rocks and soil under the house and its level is dominated by the outdoor air and also to some extent the other gases being emitted indoors. Exposure to this gas increases the risk of lung cancer.

Ozone, Exposure to this gas makes our eyes itch, burn, and water and it has also been associated with increase in respiratory disorders such as asthma. It lowers our resistance to colds and pneumonia. Oxides of nitrogen. This gas can make children susceptible to respiratory diseases in the winters.Carbon monoxide. CO (carbon monoxide) combines with haemoglobin to lessen the amount of oxygen that enters our blood through our lungs. The binding with other haeme proteins causes changes in the function of the affected organs such as the brain and the cardiovascular system, and also the developing foetus.

It can impair our concentration, slow our reflexes, and make us confused and sleepy. Sulphur dioxide. SO2 (sulphur dioxide) in the air is caused due to the rise in combustion of fossil fuels. It can oxidize and form sulphuric acid mist. SO2 in the air leads to diseases of the lung and other lung disorders such as wheezing and shortness of breath. Long-term effects are more difficult to ascertain as SO2 exposure is often combined with that of SPM. SPM (suspended particulate matter). Suspended matter consists of dust, fumes, mist and smoke. The main chemical component of SPM that is of major concern is lead, others being nickel, arsenic, and those present in diesel exhaust. These particles when breathed in, lodge in our lung tissues and cause lung damage and respiratory problems. The importance of SPM as a major pollutant needs special emphasis as a) it affects more people globally than any other pollutant on a continuing basis; b) there is more monitoring data available on this than any other pollutant; and c) more epidemiological evidence has been collected on the exposure to this than to any other pollutant.

Impact Of Air Pollution

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The magnitude of the London fog of 1952, which affected such a large number of people, was the first incident that made people aware of the damage done to the atmosphere due to industrialization. The SPM levels increased manifold and resulted in over 4000 deaths. Indoor air pollution can be particularly hazardous to health as it is released in close proximity to people. It is stated that a pollutant released indoors is many times more likely to reach the lung than that released outdoors.

In the developing countries a fairly large portion of the population is dependent on biomass for their energy requirements. These include wood, charcoal, agricultural residue, and animal waste. Open fires used for cooking and heating are commonly found in the household both in the rural and the urban areas. The stove is often at floor level, adding to the risk of accident and the hygiene factor. In addition, they are often not fitted with a chimney to remove the pollutants. In such households the children and women are most likely to be affected, as they are the group that spends more time indoors.

The main pollutant in this environment is the SPM. In fact, death due to indoor air pollution, mainly particulate matters, in the rural areas of India are one of the highest in the world. Many of the deaths are due to acute respiratory infections in children; others are due to cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases in adults. If emissions are high and ventilation is poor, household use of coal and biomass can severely affect the indoor air quality. Pollutant emissions per meal are also very high compared to those of other fuels.

Household use of fossil fuel is also fairly common in the developing countries, particularly coal—both bituminous and lignite. These are particularly damaging as they burn inefficiently and emit considerable quantities of air pollutants. If emissions are high and ventilation poor, then the exposure levels to the gases emitted are far higher. The most harmful of the gases and agents that are emitted are particulate matter, carbon dioxide, polycyclic organic matter, and formaldehyde. The indoor concentrations of these are far higher than the acceptable levels and is cause for concern in rural areas.

Health Impacts of Air Pollution

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Since the onset of the industrial revolution, there has been a steady change in the composition of the atmosphere mainly due to the combustion of fossil fuels used for the generation of energy and transportation. Air pollution is a major environmental health problem affecting the developing and the developed countries alike. The effects of air pollution on health are very complex as there are many different sources and their individual effects vary from one to the other.

It is not only the ambient air quality in the cities but also the indoor air quality in the rural and the urban areas that are causing concern. In fact in the developing world the highest air pollution exposures occur in the indoor environment. Air pollutants that are inhaled have serious impact on human health affecting the lungs and the respiratory system; they are also taken up by the blood and pumped all round the body. These pollutants are also deposited on soil, plants, and in the water, further contributing to human exposure.

As you read on you can learn about health impacts of specific air pollutants. Air pollutants consist of gaseous pollutants, odours, and SPM, (suspended particulate matter) such as dust, fumes, mist, and smoke. The concentration of these in and near the urban areas causes severe pollution to the surroundings. The largest sources of human-created air pollution are energy generation, transportation, and industries that use a great deal of energy sources. Depending on their source and interactions with other components of the air, they can have different chemical compositions and health impacts.

Since these pollutants are generally concentrated in and around urban areas, the outdoor urban pollution levels are far higher than in the rural areas. Fires are another major source of air pollution and can lead to severe problems if the smoke is inhaled for a period of time. These fires can either be forest fires, oil well fires, burning of leaves in the backyard or as in the case of rural areas, large-scale burning of agricultural waste. Other sources include industries and power plants located in these areas.

Effects of Smog

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The effects of smog on human health were evident, particularly when smog persisted for several days. Many people suffered respiratory problems and increased deaths were recorded, notably those relating to bronchial causes. A haze of dense harmful smog would often cover the city of London. The first smog-related deaths were recorded in London in 1873, when it killed 500 people. In 1880, the toll was 2000. London had one of its worst experiences with smog in December 1892. It lasted for three days and resulted in about 1000 deaths.

London became quite notorious for its smog. By the end of the 19th century, many people visited London to see the fog. Despite gradual improvements in air quality during the 20th century, another major smog occurred in London in December 1952. The Great London Smog lasted for five days and resulted in about 4000 more deaths than usual. In response to the Great London Smog, the government passed its first Clean Air Act in 1956, which aimed to control domestic sources of smoke pollution by introducing smokeless zones.

In addition, the introduction of cleaner coals led to a reduction in sulphur dioxide pollution. In the 1940s, severe smog began covering the city of Los Angeles in the USA. Relatively little was done to control any type of pollution or to promote environmental protection until the middle of the 20th century. Today, smoke and sulphur dioxide pollution in cities is much lower than in the past, as a result of legislation to control pollution emissions and cleaner emission technology. Ground-level ozone is formed through a complex reaction involving hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and sunlight.

Ground-level ozone is especially harmful for seniors, children, asthmatics, and people with heart and lung conditions. It aggravates respiratory symptoms and further impairs the ability of these individuals to perform normal activities. It can inflame breathing passages, decreasing the lung's working capacity, and causing shortness of breath, pain when inhaling deeply, wheezing, and coughing. It can cause eye and nose irritation and dry out the protective membranes of the nose and throat and interfere with the body's ability to fight infection, increasing susceptibility to illness.

Smog

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The term smog was first used in 1905 by Dr H A Des Voeux to describe the conditions of fog that had soot or smoke in it. Smog is a combination of various gases with water vapour and dust. A large part of the gases that form smog is produced when fuels are burnt. Smog forms when heat and sunlight react with these gases and fine particles in the air. Smog can affect outlying suburbs and rural areas as well as big cities. Its occurrences are often linked to heavy traffic, high temperatures, and calm winds.

During the winter, wind speeds are low and cause the smoke and fog to stagnate; hence pollution levels can increase near ground level. This keeps the pollution close to the ground, right where people are breathing. It hampers visibility and harms the environment. Heavy smog is greatly decreases ultraviolet radiation. In fact, in the early part of the 20th century, heavy smog in some parts of Europe resulted in a decrease in the production of natural vitamin D leading to a rise in the cases of rickets.

Smog causes a misty haze similar to fog, but very different in composition. In fact the word smog has been coined from a combination of the words fog and smoke. Smog refers to hazy air that causes difficult breathing conditions. The most harmful components of smog are ground-level ozone and fine airborne particles. Ground-level ozone forms when pollutants released from gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles and oil-based solvents react with heat and sunlight. It is harmful to humans, animals, and plants.

The industrial revolution in the 19th century saw the beginning of air pollution in Europe on a large scale and the presence of smog mainly in Britain. The industries and the households relied heavily on coal for heating and cooking. Due to the burning of coal for heat during the winter months, emissions of smoke and sulphur dioxide were much greater in urban areas than they were during the summer months. Smoke particles trapped in the fog gave it a yellow/black colour and this smog often settled over cities for many days.

Acid Rain

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Another effect of air pollution is acid rain. The phenomenon occurs when sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from the burning of fossil fuels such as, petrol, diesel, and coal combine with water vapour in the atmosphere and fall as rain, snow or fog. These gases can also be emitted from natural sources like volcanoes. Acid rain causes extensive damage to water, forest, soil resources and even human health. Many lakes and streams have been contaminated and this has led to the disappearance of some species of fish in Europe, USA and Canada as also extensive damage to forests and other forms of life.

It is said that it can corrode buildings and be hazardous to human health. Because the contaminants are carried long distances, the sources of acid rain are difficult to pinpoint and hence difficult to control. For example, the acid rain that may have damaged some forest in Canada could have originated in the industrial areas of USA. In fact, this has created disagreements between Canada and the United States and among European countries over the causes of and solutions to the problem of acid rain.

The international scope of the problem has led to the signing of international agreements on the limitation of sulphur and nitrogen oxide emissions. The Atmospheric Science Division evaluates the impact of acidifying emission control programs by analyzing the changes in acid deposition at regionally-representative monitoring sites in the Atlantic Region and determining which areas are exposed to continuing acidification because deposition levels exceed the environmental damage level.

The fight against acid rain is not over yet. Acid deposition exceeds critical loads across large portions of eastern Canada, including most of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. As a result, acidification in these areas will continue, the biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems will remain under threat, and more damage to forest health and productivity will occur unless further deep cuts in sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions in Canada and the United States are implemented.

How to Prevent Pollution

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The task of cleaning up air pollution, though difficult, is not believed to be impossible. The shift to less polluting forms of power generation, such as solar energy, wind energy, geothermal, tidal and other forms of renewable energy in place of fossil fuel can be used for controlling pollution. The example of London, as well as of other cities, has shown that major improvements in air quality can be achieved in 10 years or less. Many cities in India now have pollution control checks for vehicles.

Cars are being fitted with catalytic converters and unleaded petrol is being used. There is an attempt to keep a check on polluting industrial units by the judiciary. Cars that use CNG have also been introduced. You can also contribute to reducing air pollution to some extent. One of the first things you can start doing is to conserve energy. Walk or ride a bicycle to the market or to your friend’s house. Take a bus to school or organize a carpool. See to it that the use of aerosols is reduced in your house.

Make sure that your father or mother gets a pollution check of the car done at regular intervals and that the car is well maintained. Trees give out oxygen and take in carbon dioxide and thereby clean the air around us. It is therefore our duty to take care of them. Look after the trees in your neighborhood, along with your friends, begin a tree watch similar to a neighborhood watch. See to it that trees in your area are looked after. Plant more trees and tend to them too. Switch off the lights and fans each time you leave a room.

During the day, use only the required number of lights. At home, during hot summer months when you tend to use an airconditioner or a cooler or a heater on very cold winter days, learn to share the room with your brother or sister when you are studying, watching the television, etc. Electrostatic precipitators An electrostatic precipitator (ESP), or electrostatic air cleaner is a particulate collection device that removes particles from a flowing gas (such as air) using the force of an induced electrostatic charge. Electrostatic precipitators are highly efficient filtration devices that minimally impede the flow of gases through the device, and can easily remove fine particulate matter such as dust and smoke from the air stream.

Major Pollutants of Air

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One of the formal definitions of air pollution is as follows – ‘The presence in the atmosphere of one or more contaminants in such quality and for such duration as is injurious, or tends to be injurious, to human health or welfare, animal or plant life.’ It is the contamination of air by the discharge of harmful substances. Air pollution can cause health problems and it can also damage the environment and property. It has caused thinning of the protective ozone layer of the atmosphere, which is leading to climate change.

Modernisation and progress have led to air getting more and more polluted over the years. Industries, vehicles, increase in the population, and urbanization are some of the major factors responsible for air pollution. The following industries are among those that emit a great deal of pollutants into the air: thermal power plants, cement, steel, refineries, petro chemicals, and mines. Air pollution results from a variety of causes, not all of which are within human control. Dust storms in desert areas and smoke from forest fires and grass fires contribute to chemical and particulate pollution of the air.

The source of pollution may be in one country but the impact of pollution may be felt elsewhere. The discovery of pesticides in Antarctica, where they have never been used, suggests the extent to which aerial transport can carry pollutants from one place to another. Probably the most important natural source of air pollution is volcanic activity, which at times pours great amounts of ash and toxic fumes into the atmosphere. The eruptions of such volcanoes as Krakatoa in Indonesia, Mt. St. Helens in Washington, USA and Katmai in Alaska, USA, have been related to measurable climatic changes.

Carbon monoxide (CO)is a colourless, odourless gas that is produced by the incomplete burning of carbon-based fuels including petrol, diesel, and wood. It is also produced from the combustion of natural and synthetic products such as cigarettes. It lowers the amount of oxygen that enters our blood . It can slow our reflexes and make us confused and sleepy. Chloroflorocarbons (CFC) are gases that are released mainly from air-conditioning systems and refrigeration. When released into the air, CFCs rise to the stratosphere, where they come in contact with few other gases, which leads to a reduction of the ozone layer that protects the earth from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun. Leadis present in petrol, diesel, lead batteries, paints, hair dye products, etc. Lead affects children in particular. It can cause nervous system damage and digestive problems and, in some cases, cause cancer.

Indoor Air Pollution

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It refers to the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of air in the indoor environment within a home, building, or an institution or commercial facility. Indoor air pollution is a concern in the developed countries, where energy efficiency improvements sometimes make houses relatively airtight, reducing ventilation and raising pollutant levels. Indoor air problems can be subtle and do not always produce easily recognized impacts on health. Different conditions are responsible for indoor air pollution in the rural areas and the urban areas.

In the developing countries, it is the rural areas that face the greatest threat from indoor pollution, where some 3.5 billion people continue to rely on traditional fuels such as firewood, charcoal, and cowdung for cooking and heating. Concentrations of indoor pollutants in households that burn traditional fuels are alarming. Burning such fuels produces large amount of smoke and other air pollutants in the confined space of the home, resulting in high exposure. Women and children are the groups most vulnerable as they spend more time indoors and are exposed to the smoke.

In 1992, the World Bank designated indoor air pollution in the developing countries as one of the four most critical global environmental problems. Daily averages of pollutant level emitted indoors often exceed current WHO guidelines and acceptable levels. Although many hundreds of separate chemical agents have been identified in the smoke from biofuels, the four most serious pollutants are particulates, carbon monoxide, polycyclic organic matter, and formaldehyde. Unfortunately, little monitoring has been done in rural and poor urban indoor environments in a manner that is statistically rigorous.

In urban areas, exposure to indoor air pollution has increased due to a variety of reasons, including the construction of more tightly sealed buildings, reduced ventilation, the use of synthetic materials for building and furnishing and the use of chemical products, pesticides, and household care products. Indoor air pollution can begin within the building or be drawn in from outdoors. Other than nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and lead, there are a number of other pollutants that affect the air quality in an enclosed space.

Air Pollution

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I’ll go out for a breath of fresh air’ is an often-heard phrase. But how many of us realize that this has become irrelevant in today’s world, because the quality of air in our cities is anything but fresh. The moment you step out of the house and are on the road you can actually see the air getting polluted; a cloud of smoke from the exhaust of a bus, car, or a scooter; smoke billowing from a factory chimney, flyash generated by thermal power plants, and speeding cars causing dust to rise from the roads. Natural phenomena such as the eruption of a volcano and even someone smoking a cigarette can also cause air pollution.

Air pollution is aggravated because of four developments: increasing traffic, growing cities, rapid economic development, and industrialization. The Industrial Revolution in Europe in the 19th century saw the beginning of air pollution as we know it today, which has gradually become a global problem. Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or damages the natural environment, into the atmosphere.

The atmosphere is a complex, dynamic natural gaseous system that is essential to support life on planet Earth. Stratospheric ozone depletion due to air pollution has long been recognized as a threat to human health as well as to the Earth's ecosystems. An air pollutant is known as a substance in the air that can cause harm to humans and the environment. Pollutants can be in the form of solid particles, liquid droplets, or gases. In addition, they may be natural or man-made. [1]Pollutants can be classified as either primary or secondary.

Usually, primary pollutants are substances directly emitted from a process, such as ash from a volcanic eruption, the carbon monoxide gas from a motor vehicle exhaust or sulfur dioxide released from factories. Secondary pollutants are not emitted directly. Rather, they form in the air when primary pollutants react or interact. An important example of a secondary pollutant is ground level ozone - one of the many secondary pollutants that make up photochemical smog. Note that some pollutants may be both primary and secondary: that is, they are both emitted directly and formed from other primary pollutants.

Pollution Management

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A variety of approaches have been developed to manage existing pollution. These include punishment of polluters through regulation, taxation, fines, toxic tort suits, and other disincentives; encouragement of nonpolluting approaches through tax and other incentives; and education of the public. The increased awareness of the potential harmful effects of pollution has had a major impact on industries and on individuals, particularly the young, who have led the way in activities such as recycling. Risk assessment has developed as a useful technique to estimate the risks of environmental pollutants and to establish priorities for environmental control and remediation efforts.

These efforts to manage existing pollution are largely a form of secondary prevention in that the pollution already exists and the focus is on lessening the extent or the effects. Primary prevention of pollution has occurred through approaches that, like any form of primary prevention, are both highly effective and difficult to quantify. The United States National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 was the first major action arising out of the new environmental movement aimed at avoiding unwanted environmental consequences. It contained the requirement that significant newly proposed federal activities have an environmental impact statement prepared in advance, the goal being the incorporation of environmental concerns into all planning processes and the avoidance of those activities that would have an adverse impact.

Advances in science have had a significant primary preventive effect, in part through providing assessment tools of use in preventing the development of new harmful products by the chemical industry. As examples, a basic understanding of the role of mutation in cancer and recognition of the structural aspects resulting in the environmental persistence of chemicals have led the chemical industry to detect and quickly drop out of its development programs those new chemicals that are mutagens or are likely to persist in the environment.

The Precautionary Principle is basic to public health practice, but is also now being advocated as a form of primary prevention of environmental pollution. Control of the more challenging insidious pollutant effects related to the health of the planetary biosphere and to nonpoint sources cannot depend solely upon standard command and control regulatory approaches. Central to avoiding significant long-term consequences to health and the environment is the development of innovative pollution prevention and control strategies, including emissions trading, taxation of consumption and international compacts; better targeting of controls through improved scientific understanding of the processes involved; and a more informed public.

Types of Pollution

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Pollution production can be considered under the heading of the four major human activity sectors: industry, energy, transportation, and agriculture. With the marked increase in human population and the industrialization of much of the globe has come a whole new set of pollutants. Scientific advances based upon understanding the chemical and physical forces underlying nature have led to new processes and new products that have transformed society and have had a major positive impact on human health.

But these industrial activities also result in air and water emissions and contamination of the soil and of food as by-products of the processes involved in manufacture. The products themselves may be the means by which pollutants are distributed to the general population, such as lead poisoning through the use of lead in house paints. In the United States and other more wealthy countries, there recently has been a marked decline in industrial pollution emissions per unit produced. This has come about through regulatory control of emissions and, in part, through the recognition by industry that emissions represent a loss of raw materials or product that is economically advantageous to retain.

As developed countries move into the information era, much of the production of textiles and durable goods has shifted to developing countries, not always with the same level of pollution control or protection of the work force. In developing countries, industrial production often occurs in smaller units, such as backyard smelters, which have significant local effects and are more difficult to control. The energy sector continues to grow rapidly worldwide. There are basically three types of energy sources: the burning of fossil fuels and biomass; nuclear power; and energy derived from natural processes such as the sun, wind, and the flow of water.

Energy from fossil fuels results from the conversion of carbon to carbon dioxide, with the least efficient and most polluting fossil fuels reflecting the extent of components other than carbon and hydrogen in the fuel source. The most plentiful fossil fuel is coal, which is also among the most polluting. Coal contains mineral ashes, nitrogen, and sulfur, which produce particulates, nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides, when coal is burned. The use of high-sulfur coal for electric power generation and for home heating was a dominant cause of major air pollution episodes in London in 1952, Donora, Pennsylvania, in 1948, and the Meuse Valley in Belgium in 1930. Much of the U.S. electric grid is powered by low-sulfur oil.

Effects of Pollution

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Adverse air quality can kill many organisms including humans. Ozone pollution can cause respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, throat inflammation, chest pain, and congestion. Water pollution causes approximately 14,000 deaths per day, mostly due to contamination of drinking water by untreated sewage in developing countries. Oil spills can cause skin irritations and rashes. Noise pollution induces hearing loss, high blood pressure, stress, and sleep disturbance.

Mercury has been linked to developmental deficits in children and neurologic symptoms. Lead and other heavy metals have been shown to cause neurological problems. Chemical and radioactive substances can cause cancer and as well as birth defects. Sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen can cause acid rain which reduces the pH value of soil. Soil can become infertile and unsuitable for plants. This will affect other organisms in the food web. Smog and haze can reduce the amount of sunlight received by plants to carry out photosynthesis.

Invasive species can out compete native species and reduce biodiversity. Invasive plants can contribute debris and biomolecules (allelopathy) that can alter soil and chemical compositions of an environment, often reducing native species competitiveness. Biomagnification describes a situation where toxins may pass through trophic levels, becoming exponentially more concentrated in the process. Ocean acidification, the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's oceans. International catastrophes such as the wreck of the Amoco Cadiz oil tanker off the coast of Brittany in 1978 and the Bhopal disaster in 1984 have demonstrated the universality of such events and the scale on which efforts to address them needed to engage.

The borderless nature of atmosphere and oceans inevitably resulted in the implication of pollution on a planetary level with the issue of global warming. Most recently the term persistent organic pollutant (POP) has come to describe a group of chemicals such as PBDEs and PFCs among others. Though their effects remain somewhat less well understood owing to a lack of experimental data, they have been detected in various ecological habitats far removed from industrial activity such as the Arctic, demonstrating diffusion and bioaccumulation after only a relatively brief period of widespread use.

Pollution Sources and Causes

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Air pollution comes from both natural and manmade sources. Though globally manmade pollutants from combustion, construction, mining, agriculture and warfare are increasingly significant in the air pollution equation. Motor vehicle emissions are one of the leading causes of air pollution. China, United States, Russia, Mexico, and Japan are the world leaders in air pollution emissions. Principal stationary pollution sources include chemical plants, coal-fired power plants, oil refineries, petrochemical plants, nuclear waste disposal activity, incinerators, large livestock farms (dairy cows, pigs, poultry, etc.), PVC factories, metals production factories, plastics factories, and other heavy industry.

Agricultural air pollution comes from contemporary practices which include clear felling and burning of natural vegetation as well as spraying of pesticides and herbicides Some of the more common soil contaminants are chlorinated hydrocarbons (CFH), heavy metals (such as chromium, cadmium--found in rechargeable batteries, and lead--found in lead paint, aviation fuel and still in some countries, gasoline), MTBE, zinc, arsenic and benzene. In 1990 a series of press reports culminating in a book called Fateful Harvest unveiled a widespread practice of recycling industrial byproducts into fertilizer, resulting in the contamination of the soil with various metals.

Ordinary municipal landfills are the source of many chemical substances entering the soil environment (and often groundwater), emanating from the wide variety of refuse accepted, especially substances illegally discarded there, or from pre-1970 landfills that may have been subject to little control in the U.S. or EU. There have also been some unusual releases of polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, commonly called dioxins for simplicity, such as TCDD. Pollution can also be the consequence of a natural disaster.

For example, hurricanes often involve water contamination from sewage, and petrochemical spills from ruptured boats or automobiles. Larger scale and environmental damage is not uncommon when coastal oil rigs or refineries are involved. Some sources of pollution, such as nuclear power plants or oil tankers, can produce widespread and potentially hazardous releases when accidents occur. In the case of noise pollution the dominant source class is the motor vehicle, producing about ninety percent of all unwanted noise worldwide.

Pollution

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Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into an environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms . Pollution can take the form of chemical substances, or energy, such as noise, heat, or light energy. Pollutants, the elements of pollution, can be foreign substances or energies, or naturally occurring; when naturally occurring, they are considered contaminants when they exceed natural levels. Pollution is often classed as point source or nonpoint source pollution.

The Blacksmith Institute issues annually a list of the world's worst polluted places. Humankind has had some effect upon the environment since the Paleolithic era during which the ability to generate fire was acquired. In the Iron Age, the use of tooling led to the practice of metal grinding on a small scale and resulted in minor accumulations of discarded material probably easily dispersed without too much impact. Human wastes would have polluted rivers or water sources to some degree.

However, these effects could be expected predominantly to be dwarfed by the natural world. The European Dark Ages during the early Middle Ages probably saw a reprieve in wide spread pollution, in that industrial activity fell, and population levels did not grow rapidly. Toward the end of the Middle Ages populations grew and concentrated more within cities, creating pockets of readily evident contamination. In certain places air pollution levels were recognizable as health issues, and water pollution in population centers was a serious medium for disease transmission from untreated human waste.

Since travel and widespread information were less common, there did not exist a more general context than that of local consequences in which to consider pollution. Air pollution was largely from wood burning which must be properly ventilated. Septic contamination or poisoning of a clean drinking water source was very easily fatal, and contamination was not well understood. Bad septic contamination and pollution contributed greatly to the Bubonic plague. The first medium warranting official policy measures in the emerging western world would be the most basic: the air we breathe.

Human Resources Management

2009-03-04T08:07:00.001-08:00

The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies.

Usually small businesses (for-profit or nonprofit) have to carry out these activities themselves because they can't yet afford part- or full-time help. However, they should always ensure that employees have -- and are aware of -- personnel policies which conform to current regulations. These policies are often in the form of employee manuals, which all employees have. Note that some people distinguish a difference between between HRM (a major management activity) and HRD (Human Resource Development, a profession).

Those people might include HRM in HRD, explaining that HRD includes the broader range of activities to develop personnel inside of organizations, including, eg, career development, training, organization development, etc. There is a long-standing argument about where HR-related functions should be organized into large organizations, eg, "should HR be in the Organization Development department or the other way around?" The HRM function and HRD profession have undergone tremendous change over the past 20-30 years.

Many years ago, large organizations looked to the "Personnel Department," mostly to manage the paperwork around hiring and paying people. More recently, organizations consider the "HR Department" as playing a major role in staffing, training and helping to manage people so that people and the organization are performing at maximum capability in a highly fulfilling manner. Those people might include HRM in HRD, explaining that HRD includes the broader range of activities to develop personnel inside of organizations, including, eg, career development, training, organization development, etc.

Human Resources

2009-03-04T08:06:00.000-08:00

Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organisation's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. The terms "human resource management" and "human resources" (HR) have largely replaced the term "personnel management" as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations.

In simple sense,Human Resource Management(HRM) means employing people,developing their resources, utilizing maintaining and compensating their services in tune with the job and organizational requirement. HRM is seen by practitioners in the field as a more innovative view of workplace management than the traditional approach. Its techniques force the managers of an enterprise to express their goals with specificity so that they can be understood and undertaken by the workforce, and to provide the resources needed for them to successfully accomplish their assignments.

As such, HRM techniques, when properly practiced, are expressive of the goals and operating practices of the enterprise overall. HRM is also seen by many to have a key role in risk reduction within organizations. The goal of human resource management is to help an organization to meet strategic goals by attracting, and maintaining employees and also to manage them effectively. The key word here perhaps is "fit", i.e. a HRM approach seeks to ensure a fit between the management of an organization's employees, and the overall strategic direction of the company.

However, many HR functions these days struggle to get beyond the roles of administration and employee champion, and are seen rather as reactive than strategically proactive partners for the top management. In addition, HR organizations also have the difficulty in proving how their activities and processes add value to the company. Only in the recent years HR scholars and HR professionals are focusing to develop models that can measure if HR adds value. Power in the workplace is a vast and complex subject that cannot be easily defined. This leaves many critics to suggest that Management 'Gurus', consultants, 'best practice' and HR models are often overly simplistic, but in order to sell an idea, they are simplified, and often lead Management as a whole to fall into the trap of oversimplifying the relationship.

Problems of RPO

2009-03-04T08:04:00.002-08:00

If a company failed to define its overall recruitment strategy and hiring objectives, then any recruiting program may fail to meet the company's needs. This is especially true for outsourced programs like RPO. RPO can only succeed in the context of a well defined corporate and staffing strategy. As with any program, a company must manage its RPO activities. A company must provide initial direction and continued monitoring to assure the desired results. Overall, providing guidance to external activities can present a significant management challenge.

Outsourcing of company processes may fail or prove a poor organizational fit. Improperly implemented RPO could reduce the effectiveness of recruitment.]The costs charged for recruitment transactions may total more than the cost of the internal recruitment department. RPO service providers may fail to provide the quality or volume of staff required by their customers. Placing all recruitment in the hands of a single outside provider may discourage the competition that would arise if multiple recruitment agencies were used. An RPO solution may not work if the company's existing recruitment processes are performing poorly.

An RPO solution may not work if the service provider has inadequate recruitment processes or procedures to work with the client. RPO may not resolve difficulties that organizations have hiring staff when the organization is perceived negatively by potential employees. This will instead require improved branding and an adjustment of image. In fact, very few RPOs can successfully integrate their client's brand and therefore do not represent their client's brand as well as a retained search or internal recruiting resource may drive brand representation and or marketing.

Further, most RPOs perform their staffing functions and service offsite, further disconnecting the client's growth & recruiting strategy from the actual workforce within the client company. This is important because during a period of rapid recruitment growth, one of the many positive effects that a company typically enjoys is an increase in the workforce wellness or an overall workforce positivity of sentiment of optimism that comes with personnel additions... this may be lessened with an OFFSITE recruiting function. Organizations with efficient hiring process that are viewed as employers-of-choice by potential staff may stand to gain negligible benefits from RPO.

Advantages of RPO

2009-03-04T08:04:00.001-08:00

Initial RPO programs typically consisted of companies purchasing lists of potential candidates from RPO vendors. This "search/research" function, as it was called, generated names of competitors' employees for a company and served to augment the pool of potential candidates from which that company could hire. Over time, as business in general embraced the concept of outsourcing more and more, RPO gained favor among Human Resource management: not only did RPO reduce overhead costs from their budgets but it also helped improve the company's competitive advantage in the labor market.

As labor markets became more and more competitive, RPO became more of an acceptable option. Furthermore, through the advent in the 1980's and 1990's of human resources outsourcing (HRO) companies that began taking on the processes associated with benefits, taxes, and payroll, companies began recognizing that recruiting--a significant cost of HR--should also be considered for outsourcing. In the early 2000's more companies began considering the outsourcing of recruitment for major portions of their recruiting need.

RPO's promoters claim that the solution offers improvement in quality, cost, service and speed. RPO providers claim that economies of scale enables them to offer recruitment processes at lower cost while economies of scope allow them to operate as high-quality, specialists. Economies of scale and scope are said to arise from a larger staff of recruiters, databases of candidate resumes, and investment in recruitment tools and networks. RPO solutions are also claimed to change fixed investment costs into variable costs that vary with fluctuation in recruitment activity. Companies may pay by transaction rather than by staff member, thus avoiding under-utilization or forcing costly layoffs of recruitment staff when activity is low.

There have been fundamental changes in the US labor market that serve to reinforce the use of RPO as well. The labor market has become increasingly dynamic: workers today change employers more often than in previous generations. De-regulated labor markets have also created a shift towards contract and part-time labor and shorter work tenures. These trends increase recruitment activity and may encourage the use of RPO.[citation needed] It should also be noted that even in slower economic times or higher unemployment, RPO is still considered by companies to assist in an increasing need to screen through a larger candidate pool.

RPO – Recruitment Processing Outsourcing

2009-03-04T08:03:00.002-08:00

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is a form of business process outsourcing (BPO) where an employer outsources or transfers all or part of its recruitment activities to an external service provider. To quote the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association, "Recruitment Process Outsourcing is when a provider acts as a company's internal recruitment function for a portion or all of its jobs. RPO providers manage the entire recruiting/hiring process from job profiling through the on-boarding of the new hire, including staff, technology, method and reporting.

A properly managed RPO will improve a company's time to hire, increase the quality of the candidate pool, provide verifiable metrics, reduce cost and improve governmental compliance. On the other hand, occasional recruitment support, for example temporary, contingency and executive search services is more analogous to out-tasking, co-sourcing or just sourcing. In this example the service provider is "a" source for certain types of recruitment activity. The biggest distinction between RPO and other types of staffing is Process.

In RPO the service provider assumes ownership of the process, while in other types of staffing the service provider is part of a process controlled by the organization buying their services. While temporary, contingency and executive search firms have provided staffing services for many decades, the concept of an employer outsourcing the management and ownership of part or all of their recruiting process wasn't first realized on a consistent basis until the 1970s in Silicon Valley's highly competitive high tech labor market.

Fast-growing high tech companies were hard-pressed to locate and hire the technical specialists they required, and so had little choice but to pay large fees to highly specialized external recruiters in order to staff their projects. Over time, companies began to examine how they might reduce the growing expenses of recruitment fees while still hiring hard-to-find technical specialists. Toward this end, companies began to examine the various steps in the recruiting process with an eye toward outsourcing only those portions that they had the greatest difficulty with and that added the greatest value to them.

Remuneration in LPO

2009-03-04T08:03:00.001-08:00

Salaries, for fresh graduates, start from 20,000 – 25,000, but easily touch 70,000 in a span of 5 yrs. Work Hours: Mostly 9AM to 7PM. There are a few LPOs that do night shifts but this is the exception rather than the rule. For a young legal professional a career with an LPO is attractive for several reasons: The Industry is a sunrise industry, which should see a boom in the next 3-5 years. There is tremendous variety of work at all levels of expertise and high-end opportunities even for graduates of top law schools.

On top of that attractive remuneration and future management prospects, including an opportunity to work in a corporate structure that straddles borders makes this sector all the more striking for law graduates. Let us first understand the operations of an LPO and the nature of work the do. An LPO is an offshore unit, undertaking legal work assigned by in which in-house legal departments or organisations from areas where it is costly to perform, such as the United States or Europe to areas where it can be performed at a significantly decreased cost, primarily India.

The array of work, which, you may have to undertake while working in an LPO, would range from High-end legal research and drafting briefs, memorandums and commercial contracts to Litigation support work like evidence related work and first level document review. LPO India provides high-end & specialized legal support and research services which work as value for money. We relate to your Bean Counters when it comes to cost-savings, increasing profit margins, and adding to your bottom-line.

To provide excellent integrated services in tune with your legal process, LPO India employs a dynamic, cross-cultural team who will take care of every aspect of your project. Our lawyers are graduates of good Indian law schools and are experienced in international transactions, litigation, and regulatory matters. LPO India's partner law firm oversees our work, ensuring the highest quality professional services. While it will not be prudent to list those firms here for confidential reasons it is expected that as they move to save costs they will outsource more work.

LPO

2009-03-04T08:02:00.000-08:00

Legal outsourcing refers to the practice of a law firm obtaining legal support services from an outside law firm or legal support services company. When the outsourced entity is based in another country the practice is sometimes called Offshoring. Legal Outsourcing has gained tremendous ground in the past few years in the United States. Legal Outsourcing companies, primarily from India, have had success by providing services such as document review, legal research and writing, drafting of pleadings and briefs and providing patent services.

In-house law departments of major multinational corporations outsource some of their work in order to save costs. While it will not be prudent to list those firms here for confidential reasons it is expected that as they move to save costs they will outsource more work. Initially, the Asian subcontinent were targets for different types of outsourcing with the legal field gaining traction. However, in recent years the so called "near shore", "back-door" "specialized legal firms" have sprung up to satisfy law firms and corporations that demand quality and confidentiality.

Most firms and corporations outsource primarily for cost saving measures and this is considered the biggest advantage for legal outsourcing. While an attorney in major legal markets such as the US charge at minimum 250 dollars for work, countries that are offering legal outsourcing may charge a fraction of this. Some countries, especially in the sub-continent have gained prominence due to the fact that some of their attorneys with higher degrees work at meager salaries. This has attracted major corporations to outsource some minor and less sensitive work in their legal departments.

Another advantage is turnaround time.[ One of the major concerns with legal outsourcing is the potential for breach of clients confidentiality. Another concern is that the people performing legal work in different countries are not bound by the same ethical standards attorneys are subject to at home.]However, there were ethics opinions from various state Bar Associations (New York San Diego ) and recently, the American Bar Association that lay down the framework for ethical legal outsourcing.

Vulnerable data in KPO

2009-03-04T08:01:00.004-08:00

Don't get complacent as your data is vulnerable and needed precautions should be taken while deciding about the outsourcing root.Many instances have come to our notice where various hazards have taken place in respect of the confidential data. A sample of security breaches at third-party contractors in 2005 which have been publicly known all over the world are given below to help the general public in their process of outsourcing.In no way, however, the instances undermine the importance and necessity of outsourcing and is only an indicator to the precautions to be taken.

In February 2005, ChoicePoint, a major provider of identification- and credential-verification services based in Alpharetta, Ga., sold the personal data of some 145,000 individuals to criminals posing as small firms. The company later said it would “discontinue the sale of information products that contain sensitive consumer data, including Social Security and driver’s license numbers, except where there is a specific consumer-driven transaction or benefit” or a law enforcement purpose.

In April 2005, several employees at BPO firm mPhasis in Bangalore, India, were caught using client passwords to fraudulently withdraw funds from the New York accounts of Citibank customers. In June of the same year, an employee at BPO firm Infinity e-Systems in New Delhi sold the account numbers and passwords of 1,000 bank customers to a reporter from the British tabloid The Sun for $5,000. (The names of the breached banks were not disclosed.) And most recently, on November 12 2005, four former employees of Indian call center operator Parsec Technologies were arrested for allegedly stealing classified information.

Parsec services housing mortgage originators in the U.S., and the ex-employees had diverted the contact information of potential mortgage finance customers to a firm they had set up called Telequest Systems, which in turn passed the information on to other call centers. The scandal came to light when there was a sudden drop in the productivity of call centers hired by Parsec. In our opinion, companies naive enough to not pay attention to this growing problem are going to suffer serious losses. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Expect to see more of these "problems" in the weeks and months ahead.

KPO vs BPO

2009-03-04T08:01:00.003-08:00

While Northwest Airlines had moved aircraft maintenance to Asia, a Chinese airline was having its fleet of Boeing aircraft serviced in San Francisco. Dr Harris noted that outsourcing was now a political issue in the US, although it has lost its sheen as a main issue. The Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry, stated the view that American companies that outsourced were traitors. The German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, also voiced similar sentiments but can not check the growing sentiments of outsourcing.

Similarly, a Belgian member of Dr Harris’ audience challenged his view that outsourcing was a necessity if European companies were to remain competitive. He argued that Finnish companies were doing very well, without recourse to outsourcing. Dr Harris pointed out that Nokia was not doing quite as well as before and outsourced few activities to Asia. Dr Harris also referred, that what had contributed to the underlying strength of the USA’s economy: its open door policy as regards professionals in the IT and other sectors.

Any visit to the research laboratories of Texas Instruments in the US, one can note that a high proportion of the names on office doors were Asian, many of them Chinese and Indian. Looking to all above, what can be stated precisely is the fact that there is no need for any country to feel worried about the effects of outsourcing. There are reasons to learn from the companies which have opted from this route and have gained tremendously in terms of saving costs without sacrificing other crucial parameters.

It was obviously China, and India would have to grow at an even faster rate in order to catch up China. Even then, India remains an important outsourcing destination. why American companies had an upper edge over their European counterparts when it came to outsourcing. Admittedly, it was from within the US, that textile mills located in the New England states started shifting production to the southern states to take advantage of their lower wages. At the end of the day KPO is more advantageous than BPO and cost effective as well.

KPO more Advantageous than BPO

2009-03-04T08:01:00.001-08:00

Outsourcing was the key issue which Harry Harris, President of a California-based consulting group, used to tie together developments in three continents. A staunch defender of the global economy, he insisted that outsourcing was a crucial business strategy for companies that wanted to remain competitive in an age of globalization. Dr Harris, while speaking at a meeting organized by the US embassy to Belgium, explained why American companies had an upper edge over their European counterparts when it came to outsourcing.

Admittedly, it was from within the US, that textile mills located in the New England states started shifting production to the southern states to take advantage of their lower wages. As per Dr Harris, the rise of the Chinese economy, followed by the Indian economy, means that US and European companies have to outsource if they want to remain competitive. Dr Harris, who has visited more than 100 countries to study global management, explained that during his recent visit to India he had been impressed by the changes he found in the great urban centers.

Dr Harris was categorical when asked whether India or China would emerge the winner. It was obviously China, and India would have to grow at an even faster rate in order to catch up China. Even then, India remains an important outsourcing destination. Approximately four out of 10 outsourcing projects go to Asia, and to India in particular, according to a study by the Geneva-based UN agency, UNCTAD. European countries continue to remain the main targetted destinations for European companies, with Hungary, Poland and Romania attracting the most outsourcing projects when it comes to Eastern Europe.

Dr Harris pointed out that German companies were slowly outsourcing to Eastern Europe. Companies located in the southern part — Italy, Spain and Portugal — face a linguistic problem when it comes to outsourcing. Some countries are now starting to explore the possibility of outsourcing to countries in Latin America, such as Brazil, and to Mexico. Dr Harris, president of the San Francisco-based Global Management Associates, cited the case of American hospitals that send X-rays to India for analysis by Indian doctors.

BPO Threat to US

2009-03-04T08:00:00.002-08:00

Six percent is, to me, quite a bit when it was barely on the radar screen two years ago," said Ron Friedmann, the president of Prism Legal Consulting, an Arlington, Va., company that guides law firms on technology issues, including offshoring. The trend is under measured and sure to grow, George Hefferan said. In 2001, he left a law firm to help pioneer offshoring of legal services. Now his Chicago company, Mindcrest Inc., operates a subsidiary with 25 lawyers in the Indian city of Mumbai.

They handle such responsibilities as document drafting and legal research that surveys all 50 U.S. states. The work is considered administrative and, thus, fit for junior lawyers. "We can do that work at much lower costs," Hefferan said. He's doubling his staff in India next year. Does offshoring service-sector jobs threaten American competitiveness? After all, if junior accountants, lawyers or architects tend to be overseas, how do Americans rise to senior positions? Experts are divided. "What we have is a vibrant economy that's redeploying people, and if you can move them away from activities that can be done cheaply elsewhere, you are creating opportunities for value creation here," said Diana Farrell, the director of the McKinsey Global Institute, a pro-business research center.

The liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research disagrees, fearing that offshoring is a threatening trend."It's at a low level now. It will grow rapidly from its small percentage," said Dean Baker, the center's codirector.The risk for American workers, he said, is "Wal-Martization," in which some large company aggressively offers U.S. corporations a large menu of service-sector jobs abroad at rock-bottom prices."That would be what really starts to change the nature of the market in those sectors," Baker said. BPO, of course, benefits us significantly. As Jagdish Bhagwati argues in his recent book In Defense of Globalisation.

"Trade enhances growth and...growth reduces poverty...I have always argued for freer trade, not as an objective but rather (in the context of the poor nations such as India, from where I come) as an often powerful weapon in the arsenal of policies that we can deploy to fight poverty. " Whatever the economic logic of offshoring, the bigger worry about its prospects is not the political backlash in the US but whether we ourselves will nip the growth in the bud through our foolish policies and actions. If this happens, it would not be the first time that we manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. We did that once in textile exports in the 1950s -- a field in which we then had natural advantage -- and then later the manufacturing industry had to suffer because of reservations and labour-insensitive businesses. (Incidentally, we may repeat our performance in textiles once again even as the quotas are about to be abolished, through an exchange rate which makes us uncompetitive with China.)

KPO threat to US

2009-03-04T08:00:00.001-08:00

Increasingly, skilled professional jobs are being sent abroad, including some in architecture, accounting, law, publishing, finance and insurance. For example: Fidelity National Financial of Jacksonville, Fla., is looking for tax processors in India. Intelliways, an Indian company that's working on behalf of a U.S. Internet firm, wants someone there to write news releases. India's Cactus Communications Pvt. Ltd. seeks someone in Asia to edit complex English-language research papers on topics in nuclear physics, astrophysics and particle physics for U.S. and other foreign clients.

With more than three million jobs projected to be shipped overseas in the next decade, many analysts question what this means for future U.S. competitiveness. "Any professional service that can be boiled down to predictable steps, even if they are complicated steps, is now exportable to South Asia," said Robert Reich, who was the secretary of labor in the Clinton administration. "We have to understand there is no longer any sharp distinction between manufacturing and services." Broadly defined, the services sector now employs eight of every 10 American workers.

When global trade eroded U.S. manufacturing jobs in the 1980s and '90s, experts said the U.S. economy was making the transition to a service economy. Now that sector doesn't feel so safe anymore. "Labor has always been a commodity, but it has never been so fungible, so easy to move," said Clyde Prestowitz, the director of the Economic Strategy Institute, which challenges free-trade assumptions, and the author of the recent book Three Billion New Capitalists. It concludes that China and India will threaten U.S. job security. When the American Institute of Architects surveyed its members last year, it found that 11 percent had shipped some design work overseas and an additional 14 percent were considering it.

"I was a little bit surprised that it was that high; 25 percent had at least thought about it," said Kermit Baker, the institute's chief economist. Of those who had shipped some work overseas, a quarter cited lower costs, another quarter cited faster production, and 50 percent of the architectural firms polled said offshoring helped them cover peak demand, allowing round-the-clock work on projects. Most of it is computer-aided design work, traditionally done by junior architects. Lawyers look for help abroad, too. A poll published Dec. 1 by the American Lawyer magazine found that 77 percent of the top 200 U.S. law firms use contract lawyers on a temporary basis, with 6 percent contracting to lawyers offshore "When I saw that, my eyes popped out.

HR Challenges

2009-03-04T07:59:00.000-08:00

Potentially massive savings in wage and benefit costs continue to drive the global offshoring movement, but companies are facing a wide range of people management issues both overseas and at home, according to a major study released by The Conference Board, the global research and business membership organization. But offshoring continues to pose risks as well as opportunities. “Does cheaper also mean riskier?” the new study asks. “As labor demand rises in offshoring markets, offshorers and potential offshorers would be right to wonder how long the arbitrage opportunity will last.

Will labor supply continue to meet growing demand?” Already, increases in demand for IT skills are driving up pay levels, especially in such centers as Bangalore and New Delhi in India. The study emphasizes that companies must look beyond wages to consider benefits, training and other costs before they outsource and also consider transportation, cultural and other expenses related to offshoring. At home, companies are learning they can quell some of the disruption springing from offshoring by designing plans to aid employees who lose their jobs to offshoring, overcoming resistance from disgruntled workers and maintaining both morale and a positive image among remaining employees.

The study points to a number of actions that companies can take to build cooperation and sustain trust, including: Involve managers at all levels in important decisions. Foster openness and create a sense of fairness. Promote a culture in which people believe in their colleagues’ and leaders’ competence. Promote cross-cultural health, awareness, and cooperation. Staff TurnoverStrategies For Combating Staff Turnover Across the call center industry, there have been 12 typical causes of call center turnover, including (in no specific order): Pace of effort required Sense of powerlessness or lack of control, Frustration of not being allowed to do a good job, Repetition, Daily physical confinement (tied to their desk), Over-regimentation.

The feeling of being spied on, The feeling of not being appreciated by others in the organization, Handling complaints and problems all day, Odd work hours, Pay, Better opportunities elsewhere, Of course, not all will apply in each case, but one or two are likely to be the biggest culprits. In this case, I'd start by asking what changed in the internal and external environments from the period of no turnover to the current situation of 30 +percent turnover? Which of these 12 factors stand out? Pay could be a problem if you're not keeping pace with the market. As the call center environment becomes more complex, I think a lot of organizations are going to have to do some soul-searching on the importance and commensurate remuneration associated with these jobs. Many managers are quick to point out that pay is just one factor, and often not the most important; true, but there's a point at which this argument gets carried too far. Reality is, there are lots of opportunity out there for competent, personable people who have both technical and communication skills.

Why BPO’s Flop

2009-03-04T07:46:00.001-08:00

Business entities will spend more than $50 billion on offshore and near-shore outsourcing by 2007, but many offshore projects will fail because of poor planning, according to a recent report from Gartner Inc.Some organizations are rushing into deals expecting to gain a competitive advantage, often through cost-cutting or by boost in productivity. But the expected gains can be severely affected by many factors. Gartner's report identifies five areas where outsourcers should apply deep thought before taking the plunge:

Unrealized cost savings: Most businesses push work overseas in the hope of cutting several costs mainly labor costs. An application maintenance professional in India earns about $25 per hour, compared with app $85 per hour in the U.S., according to Gartner. But business entities make a mistake by looking at salaries alone. Other hidden expenses for areas like infrastructure, travel, communications and cultural training take a share out of the wage differential. What's more, planning and start-up costs are very high, therefore, offshore deals lasting less than a year may not pay off at all, and savings from longer-term deals will emerge at slow pace.

Loss of productivity: Staff at an offshore service center in all the cases won't be as productive as internal staff at outsourcing country, at least not initially. Garner offers several reasons: Staff turnover is very high in competitive off shoring markets such as in India, which in other words mean programmers there may be new and inexperienced. And service providers overseas struggle with ambiguities in the work they are assigned. Sending jobs overseas will also lower morale of employees at home, creating a drag on output.

Poor commitment and communications: Senior executives often drag out of the scene once a deal is signed. But they need to stay committed and engaged to keep morale high and strategy on track. Projects, goals, expectations etc.have to be defined clearly and in detail. On the home front, managers should explain precisely why work has been sent overseas and what benefits are expected. Cultural differences: Communication styles and attitudes toward authority differ from region to region and the said differences can cause problems. In some systems of functioning, questioning authority is considered disrespectful.In such instances, a team may push ahead with a given plan even if they see a better approach. Offshore should get clear advice about a local culture and system, provide required training and even arrange exchanges among staff on both sides. Lack of offshore expertise and readiness: Some organizations jump into the fray before they are ready. Offshore need to get everything in order internally and secure the support of key persons and stakeholders in the company before launching a project. Garner also advises outsource to figure out their IT process maturity and ensure that they have standardized methodologies, detailed service-level agreements ,established mechanisms for managing change, and strong skills in project and portfolio management.

KPO Threats

2009-03-04T07:44:00.004-08:00

Precautions need to be taken while outsourcing work due to various reasons like money, time, availability of manpower etc. There are many risks involved during process of outsourcing and thus it is imperative to choose the right service provider. The outsourcer should be honest and efficient with good communication skills. This is not a big and difficult task and all one has to to do is ask the right questions. Below are some of the pointers that one should keep in mind while choosing an outsourcing company.

Do your homework properly. Find out for how many years the company has been outsourcing. Get adequate information on the company as to the strength of the company and their financial situation. Find out about the quality of the services provided by them e.g. whether they have an ISO and CMM certifications. Customer reference and recommendation are the best way to figure out a company's services.Before you finalize the outsourcing company it is pertinent for you to take into consideration all the hidden costs from maintenance, training, connectivity/infrastructure, transition etc.

Instead of just the obvious costs such as licensing and consulting costs. Ensure that the company does not make unrealistic promises and keeps them.The outsourcing company should meet requirements in respect to data privacy including infrastructure security (Firewalls, Access Controls, Data Encryption, etc) and human resource related like Pre-Recruitment precautions and checks, Non-Disclosure agreements, etc.) Ensure that the company offers business continuity and disaster mitigation plans as a means of reducing your business related risks.

Companies have to be honest when dealing with invoicing and material type of contract. Always check for referrals of customer for ensuring that the company is honest in financial dealings. Ensure that the company chosen for outsource work is compliant with statutory laws.The company chosen should match work culture and ethics. This will help offshorer in carrying out smooth communication with the company. Ensure that the chosen company has a well trained professionals on their staff and good capacity to handle the work.

Scope of KPO

2009-03-04T07:44:00.003-08:00

The future of Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) business in India presents an encouraging picture to rejoice for everybody in the country. Not only the scope of business opportunities shall give endless area for businesses to explore but also shall create lacs of jobs for the large amount of the talented and skilled workforce of engineers, MBAs, doctors, lawers and other professionals having skill in the core areas and computer knowledge. We give below data published and prepared by various organizations which give a broad idea about the amount of the scope of business opportunities and potential likely to be created in the KPO sector in the immediate and long term future.

According to a published report of National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the chamber that serves as an interface to the Indian Software industry, Knowledge Process Outsourcing industry (KPO) is expected to reach USD 17 billion by 2010, of which USD 12 billion would be outsourced to India. Another report predicts that India will capture more than 70 percent of the KPO sector by 2010. Apart from India, countries such as Russia, China, the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Israel are also expected to join the KPO industry.

In its annual publication Strategic Review 2005, Nasscom has said the high-end activity of the BPO industry—the KPO or knowledge process outsourcing could be worth $15.5 billion by 2010.According to earlier estimates, the BPO industry itself was expected to be about $20bn by 2008, hence a very significant portion of the sector—in excess of 50% is now projected to be knowledge based. This represents significant shift of call center sector business to different model. According to a recent study by “Evalueserve, an outsourcing company having service chart for global world, the global KPO market is expected to grow at a cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46 per cent, from $1.2 billion in 2003 to $17 billion in 2010.

Compare this with the prediction for the low-end outsourcing services market. This is expected to have a CAGR of 26 per cent, from $ 7.7 billion to $39.8 billion in the same period. However, the paper also warns of several challenges like higher quality standards, greater investments and inadequate talent.The study estimates that while the compounded growth rate of BPO till 2010 would be just 26% KPO is expected to be grow at almost 46%. Over the past year or two, the outsourcing industry has been throwing up jobs for Doctors, Engineers, CAs, Architects," says Jacob William of the Bangalore-based Outsource2India, which employs 500 people and offers services in the big-buzz, big-bucks area of knowledge process outsourcing.

Indian Economy for BPO

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India's economy is on the positive note of an ever increasing growth curve. With positive indicators of a stable 8 percent annual growth, rising foreign exchange reserves of close to US$ 140 billion, an emerging capital market with the popular "Sensex" index topping the majestic 12,000 mark, increasingly flowing foreign direct investment (FDI) close to over US$ 8 billion, and a more than 21per cent surge in exports, it is easy to understand why India is a leading destination for foreign investment and outsourcing destination.

As per the data released by the Govt. of India, the GDP grew by 7.4 per cent in the first quarter and 6.6 per cent in the second quarter of the current year, compared with 5.3 per cent and 8.6 per cent in the corresponding quarters of the previous year. The Economic Survey 2005-06 estimates that the GDP will grow at 8.1 per cent. Growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at constant prices in excess of 8.0 per cent has been achieved by the economy in only five years of recorded history, and two out of these five are in the last three years.

Prospects of agricultural production in 2005-06 are considered to be reasonably bright due to near normal monsoon. The agricultural and allied sector's growth in 2005-06 is projected at 2.3 per cent. With a good crop prospects, food grain production is expected to increase to 209 million tonnes (MT) in 2005-06 from 204.6 MT in 2004-05. Some significant dimensions of the dynamic growth in recent years are: a new industrial resurgence; modest inflation in spite of spiraling global crude prices; a pick up in investment; rapid growth in exports and imports with a widening of the current account deficit; the launching of the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) Scheme for inclusive growth and social security; and laying of some institutional foundations for faster development of physical infrastructure; progress in fiscal consolidation.

The industrial sector too has been on all time high. The rate of growth of industrial sector as measured in terms of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) during April-December 2005-06 was 7.8 per cent. Impressive performance of the manufacturing sector, which grew at 8.9 per cent during this period, largely contributed to these figures. compared with 5.3 per cent and 8.6 per cent in the corresponding quarters of the previous year. The Economic Survey 2005-06 estimates that the GDP will grow at 8.1 per cent.

America VS India

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It is true that for any company opting to chose outsourcing as an option to decide for an associate who is both competent and competitive, while choosing an outsourcing agency, option before any outsourcer in USA is to chose from some company or associate from among Latin America and India. We give below excerpts from an article of Business Week which states why India should be preferred to other countries. As per Business Week the proximity to the U.S. and free trade agreements in place, many countries of Latin America are building up their outsourcing infrastructure.

The article reveals the future forces guiding the dynamics of the offshoring-market. "Why go to Mexico, where labor costs are higher than in India? Because the efficiency gains from working close to the U.S. and in the same time zone mean nearshoring in Mexico costs about the same as offshoring in India..."and "GE still outsources 90% of its IT work to India, sending just 6% to Mexico, says Steve Morrison, GE's London-based head of Global IT outsourcing. But, he notes, as India's costs rise, Mexico will look better and better.

'If things continue as they are, India eventually will be charging the same unit cost as Mexico,' he says." Mexico, Brazil and Chile are the main countries to give competition to India in offshoring services -- the first two because they have the critical mass, big company clients, and enough students graduating, and Chile because it's savvy as far as globalization goes and has been working hard on bilingual education. Indian government is devising various strategies and creating needed infrastructure to promote business in fetching more and more business.

It is giving adequate attention to its vendors to create a better infrastructure- both physical and political.But, the need is to do much more to ensure that the advantage Indian companies have over the competitors does not get eroded. We give below excerpts from an article of Business Week which states why India should be preferred to other countries. while choosing an outsourcing agency, option before any outsourcer in USA is to chose from some company or associate from among Latin America and India.

Strengths of Indian BPO’s

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Why chose India as an outsourcing partner is a big question for companies deciding on the issue of outsourcing their activities falling under the head of Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO).Though there may be innumerable reasons relevant to the aspect yet we are highlighting few of the advantages India has over its competitors. This information shall be of immense help to such companies which are in the process of deciding to take advantage of the outsourcing boom. Every year, nearly 19 million students are enrolled in high schools.

Another 10 million students are enrolled in pre-graduate degree courses across India. Moreover, 2.1 million graduates and 0.3 million post-graduates come out of India's non-engineering colleges. While 2.5-3 percent of them find jobs in other fields or pursue further studies abroad, the rest are opting for employment in the IT industry. Imagine, If the flow from high schools to graduate courses increases even marginally, there shall be a massive increase in the number of skilled workers available to the industry.

Even calculated at current rates, there will approximately be 17 million people available to the IT industry by 2008. The Indian education system puts strong emphasis on mathematics and science, and resultantly a large number of science and engineering graduates are produced. Proficiencies in quantitative concepts coupled with good knowledge of English language has resulted in a skill set that enables the country to take advantage of the current international demand for IT. Indian programmers have established their credentials for strong technical skills and their eagerness to accommodate clients.

In some instances, clients outsource work to get access to specialized engineering talent, particularly in the area of telecommunications and computer science related areas. India also has one of the largest pools of English-speaking professionals. Great record of software development Government Support and policies English Language proficiency Strong tertiary education Process quality focus, Skilled workforce, Cost advantage, Entrepreneurship, Reverse brain drain, Expansion of existing relationships, Leverage relationships in West to access overseas markets, Indian domestic-market growth.

Growth of BPO in India

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While choosing an ideal firm or a company as an outsourcing partner, there are various important aspects which need to be ensured to choose both the associating agency and country. One of the key area to be ensured is the availability of required skilled and professional workforce. In this context, India as a chosen country gets priority over its competitors in not only the Asia but almost in respect of all the countries of the world. Besides above, Indian software services industry strong value proposition of a large, English speaking, technically qualified manpower, competitive billing, high productivity gains and scalability.

Which had helped the country emerge as a key IT services outsourcing destination, continue to hold India in good stead. These intrinsic strengths and advantages gave India a leg up in the burgeoning KPO space as well, taking it beyond the realms of IT services.The country is at an important juncture, having completed the transition from an agrarian economy to a fully-fledged world economy. A key element in taking the country forward and maintaining its growth momentum is the provision of a highly skilled and competent global workforce.

Having appropriate IT and management skills is assuming an ever-greater importance, and the IT sector is emerging as a major driver of the Indian economy. IT manpower development today, is not only crucial for sustaining the growth of the Indian economy, it is also important for maintaining the country’s edge in the global markets. Most of the new entrants in the industry are fresh graduates indicating the availability of a large pool of fresh resources each year as against the siphoning off of resources from other industries.

A break-up of the 10 lacs professionals in different sectors reflect that the number of employees in the IT segment has witnessed the highest levels of growth over the last few years. This growth is attributed to the tremendous growth in demand for these services in the IT sector. To take this forward, NASSCOM has been conducting annual HR Summit in Chennai for the past three years that witnesses the confluence of the IT industry and academia at one common platform. The summit’s aim to address some of the areas of concern from the industry and academia perspective such as solutions to company HR challenges, appointing and retaining the right talent, etc.

India Cost Competitiveness

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The past few years have witnessed steady evolution in the ecosystem for global sourcing. Outsourcing agencies have graduated to basing their decisions on a broader set of factors such as service level maturity, sustainability and scalability , infrastructure availability and a compatible business environment – besides the financial benefits achievable from global sourcing.India has successfully taken the benefits its fundamental advantages of abundant talent, a focus on quality and low costs coupled with a conducive business environment to attain the leadership position in this space.

This is reflected in India’s crucial and growing share of the global outsourcing pie. During FY 2001-05, India’s share in global sourcing has grown from 62 per cent to 65 per cent for IT and 39 per cent to 46 per cent for ITES.The trend is showing same reflections in the area of KPO. The notable higher preference for India is driven by its superiority when measured across a broad range of parameters that influence the choice of a sourcing location. As per a study of NASSCOM, India ranks highest from among comparing 40 sourcing destinations across the world.

The said study draws from the latest (November 2005) update of an annual sourcing location attractiveness index prepared by A.T. Kearney. The study is based upon rating accorded to the top 25 countries in last year’s (2004) analysis with their respective positions in 2005.The study further adds that the global outsourcing phenomenon will continue to expand in scope, size and scale but geographic coverage; and while most offshore markets will grow in India will remain the leading destination.

With global outsourcing demand expected to increase ten-fold, the phenomenon of expansion will continue to expand in scope, scale as well as geographic coverage. Further, India is nicely positioned to extend its leadership in the global outsourcing industry by leveraging its fundamental advantages of a large talent pool, developed depth of service offerings and demonstrated process excellence at a remarkable cost advantage. The study further adds that the global outsourcing phenomenon will continue to expand in scope, size and scale but geographic coverage; and while most offshore markets will grow in India will remain the leading destination.

More foreign firms head for India

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The testimony to the fact that India is being chosen as preferred country becomes evident as many companies such as Patent Metrix, Cantor-Colburn and Schwegman, Lundberg, and Woessner & Kluth have already set up offices in India. Offshoring R&D in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology also has enormous potential for KPO. Pharma majors Astra Zeneca and GlaxoSmithKline have set up drug discovery centres at low-cost destinations to boost their research and development activities.

Even for R&D in software and chip design, major telecom and IT companies opt for India. Motorola, Intel, IBM, Cisco, Texas Instruments, Nokia and Philips have set up offshore design centres in India. The analysis of above data shall reveal that India becomes automatically a preferred choice of the outsourcing countries. India has a growing population of educated people capable of handling high-end knowledge-based work and research. With a huge talent pool, India could emerge as a global KPO hub as the sector requires specialized knowledge in respective verticals.

With the mushrooming of engineering and technical institutes in India, there will no shortage of skilled manpower in India. A Confederation of Indian Industry study states that India's transition from a BPO destination to a KPO destination is imminent. India also gets advantage in terms of cost advantage and more and more companies are turning to India for offshoring KPO work as quality work gets done at cheaper rates. For instance, drafting and filing of patent applications in the US is very expensive.

A typical application costs about $10,000 to $15,000 to draft and file with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Companies can save up to 50 per cent of the cost by offshoring the work to India. Offshoring R&D in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology also has enormous potential for KPO. Pharma majors Astra Zeneca and GlaxoSmithKline have set up drug discovery centres at low-cost destinations to boost their research and development activities. Even for R&D in software and chip design, major telecom and IT companies opt for India.

Infrastructure

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In India with redundant telecom and utility infrastructure, there is very good reliability within India's special IT parks. Reliability can be spotty outside the parks or in more remote areas. In Philippines IT parks that have sprung up over the past 13 years fuel the export industry. Abandoned U.S. military bases left behind dependable telecom infrastructure. In Russia Infrastructure quality and quantity nosedives when outside of Russia's few IT parks. In China Infrastructure can be spotty outside major cities, but China is building networks, particularly telecommunications, almost as fast as the U.S.

In Canada Solid telecom infrastructure. In mexico Solid inside the technology parks In Ireland Solid. The infrastructure required to transmit the work material to the offshore site must be designed to achieve sufficient scale. In some cases, the required scale can be significant. For example, imaging centers only become economical when designed for high volumes with 24 hour operations. However, the transportation cost of paper (both time and money) to an imaging center can also be significant.

In this situation, outsourcing suppliers must be able to create regional imaging centers that achieve the required scale. In many cases offshore efforts require that the outsourcing supplier develop an entire "community" within a country. These sites typically employ thousands of resources (people), thereby requiring large scale recruiting and training efforts (and sometimes even housing). The facilities must also be operationally robust, often requiring redundant power systems, satellite up-links for data transmission, and large-scale computer systems.

Over time outsourcing suppliers are developing the ability to move work between different offshore sites. The potential for short-term disruptions or longer-term changes in the labor market necessitate that work become "portable" across sites. This places another burden of scale on suppliers and their ability to quickly and cost-effectively rebalance work across different geographic regions. Labor arbitrage is playing a significant role in accelerating the pace of BPO. However, buyers and suppliers must not forget that labor arbitrage is only part of leverage equation for successful outsourcing relationships. When labor arbitrage utilizes best practice processes designed around appropriate technologies and is executed at scale, the power of the solution can be tremendous.

Expertise

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In India Application development, maintenance, financial processing. Experts see India becoming a hotbed for more critical analytical jobs. In Philippines Accounting, finance, animation, human resources. In Russia Web design, complex software development, aerospace engineering. In China Transaction processing, low-end software development and maintenance. In Canada Software development and maintenance, tech support. In Mexico Spanish-language call centers, software development, data center outsourcing.

In Ireland European shared-services centers, software development. India also gets advantage in terms of cost advantage and more and more companies are turning to India for offshoring KPO work as quality work gets done at cheaper rates. For instance, drafting and filing of patent applications in the US is very expensive. A typical application costs about $10,000 to $15,000 to draft and file with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Companies can save up to 50 per cent of the cost by offshoring the work to India.

"It’s good news for Indian knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) firms. India is the most attractive destination for KPO activities, says a study by independent research company Asset Management in collaboration with Kelly Services. The study shows India will have a higher growth rate in KPO segment of 45% compared with 25% in the BPO segment. The latter will, however, remain the lead revenue earner and job creator due to the volume nature of this industry." In many cases offshore efforts require that the outsourcing supplier develop an entire "community" within a country.

These sites typically employ thousands of resources (people), thereby requiring large scale recruiting and training efforts (and sometimes even housing). The facilities must also be operationally robust, often requiring redundant power systems, satellite up-links for data transmission, and large-scale computer systems. Over time outsourcing suppliers are developing the ability to move work between different offshore sites. The potential for short-term disruptions or longer-term changes in the labor market necessitate that work become "portable" across sites. This places another burden of scale on suppliers and their ability to quickly and cost-effectively rebalance work across different geographic regions.

Government Policies in BPO

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Outsourcing is so imbibed in the fabric in the country and the Indian government has a national minister specifically for IT. The government favors IT foreign ownership and imposes no export taxes. In Philippines Government exempts companies from export taxes, fees, dues and licenses if they open in one of the country's IT parks. Government's task force charged with development of IT and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) services. In Russia Government is erratic and, for now, sticking by old tax laws and structures that don't benefit business.

But a treaty with the U.S. could change things down the road.China's government has hampered growth due to trade policies and over regulation; intellectual property concerns linger. The hope is that these issues will evaporate as China blends into the World Trade Organization. In Canada Low or no political risk. Government gives tax breaks on IT exports. NAFTA provides free trade market for IT services. In Mexico NAFTA has opened up free trade markets, but Mexican government does not offer high level of incentives.

In Ireland Favorable tax laws and $330 million technology-education fund provide incentives. Low or no political risk. Done correctly, the leverage gained can be significant, ranging from a 30 to 80 percent savings. Some of these potential savings are "given back" through the increased cost of managing remotely and implementing a disciplined process, but companies are willing to carefully think through these other issues in order to achieve a significant impact. In Everest's experience, the best case scenario purely from exploiting labor arbitrage after all additional costs have been added back is in the 50 to 60 percent range.

So, when is labor arbitrage an appropriate strategy? Typically, the content of the process to be moved offshore is people intensive with at least 40 percent of the process cost relating to labor expenses. Examples include software application development, claims processing, and many clerical functions. Clearly, the labor content is not the only factor impacting the decision or else face-to-face sales forces would be gone forever! Indeed, the decision on what, if anything, to move offshore must be taken seriously. Although the exact approach will differ, a tiered philosophy is emerging as the preferred strategy. In this strategy, customer intimate functions are performed on-site, high trust functions such as inbound call center are in-country or near shore (e.g., Canada), and well-defined transaction processing is performed at offshore locations.

Labor Costs

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In India Labor costs have crept upward over the years but have been offset by falling telecom rates. Typical salaries range from $5,000 to $12,000 for technical staff, while back-office salaries range from $3,500 to $7,500. In PHILIPPINES Higher labor costs than India; technical salaries range from $5,000 to $10,000 annually and back office from $3,000 to $8,000. In Russia IT salaries range from $6,000 to $10,000. The country hasn't yet developed back-office competence. Telecom infrastructure costs are higher than average.

In China IT salaries range from $3,000 to $8,000 annually. No real BPO competency. In Canada Being a nearshore alternative to the U.S. means IT salaries are much higher than most offshore countries, ranging from $25,000 to $50,000. Being a nearshore alternative to the U.S. means IT salaries are much higher than most offshore countries, ranging from $25,000 to $50,000. In Mexico Low labor costs; companies can save up to 50% by outsourcing to Mexico. Costs could be offset by unreliable infrastructure.

In Ireland Tech salaries range from $25,000 to $35,000, making Ireland unattractive if primary objective is cost savings. The tremendous economic benefits of labor arbitrage also drive increased investment in reengineering the process for maximum efficiency and effectiveness. Traditionally, outsourcers have expended some effort on reengineering people processes, but seldom at the level required in offshore situations. Additionally, the reengineered processes are more rigid in order to drive the standardization that allows for management of the process across geographies.

Since no one person can literally see what is going on, the process must be so well-defined that issues seldom arise and when they do, the trouble-shooting process is straightforward.
Outsourcers face another challenge in developing best practices: allowing some degree of customer-specific customization without losing the benefits of standardization. The trick in overcoming this challenge is to define the overall process in such a way that the buyer can tailor the most important requirements, while still allowing the outsourcing supplier to retain the required leverage points. In short, the best practice must reflect both the supplier's need for operational efficiency and buyer's need for customization.

In an IT environment this can generally be handled through some level of automation - not so with labor arbitrage. The customization impacts employee training and required skills sets The infrastructure required to transmit the work material to the offshore site must be designed to achieve sufficient scale. In some cases, the required scale can be significant. For example, imaging centers only become economical when designed for high volumes with 24 hour operations. However, the transportation cost of paper (both time and money) to an imaging center can also be significant. In this situation, outsourcing suppliers must be able to create regional imaging centers that achieve the required scale.

Labor Pool

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India has many prestigious technical universities and the Indian Institute of Technology stands apart as one of the world's best. India produces over 75,000 IT graduates and 20 lacs English-speaking graduates annually. The Philippines turns out 380,000 graduates annually, but only 15,000 of have core technology knowledge. The country has cultural affinities with the U.S. and is well-versed in U.S. accounting and customer service standards and has low employee turnover.

Russia can claim the third largest population of engineers and scientists per capita but the bad news is that not many of them speak English. China's technical schools turn out 50,000 graduates annually, many of whom migrate west. Those who stay generally don't speak English. U.S. neighbor Canada to the north has solid educational system, with a qualified labor force of more than 16 million. In Ireland Relatively small; 34,000 graduates annually, 5,000 of them technical. Mexico provides U.S. companies with millions of Spanish-speaking people to staff call centres.

Labor arbitrage is simply the ability to pay one labor pool less than another labor pool for accomplishing the same work, typically by substituting labor in one geography for labor in a different locale. The outsourcing industry is now applying labor arbitrage widely; it is transitioning from a novel approach to a competitive requirement. India, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and other regions are all serving as labor markets for outsourcing of activities. Historically, companies have applied labor arbitrage to manufacturing activities. Manufacturing moves tangible product from one geography to another; outsourcing moves information.

Successfully doing this requires significant thought regarding work segmentation. Outsourcers have to break apart the work process into well-defined sub-activities that can then be assigned to different resources in different geographies. The challenge of managing across geographies heightens the importance of a careful segmentation.Additionally, labor arbitrage poses a significant challenge in managing risks (e.g., political and civil unrest, languages, currency, taxes) and in sustaining a labor arbitrage benefit as the demand for labor in a market increases.

Why Outsource to India

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Due to a large knowledge pool and a significant cost arbitrage, few countries like India, Philippines and China are front runners in providing outsourced services. After achieving great success in BPO, India is now looking for a big leap in KPO. India automatically becomes a natural choice if we anaylse the comparative costs of various aspects of KPO for different countries. Basis of the Comparison of following factors in countries: India, Philippines, Russia, China, Canada, Ireland and Mexico : Labor Pool, Cost, Government Polices, Infrastructure, Knowledge full / Expertise.

It is true that for any company opting to chose outsourcing as an option to decide for an associate who is both competent and competitive, while choosing an outsourcing agency, option before any outsourcer in USA is to chose from some company or associate from among Latin America and India. We give below excerpts from an article of Business Week which states why India should be preferred to other countries. As per Business Week the proximity to the U.S. and free trade agreements in place, many countries of Latin America are building up their outsourcing infrastructure.

The article reveals the future forces guiding the dynamics of the offshoring-market."Why go to Mexico, where labor costs are higher than in India? Because the efficiency gains from working close to the U.S. and in the same time zone mean nearshoring in Mexico costs about the same as offshoring in India..."and "GE still outsources 90% of its IT work to India, sending just 6% to Mexico, says Steve Morrison, GE's London-based head of Global IT outsourcing. But, he notes, as India's costs rise, Mexico will look better and better. 'If things continue as they are, India eventually will be charging the same unit cost as Mexico.

' He says." Mexico, Brazil and Chile are the main countries to give competition to India in offshoring services -- the first two because they have the critical mass, big company clients, and enough students graduating, and Chile because it's savvy as far as globalization goes and has been working hard on bilingual education. Indian government is devising various strategies and creating needed infrastructure to promote business in fetching more and more business.It is giving adequate attention to its vendors to create a better infrastructure- both physical and political.But, the need is to do much more to ensure that the advantage Indian companies have over the competitors does not get eroded.

Resources not Available Internally

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Companies prefer outsourcing because they do not have access to the required resources within the company. Outsourcing becomes an automatically a viable alternative to building the needed capability from the ground. New organizations, spin-offs, or companies expanding into new geographical area or new technology should consider the benefits of outsourcing from the very beginning. There are several reasons why resources may not be available internally: The organization may be expanding into new areas of business.

The organization may be expanding into new geographic areas, The resources may have been removed as part of a major reorganization or divestment. This last possibility is not necessarily caused by short-sightedness or bad management. A group of companies may have a centralized information systems function, and selling off a company from that group will cut that company off from IS expertise. Usually, organizations in this situation will be looking either at building an entire function from scratch or at expanding an existing function to several times its current size. In either of these situations, outsourcing is a viable option.

Indeed, in many cases, it is the best option. As well as these reasons why resources may not be available internally now, there are also some reasons for not making the resources available internally in the future. These include the scale of internal demand for those resources, the cost of acquiring and retaining the resources. In some instances, these two factors may both be at work at the same time. In an organization that has downsized so that it no longer employs specialists in a particular area, there may be a requirement for such a specialist for 10 hours each week.

In addition, the specialist's area of expertise may be in demand such that the market price of employing the specialist has risen by 25% since the downsizing exercise. The result could be re-employing someone for 25% of the time at 125% of the previous cost. Any organization will want to use its people effectively. The costs of employment, accommodation, taxes and levies, welfare and other services can make people the most expensive resource within an organization. Also, because organizations are moving to become "lean and mean", there is a constant pressure to reduce the number of people employed on non-core activities.

Reduce Risk

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Tremendous risks are associated with the investments the organizations make. Markets, competition, financial conditions, government regulations and technologies all change quickly. Further, it is very risky to keep up with these changes, especially those in which the next generation requires a significant investment .However, in the context of outsourcing, outsourcing providers make investments on behalf of many clients, not just one and shared investment spreads risk, and significantly reduces the risk born by a single company.

It is necessary to distinguish between "risk sharing" and "risk reduction". It is highly unlikely that outsourcing will actually reduce the risk that an organization faces. What outsourcing can do is to make risk more easily measurable, so that it can be more easily managed. The organization can decide to share some of its risks with the outsourcer and with the outsourcer's other customers. It should also be realized that outsourcers are not insurance companies. Using an outsourcer to manage those risks will not reduce the costs of risk management.

What outsourcers can do is to measure and assess the risks, decide how to share those risks between its customers, and offer a solution for managing those risks. When a function is difficult to manage or is out of control, outsourcing can appear as a final 'fall-back position'. It implies that the organization has given up on all other ways of bringing a function under control and has decided to sell the problem on to someone else. There is clearly a problem with any organization that believes that it can sell its problems on in this way, because the problem usually lies with the management of the organization rather than with the manageability of the function.

I have often found that the reason that an organization finds a function difficult to manage is that it does not really understand that function. In outsourcing, it is essential that the organization's management do understand any function that they plan to outsource, so that they can communicate that understanding to the outsourcer. Choosing to outsource a function (or, more appropriately, to outsource the problem) will probably only lead to the scale of the problem increasing.

Reduce Operating Costs

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Companies which attempt to do everything themselves generally incur higher research, development, marketing and deployment expenses, and all of these are passed on to the customer.The outsourcing can help a company to reduce its costs as an outside provider's lower cost structure, normally as a result of a greater economy of scale or other advantage based on specialization, reduces a company's operating costs and increases its competitive advantage. This is the reason most often given for outsourcing.The logic for using outsourcing to manage and reduce costs is clear.

An outsourcer will provide the same service to a number of customers, and should be able to do this at a cost to itself that will be less than the total cost of the individual customers all doing it themselves. The major area for this will be in the overheads such as accommodation, administration, finance and other services. It may apply also to staff costs, as the number of staff needed to perform the outsourced service could be less than the total number required if all the customers employed staff themselves. An example of this is in computer operations. In addition, an organization needs to invest in research and development and in training so that it can continue to grow and develop.

An outsourcer can be more cost effective than in-house departments for some of these functions. This logic depends, however, on the organization making these investments; too often, in my experience, there tends to be little investment in R&D and staff development within a customer organization, while an outsourcer will have to make these investments to stay in business. It can be argued, although costs may increase as a result of the outsourcer's need to invest, that these costs are actually better managed than before. The customer's lack of investment would eventually have led to further, unforeseen and uncontrolled costs later on.

When assets are sold in this way, they are normally sold at their present book value, which is often higher than their market value. An outsourcer buying a three-year-old mainframe from a customer will be doing so at a price that far exceeds the current market value of that mainframe. In the case of PCs, the market value is likely to be zero within a few months, although they may continue to have a book value for some years. It would make commercial sense for an outsourcer to make up the difference between the market value and book value through its charges to the customer, and this is what often happens. The result is that the customer receives the required cash infusion, but will then be paying an additional cost throughout the period of the outsourcing agreement.

Make Capital Funds Available

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There is large amount of competition within most organizations for capital funds. The senior management is always in a fix to decide where to invest the capital funds. It is often difficult to justify non-core capital investments when core areas directly related to producing a product or providing a service compete for the same money. In this context outsourcing can reduce the need to invest capital funds in non-core business functions .Outsourcing can also improve certain financial measurements of the company by eliminating the need to show return on equity from capital investments in non core areas.

We shall see, when we come to the next reason for outsourcing, that a cash infusion into the organization may be desirable. This reason concentrates on the organization being able to concentrate its capital budgets on its core business, with the outsourced services being financed from the operating budget. Often, within a manufacturing organization, the business units have to compete with each other for a share of the capital budget, with the cases for new or enhanced computer systems and for new or replacement vehicles vying with the cases for new production plant.

Outsourcing may be seen as an answer to this problem, by reducing the competition for capital budgets. In the manufacturer, the outsourcing of computer systems and vehicle management could reduce the competition for capital budgets. The requirement for production plant would be able to make a better case for a larger proportion of the total capital budget. In addition, the problems caused by expansion of the core business to the detriment of the other demands upon the capital budget will be relieved. In the manufacturer, the situation before outsourcing may have been that the computer systems and vehicles were becoming increasingly outdated or expensive to operate because capital investment was always allocated to the production processes.

Outsourcing could allow the organization to replace computers and vehicles and to better maintain its buildings. It is difficult to visualize this reason being the sole reason for an organization choosing to outsource, but I have known this to be so.Often, outsourcing means transferring some of the organization's assets to the outsourcer. These assets can be buildings, machinery, computers, vehicles and other "solid" assets. They can also include contracts and licences capable of being assigned to the outsourcer. In some cases they can involve staff. The assets for which the organization will receive a cash infusion are likely to be the "solid" assets. The outsourcer will buy them and then use them to provide services back to the organization.

Improve Company Focus

2009-03-04T07:32:00.001-08:00

Outsourcing can help an organization to reduce its view of and concern with functions other than the core business. At the same time, the view of that core business can become broader, allowing closer analysis of competitive and innovative issues. This is an important point to consider when looking at other reasons for outsourcing: World-class capability should be achieved by an organization within its core business. It should not need to develop this capability within other parts of its business.

People should focus on the organization's core business, and should be freed from involvement with other business issues as much as possible. This should enable them to provide an in-depth focus across a broader range of issues affecting the core business. Capital should be invested in supporting and enhancing the organization's capability to continue its core business. Outsourcing allows a company to focus on its core business by having operational non core functions assumed by an outside expert.

Freed from devoting energy to these non core areas, the company can focus its resources on meeting its customers' needs. Just as an organization attempts to concentrate on its core business, so outsourcers concentrate on theirs. As a result, outsourcers must continue to demonstrate continuous innovation, sound methods, specialist skills and competitive price performance. There is also a warning in this for customers of outsourcers. They must be satisfied that their outsourcers will continue to remain committed to outsourcing as their core business implement new, effective methods, tools and technologies stay up to date with developments in their industry provide competitive pricing.

Business reengineering can enable an organization to identify the processes that will provide dramatic gains in performance. In adopting those processes, an organization may also decide that some of the performance gains can best be achieved through outsourcing. There is, of course, a question of scale to be considered when linking outsourcing to business reengineering. The following questions should be asked. How many outsourcing opportunities are there? Can we do them all together or should they be incremental? Should outsourcing follow completion of the reengineering? How long will the reengineering take? Can we afford to delay outsourcing until the reengineering is complete? Can the organization handle more change? Will the outsourcing exercise put further pressure on people committed to the reengineering project? Will more change cause greater resistance?

Cash Infusion

2009-03-04T07:31:00.000-08:00

Outsourcing often involves the transfer of assets from customer to the provider. Equipment, vehicles, facilities, and licenses used in the current operations contain value and are sold to the vendor. The vendor uses these assets to provide services back to the client. Depending on value of the assets involved, the said sale may result in a significant cash payment to the customer. While selling these assets to the vendor, they are typically sold at book value. The book value normally is higher than the market value.

In such cases, the difference between the two actually represents a credit line from the vendor to the client which is repaid in the form of price of the services over the life of the contract. Good and competent providers make extensive investments in technology, people, and methodologies.They acquire expertise by working with many clients facing similar challenges. This combination of specialization and expertise ensures the customers a competitive advantage and helps them avoid the cost of acquiring technology and training.

Every organization has limitations to the resources available to it. Outsourcing allows an organization to redirect its resources, mostly people resources, from non core activities toward activities which serve the core need of customer. The organizations can redirect these human assets or at least the staff slots they represent for greater value adding activities. People whose energies are currently focused on internal activities can now be focused externally -- on the customer.

Outsourcing is certainly one option for addressing the problem of managing difficult activities requiring core technical skills. It is essential to remember that outsourcing doesn't imply abdication of management responsibility nor does it work well as a solution to solve critical and suddenly erupting trouble of a company. However, a company can outsource only those difficult problems which it understands properly because if the organization doesn't understand its own requirements, it won't be able to communicate them to an outside provider.

Accelerate reengineering Benefits

2009-03-04T07:29:00.002-08:00

Reengineering aims for drastic improvements in critical measures of performance such as cost, service, quality and speed. But the need to increase efficiency comes into direct conflict with the need to invest in core business. As non-core internal functions are continually put on the back seat, systems become less productive and less efficient . Therefore,by outsourcing a non-core function to a competent provider, the organization can realise the benefits of reengineering as an outsourcing benefit.

Business process reengineering (BPR) is, in computer science and management, an approach aiming at improvements by means of elevating efficiency and effectiveness of the business process that exist within and across organizations. The key to BPR is for organizations to look at their business processes from a "clean slate" perspective and determine how they can best construct these processes to improve how they conduct business. Business process reengineering (BPR) began as a private sector technique to help organizations fundamentally rethink how they do their work in order to dramatically improve customer service, cut operational costs, and become world-class competitors.

A key stimulus for reengineering has been the continuing development and deployment of sophisticated information systems and networks. Leading organizations are becoming bolder in using this technology to support innovative business processes, rather than refining current ways of doing work. Business process reengineering is one approach for redesigning the way work is done to better support the organization's mission and reduce costs. Reengineering starts with a high-level assessment of the organization's mission, strategic goals, and customer needs. Basic questions are asked, such as "Does our mission need to be redefined?

Are our strategic goals aligned with our mission? Who are our customers?" An organization may find that it is operating on questionable assumptions, particularly in terms of the wants and needs of its customers. Only after the organization rethinks what it should be doing, does it go on to decide how best to do it. Within the framework of this basic assessment of mission and goals, reengineering focuses on the organization's business processes--the steps and procedures that govern how resources are used to create products and services that meet the needs of particular customers or markets.

As a structured ordering of work steps across time and place, a business process can be decomposed into specific activities, measured, modeled, and improved. It can also be completely redesigned or eliminated altogether. Reengineering identifies, analyzes, and redesigns an organization's core business processes with the aim of achieving dramatic improvements in critical performance measures, such as cost, quality, service, and speed. Reengineering recognizes that an organization's business processes are usually fragmented into subprocesses and tasks that are carried out by several specialized functional areas within the organization. Often, no one is responsible for the overall performance of the entire process. Reengineering maintains that optimizing the performance of subprocesses can result in some benefits, but cannot yield dramatic improvements if the process itself is fundamentally inefficient and outmoded.

2009-03-04T07:29:00.001-08:00

Outsourcing to India appears to be the biggest trend during the recent past. It has several reasons why more and more companies are looking forward to Outsourcing to India. If we put other reasons apart the strongest reason for Outsourcing to India is the human talent this country has and that too at very low costs. Twelve months ago, anybody suggesting that India's economic growth will exceed 8 per cent in the coming fiscal year (ending March 2006), that its equity market would be up and touch 12000 marks and its foreign exchange reserves will cross US$100 billion, would have met with skepticism, if not utmost disbelief.

Well that is in reality the performance the Indian economy has just turned in. Along the way, it has shattered a many a myths which India-watchers (especially skeptics) have long believed. The first myth while Outsourcing to India is that coalition governments in a noisy democracy like India will fail to deliver high growth. Despite their rivalries and their bickering, all of India's main political parties primarily agree on most structural reforms - the need for a stronger and greater emphasis on growth rather than redistribution; clearer policy frameworks in infrastructural areas like telecom and roads; power, more open policies on external trade and foreign investment; faster fiscal and financial reforms and more aggressive slashing of red tape. Though, in labor reforms and privatization, there are significant differences of view, yet when it comes to Outsourcing to India the companies are getting what they want.

The second myth of outsourcing to India is that high growth is not possible without equal high-quality infrastructure. India's infrastructure remains inadequate (leaving perhaps, the telecom sector), yet, growth has been satisfactory and more and more companies are Outsourcing to India. It is true however, that this is unlikely to be sustained without infrastructure development. But this is now happening in India: the country's construction industry as well as capital goods industries like cement and steel is in overdrive, feeding a frenzy of nationwide road-building program, the building of hundreds of malls, a housing boom, multiplexes, office complexes and industrial parks in cities across the country.

Another myth while Outsourcing to India that the country is strong in services rather than manufacturing. This is not true today than it was a couple of years ago. After having incorporated new technologies, bagging hundreds of OEM contracts and focusing on export markets India's manufacturers have grown up and are now globally competitive in many areas, including autos and auto-parts, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and an array of engineering and capital goods. India's economy is no longer just an IT-services, outsourcing-driven story, back-office, as is widely perceived.

Key Aspects of KPO

2009-03-04T07:27:00.002-08:00

The objective must be to deliver world-class quality at often even improved service levels. Successful KPOs measure quality and get feedback for each individual project sometimes as small as a few thousand US dollars. In-depth expertise is required as well. For example, customers require Junior Analysts to understand the market dynamics in Oncology when creating a valuation model for a pharmaceutical company active in Oncology. The expertise required can be in industry verticals, functional areas (e.g. Risk Management) or in geographic knowledge (e.g. understanding mid-sized German companies).

The 'Jack in all Trades' approach is not likely to work in KPO. The work at KPO requires domain expertise and therefore the culture and customer requirement of KPOs and BPOs vary significantly. Hence, it is important that KPOs develop expertise in few areas and excel in them. There is a reason for why Western Law Firms, for example, do not offer R&D and Insurance Claims Analytics and Call Center Operations at the same time. KPO companies have the unique opportunity to create new markets, since their price points allow them to offer new types of services simply not available in high-wage countries for cost reasons.

However, buyers who offer Innovative services will differentiate successful KPO companies from players who offer cost arbitrage and will give them a sustainable place in the world markets. Selling KPO services in the West will require a Western sales force and significant branding efforts in the medium-term. As of now, tapping the SME potential and selling into Continental Europe requires local support. Successful branding will be another necessary ingredient to generate a sufficient 'pull' in the market.

One of the Best practices in KPO is the huge investment (about 15% of the total work time) and developing skills sets such as, functional skills, cross-cultural skills, as well as managerial skills. Recruiting the right people is critical and requires significant hiring, building brand equity at the right schools and in the open market. Successful players can attract better people. The interview-to-offer ratios of successful players are about 25:1 and the offer acceptance rates are as high as 80%. Developing professionals faster and better than anyone else will translate directly into better quality, productivity, retention and success in the market place.

KPO – A step ahead of BPO

2009-03-04T07:27:00.001-08:00

Flexibility and speed are critical. For example, in Business Research, customers are asking vendors to run projects from a few thousand US dollars upwards and expect complex global and multi-lingual research projects to start after as little as 15 minutes after the requests have been made. Supply Side Perspective of KPO: People, Quality, Differentiation and Marketing KPO is centered on professionals possessing the right skill sets. Therefore, access to a large, high-quality skill pool is a precondition for successful KPO operations, captive or third party.

For this reason, KPO operations are likely to emerge in countries with the highest educational standards, providing a large number of highly qualified professionals (Engineers, MBAs, PhDs, CFAs, Lawyers, etc.) such as India, China and Russia. India is likely to capture about 70% of the market for KPO, but the challenges will be significant. The ingredients of successful KPO are recruiting and training the right professionals, providing consistent quality over time, improving productivity to or beyond Western levels and successfully marketing the services to skeptical customers.

Setting up successful KPO companies, captives and third-party vendors, is very difficult and there are significant barriers to enter have been reflected in the past and the huge list of unsuccessful entries clearly reflect this. KPO companies are professional services companies and not white-collar factories. Therefore, world-class people development processes are at the root of successful KPOs. Developing professionals faster and better than anyone else will translate directly into better quality, productivity, retention and success in the market place.

Meritocracy and true employee care are only a few elements of such a philosophy. Recruiting the right people is critical and requires significant hiring, building brand equity at the right schools and in the open market. Successful players can attract better people. The interview-to-offer ratios of successful players are about 25:1 and the offer acceptance rates are as high as 80%. One of the Best practices in KPO is the huge investment (about 15% of the total work time) and developing skills sets such as, functional skills, cross-cultural skills, as well as managerial skills.

Large Potential of SME Clients

2009-03-04T07:26:00.000-08:00

While KPO started initially in captive centers of large companies, moving to specialized vendors, who provide such services to large companies such as Investment Banks. This sector holds immense potential for the SMEs in the long-term. There are millions of SMEs, which can benefit from KPO; however, their average volumes are much lower than a few thousand US dollar projects up to 5-10 full-time employees). While large companies predominantly use KPO for gaining access to talent and cost reduction, SMEs can further benefit from buying KPO services from specialized vendors by being able to gain access to very large resource pools quickly at no up front costs.

Additionally, it allows them to vary their cost base in the face of short-term demand swings, which creates the possibility of new business models. With the advent of specialized and high-quality KPO vendors in India, customers will increasingly go the 'buy' route rather than setting up their captive offshore centers. Setting up a captive takes at least a year to stabilize quality, consumes a very large amount of senior management attention, and often ends up with higher operating costs and less management control than working with one or two vendors.

This effect is particularly strong in KPO, since most companies do not want to build in-house capabilities in such fields in India due to the lack of critical mass, which is currently likely to be around 200+ professionals and that too, with an increasing trend. (E.g. Business Research). US/UK biggest markets, but large potential of non-English speaking markets. The US and the UK account for the largest share of KPO due to English language, the widespread NRI community and their existing comfort levels with off shoring services to India and similar destinations.

European companies are still far behind in terms of off shoring even BPO processes, but are increasingly opening up to the idea of off shoring higher end work to countries like India. However, this trend is likely to pick up only if issues related to language proficiency and cultural context are handled properly. If addressed appropriately, the non-English segment could become an excellent growth opportunity for Indian companies. Customers want focus rather than breadth or size Buyers of off shoring services are increasingly looking for those KPO players, which have the necessary expertise, depth and experience in focused areas of KPO. KPO players need to focus on particular market segments, in terms of services provided, industry verticals, functional skills as well as the type of clients served. Typically, customers look for the skill rather than for the size of a vendor and prefer focused vendors over vendors offering large varieties of BPO, IT and KPO services. They want vendors who will totally customize their solutions and offer both project-based delivery models as well as dedicated centers.

KPO Ahead of BPO

2009-03-04T07:25:00.001-08:00

The global KPO industry is still in a nascent stage. However, it is growing at a rapid pace. The sectors that are expected to 'shine' within the KPO industry include data search, integration and management services, financial services, research and analytics, technology research, computer aided simulation and engineering design and professional services, such as business research and legal services. Unlike the conventional BPO, where the focus is on process expertise, the focus in KPO, is on knowledge expertise and requires service providers to possess advanced technical and analytical skills.

Developed economies, such as the US, the UK, and countries in Western Europe are increasingly facing a shortage of highly trained and specialized professionals in various knowledge-intensive high skill sectors, such as R&D in VLSI, engineering design, IT, financial risk management, etc. Buyers of off shoring services save more at the high end of the value chain, as compared to the low end on a per-job basis. High-quality specialized vendors and successful captives have emerged as role models and created awareness for KPO, both in the West as well as in India.

In fact, players solely based on cost differentials will hardly be sustainable in the long run. The central theme of KPO is to create value for the client by providing the highest-quality business expertise and superior productivity/effectiveness rather than cost savings based only on geographic cost arbitrage. KPO services help improve the time-to-market, access to special skills, absorb peak load and enhance organizational effectiveness. Moreover, it simplifies the process and makes it more flexible. Consistent quality is the key word and primarily drives the buying decisions.

For example, an error made in a corporate finance valuation model can have a huge financial downside, which is likely to be in factors of 1000+, possibly larger than the savings made by having the spreadsheet produced in India. Similarly, a patent with badly written claims can damage the protection of multi million dollar products in global markets. Finally, the outsourcing solutions for high-end processes are usually highly customized, which is an important element of value creation for the client, but also requires the vendors to run multiple customized processes in parallel.

Evolution of KPO

2009-03-04T07:24:00.004-08:00

In the present scenario where activities of various nature are being outsourced to India from various parts of the world, different activities are being assigned a common word i.e. Knowledge Process outsourcing (KPO). But the word has definite connotation and can not be used for all kinds of the activities. We are trying to define different forms of outsourcing activities and to show how these are different as well parts of KPO but are definitely not BPO activities. Difference between KPO and BPO, LPO, RPO, HR and MBPO.

To understand this let us try to understand what we mean by BPO, LPO, RPO, HR and MBPO. BPO stands for Business Process Outsourcing. Major corporations in the US and Europe are outsourcing their back office operations to India to save costs. e.g. employee payroll, data entry, voice calling for back end activities etc. Although these jobs usually are not directly IT-related, their data-based orientation often means that they require IT departmental support to be successfully outsourced. There is a new addition to the BPO family — legal process outsourcing or LPO.

When it began, LPO consisted mostly of low-end transcription work, but no longer. LPO now includes a huge range of legal processes, such as patent application drafting, legal research, pre-litigation documentation, advising clients, writing software licensing agreements and drafting distribution agreements. The offshoring of U.S. legal jobs is already ramping up, as some experts predict that 79,000 lawyers' jobs are poised to move from the U.S. to countries like India by 2015. RPO stands for Research Process Outsourcing. This is popular in the biotech industry. Clients outsource their R&D work.

This was termed reportedly by India's biotech queen Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. RPO also stands for Recruitment Process Outsourcing. RPO is a key component of Human Resource Outsourcing (HRO). The RPO team basically handles all the recruitment. HRO stands for Human Resource Outsourcing. HR is getting outsourced to third party providers who can bring in the benefits of knowing the domain. HR as an activity, it comprises of a group of activities, which include payroll management, training, staffing, benefits administration, travel and expenses management, retirement and benefits planning, risk management, compensation consulting, etc. These activities are outsourced by which the client can concentrate on their core competency. In the US context, HR outsourcing is a huge area. For instance, nearly about 29-30 per cent of the outsourcing space is HR.

Benefits of KPO

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Good quality work. Lower costs, On time delivery of services, Uninterrupted services, Adaptability to changes in required quality. Does it imply that with the rise of KPO entities, BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) become extinct. It is undoubtable that KPO is a step ahead of BPO but this does not mean the end of BPO. The BPO Industry will exist and continue to be successful in India . BPO has its own strengths and way to solve a particular problem and the BPO market is long term in nature as compared to the KPO market.

With every passing day the BPO market expanding and so is the various systems and processes through it. The following are various areas in which the BPO presence shall not remain in existence but shall also keep growing. Any company involved as service provider in the KPO industry works in close coordination and association with the client and provides services that are predefined in terms of quality and standard of work. Outsourcing of activities to KPO companies can provide the following benefits.

Valuable cost savings that can be utilized elsewhere, Trained professionals at work, Standard operational efficiency, Increase in profits, Savings in time and management energy for maintaining in house services, Option to recruit a larger work force without raising costs. The following are various areas in which the BPO presence shall not remain in existence but shall also keep growing.Data processing, Basic data entry, Department Outsourcing, Provides technical support, Provides email support to its customers Even after the entry of KPO in the Indian market, the amount of total revenue earned in the outsourcing industry in BPO will be higher as compared to the KPO industry.

The BPO exports will be as higher as $20 billion by the end of 2010 in comparison to KPO projections of $12 billion in the same period. As per a recent study done by experts the BPO industry is expected to grow globally at a CAGR of over 26 percent by 2010. KPO service providers offer their clients an opportunity to work with some of the best brains in the profession without having to hire them permanently. Often the clients may not be able to find the skilled professionals that they need for the job and KPO provides them access to top quality and high-level intellectuals. Good KPO service providers are able to provide excellent infrastructure, multiple delivery modes such as offshore and onshore and can scale up or down their resources.

WHY KPO?

2009-03-04T07:24:00.001-08:00

If we look into any financial newspaper, magazine or any literature giving knowledge about the outsourcing business in India, what is found to be most referred word is KPO meaning thereby knowledge process outsourcing. Many new business concerns are coming day by day in Knowledge Processing Outsourcing Industry and KPO is emerging as a new sector that promises to provide long-term jobs for intellectual, analytical and knowledgeable people with a pay scales much higher than the BPO sector.

The following are the few areas which are being associated with the KPO sector.Research & Development, Financial Consultancy and Services, Advanced Web Applications, Business and Technical Analysis , Learning Solutions, Animation & Design, Business & Market Research, Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology, Medical Services, Writing & Content Development, Legal Services, Intellectual Property (IP) Research, Data Analytics, Network Management, Training & Consultancy. Now, why should some company invest time and money in knowledge process outsourcing?

The basic fundamentals of outsourcing apply equally to knowledge based services as well. A shortage of skilled professionals and availability thereof at higher costs increase the cost of maintaining such services in the host country whereas the same job can be got done with similar precision and quality and at much lesser costs abroad. The major KPO benefits which can be derived are described below. Standardized technical education is widely available to all in the developing countries especially in India.

This skilled and trained manpower is accessible at very low cost as well. It, therefore, is always a wise decision and makes sense to utilize such services. Even after the entry of KPO in the Indian market, the amount of total revenue earned in the outsourcing industry in BPO will be higher as compared to the KPO industry. Many new business concerns are coming day by day in Knowledge Processing Outsourcing Industry and KPO is emerging as a new sector that promises to provide long-term jobs for intellectual, analytical and knowledgeable people with a pay scales much higher than the BPO sector.

Bottlenecks in Future Growth

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A study on Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) sector shows a huge supply gap that threatens to cripple its growth. Rocsearch, a UK-based research services company, has gathered evidence suggesting that the KPO market may just about reach a size of $5 billion by 2010, manned by 100,000 people instead of projections of a $12 billion market supported by 250,000 employees.This accentuates Nasscom's projections of a shortfall of 500,000 workers in ITES and BPO sectors by 2010.

Assuming an average revenue per person of $55,000 over the next four years, 100,000 knowledge workers point to a $5 billion market. This size, though based on a CAGR of 32%, is still 60% less than the $12 billion potential projected by big KPOs, like Evalueserve, last year.Rocsearch COO, Ashish Sinha says the sector is restricted by low employability despite high graduate turnout, and competing demand from other sectors as jobs grow faster than the workforce.

For example, all the 2,000-odd IIM and top 10 B-School graduates are employable, while less than half the 84,000 graduates from Tier-II B-Schools would make the grade. The study sees only 500,000 of the over 3 million workers added to the labour pool in 2005 as employable in global firms and of these, just 2 in every 100 are likely to opt for work in knowledge space. The projections are based on a white paper released by Evalueserve. The paper cites reasons for a possible KPO boom.

It says higher savings by outsourcing knowledge based activities combined with the scarcity of specialized talent in developed countries could lead to growth in the KPO sector. Billing rates for KPO are higher at $30-45 per hour compared to just $10-14 in the BPO business. However, the paper also warns of several challenges like higher quality standards, greater investments and inadequate talent. Also, of course, the talent is much more affordable. "Law firms in the US charge an average of $400-450 per hour, and we do the same work for $75 to $100 an hour" says Kamlani" who is an outsourcing provider in the same area.

Scope and Future of KPO

2009-03-04T07:23:00.001-08:00

According to a report of National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the Indian chamber of commerce that serves as an interface to the Indian Software industry, Knowledge Process Outsourcing industry (KPO) is expected to reach USD 17 billion by 2010, of which USD 12 billion would be outsourced to India. Another report predicts that India will capture more than 70 percent of the KPO sector by 2010. Apart from India, countries such as Russia, China, the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Israel are also expected to join the KPO industry.
According to a recent study by “Evalueserve, a Gurgaon based outsourcing company having service chart for global world”, the global KPO market is expected to grow at a cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46 per cent, from $1.2 billion in 2003 to $17 billion in 2010. Compare this with the prediction for the low-end outsourcing services market. This is expected to have a CAGR of 26 per cent, from $ 7.7 billion to $39.8 billion in the same period. Says country general manager, Kelly Services, Achal Khanna “India still maintains the competitive advantage for providing, the combination of the most cost-effective and high quality manpower- this is India's strength in the off-shoring business”.

In the future, it is envisaged that KPO has a high potential as it is not restricted only to Information Technology (IT) or Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) sectors, and includes other sectors like Intellectual Property related services, Business Research and Analytics, Legal Research, Clinical Research, Publishing, Market Research (Market research KPO), etc. Over the past year or two, the outsourcing industry has been throwing up jobs for Doctors, Engineers, CAs, Architects," says Jacob William of the Bangalore-based Outsource2India, which employs 500 people and offers services in the big-buzz, big-bucks area of knowledge process outsourcing.

"Unlike the first wave which was more about entering data and answering phone calls, these jobs involve skill and expertise." Also, of course, the talent is much more affordable. "Law firms in the US charge an average of $400-450 per hour, and we do the same work for $75 to $100 an hour" says Kamlani" who is an outsourcing provider in the same area. In the Indian context, KPO salaries could be 25-50 per cent higher than those offered to the same domain experts such as Engineer, Doctor, CA, Lawyer, Architect, Biotechnologist, Economist, Statistician and MBAs, it said.

KPO

2009-03-04T07:22:00.000-08:00

It is being claimed that KPO is one step extension of Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) because BPO Industry is shaping into Knowledge Process Outsourcing because of its favorable advantageous and future scope. But, let us not treat it only a 'B' replaced by a 'K'. In fact, Knowledge process can be defined as high added value processes chain where the achievement of objectives is highly dependent on the skills, domain knowledge and experience of the people carrying out the activity. And when this activity gets outsourced a new business activity emerges, which is generally known as Knowledge Process Outsourcing.

Knowledge Processing Outsourcing (popularly known as a KPO), calls for the application of specialized domain pertinent knowledge of a high level. The KPO typically involves a component of Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO), Research Process Outsourcing (RPO) and Analysis Proves Outsourcing (APO). KPO business entities provide typical domain-based processes, advanced analytical skills and business expertise, rather than just process expertise. KPO Industry is handling more amount of high skilled work other than the BPO Industry. While KPO derives its strength from the depth of knowledge, experience and judgment factor; BPO in contrast is more about size, volume and efficiency.

In fact, it is the evolution and maturity of the Indian BPO sector that has given rise to yet another wave in the global outsourcing scenario: KPO or Knowledge Process Outsourcing. The success achieved by many overseas companies in outsourcing business process operations to India has encouraged many of the said companies to start outsourcing their high-end knowledge work as well. Cost savings, operational efficiencies, availability of and access to a highly skilled and talented workforce and improved quality are all underlying expectations in outsourcing high-end processes to India The future of KPO has a high potential as it is not restricted to only Information Technology (IT) or Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) sectors and includes other sectors like Legal Processes.

Intellectual Property and Patent related services, Engineering Services, Web Development application, CAD/CAM Applications, Business Research and Analytics, Legal Research, Clinical Research, Publishing, Market Research (Market research KPO ) etc. In today's competitive environment, focus is to concentrate on core specialization and core-competency areas and outsource the rest of the activities. Many companies and organizations have come to realize that by outsourcing non core activities, not only cost are minimized and efficiencies improved but the total business improves because the focus shifts to the key growth areas of the business activity.

Examples of MT at home

2009-03-04T07:21:00.000-08:00

My name is Michele Miller. I'm 42 years old, and have run a medical transcription business at home since 1994. I live in Fort Pierce, Florida I decided to write a book about my business simply because so many people over the years have asked me how I got into medical transcription. I would help everybody I could, and found accounts for quite a few people, including friends. The thing was, for every person I helped, I would have to write pages and pages of notes for them to take home and look at.

It wasn't always the same notes for each person, so I was only able to copy some of the pages to hand out. I like helping people, especially with medical transcription because I feel very knowledgeable about it and have so much experience with it. In the end I thought, " Why not write a manual about it?" This way, it could cover everything that I thought was important to a successful medical transcription business, I could answer questions once people had read it. And so the book was born! It's not full of fluff, it's just full of good helpful and time saving information.

The kind of stuff I wish someone could have shown me when I started out I love the Internet and learning about web design. It's also a great way to reach out and help other people who would benefit from my book. It takes time to market and maintain my website, but I have tried to keep the cost of the book reasonable. I hope that all who purchase it really do enjoy it and find it invaluable information. If you are searching for a home based business, I can highly recommend medical transcription. You won't regret it.Transcription is a key step in the behind-the-scenes world of modern medicine.

It begins when a physician dictates details about why a patient has come in for an exam.“Whether patients have a cold or they get an arm amputated, all that is recorded by the doctor,” says Cameron Loflin, VP of business services at Career Step.A transcriptionist takes a physician’s notes and enters them into a patient's permanent medical record. A coder pulls specific codes, which are used for insurance and billing. This is a growing field, with plenty of job opportunities and an overall bright career future -- thanks to an increasing population that is living longer, and with physicians prescribing more medications, operations and procedures than ever before.

What is Medical Transcription?

2009-03-04T07:20:00.000-08:00

Medical transcription, also known as MT, is an allied health profession, which deals in the process of transcription, or converting voice-recorded reports as dictated by physicians and/or other healthcare professionals into text format.Medical transcription is the typing of medical notes, which are dictated by a physician, nurse, or other health care worker to keep as reference and permanent record of a patient's care. And how many hours does it takes? This depends on the physician and how many patients a day he sees, and how long the reports are. You can find some accounts which will only take an hour or two a day, and some that will take 4-5 hours.

It varies. How does the work get delivered to the doctor? I think most medical transcriptionists deliver the work to the office still, but there are many that send the work via modem back to the doctor's office How much does it cost to get the equipment to do this type of work? This varies of course, but generally, start up costs including the cost of a computer and transcription machine and necessary books, can actually be as low as $200.00. An older second hand computer can be purchased nowadays for as little as $100.00, and a transcriber can bepurchased on an internet auction for pennies on the dollar.

These are your two main purchases. You can of course spend several thousand dollars if you want to. Is this a legitimate business? Yes. Medical transcription at home is a legitimate business. It is not a scam. You do have to find your own work, but I never found that difficult to do. Once you get an account, they usually stay with you, so you are not out pounding the pavement looking for work every month. Why are you selling this book? I enjoy helping people, and felt knowledgeable enough about medical transcription to write a manual about it. It saved me writing notes over and over again for all the people I help, including those that take an internship program through my company.

I enjoy the Internet and building websites for myself as a hobby, and this seemed the perfect way to get the book out to help even more people. I do make a profit of course, for all my work, but I try to keep my prices reasonable. I've never downloaded an ebook, is it difficult? No, it's not difficult. It's really just like saving a file to your computer. There are full instructions on the How to Download page. Will you help me with the download if I run into problems? Yes, I will try to help you via email Will you help me get work? No, I cannot help you get work, but I show you how to do it.

Medical billing Overview

2009-03-04T07:19:00.002-08:00

Medical billing is the practice of submitting claims to Insurance companies or various government entities in order to receive payment for services provided to a patient by a medical doctor or other licensed health care provider. Medical billers usually work away from the public eye in the claims processing office, or in the billing department of a medical office, clinic or hospital. Many well trained and experienced billers set up their own home-based businesses. Medical billers are important members of the medical office team.

Their vast knowledge, flexibility, and skill comes into play each time a patient is seen by a provider, a claim is coded, billed, and processed. Somebody has to do all that and keep track of what was done and abide by all the rules involved in the process. The medical billing career offers challenges, rewarding experiences, and good pay. People who pay attention to detail and have good organizational skills do very well in this business. Typing or data entry, bookkeeping knowledge, computer knowledge and people skills enjoy this profession.

The medical biller's training must be extensive enough to insure that the individual may assume and various responsibilities and duties involved. The Meditec system has proven to be very effective over the 39 years it has been available. It is used extensively by providers to train their in-house staff, both existing and those in the mill to become hired. Medical billers are experts in the medical billing and coding process. They function as medical reimbursement consultants to medical practices to help them become more efficient.

As you will quickly realize, the medical biller is seen as a patient's advocate and regarded as a healthcare provider's key to getting paid! Medical billers and coders enjoy an important role where they work, whether as employed staff members, or working from a home based business or as independent consultants. The government wants all coders of Medicare claims to be credentialed and certified. Yet, the National Inpatient Coder survey of 1999 showed that only a little over half of those involved are certified. With Meditec’s program, you will be able to reply “yes,” when employers ask: "Are you certified?". It's easier than you might think. Medical billers also are proficient in financial analysis, workflow and utilization of software, collections, insurance claim submission and management, patient and electronic medical records (EMR) management, HIPAA compliance, health insurance rules, insurance fraud issues, networking, marketing, customer services and many other related areas. The high demand on the job market allows medical billing and coding specialists to earn competitive wages. Medical billers and coders are compensated according to their level of training, experience, skills, and how effectively these skills are used.

What is Medical Billing?

2009-03-04T07:19:00.001-08:00

You’ve seen the commercials and web sites about starting medical billing businesses in your home. You can’t just start calling doctors and telling them you will take care of the billing for them. It is their income and they want to know you are a true business and that you have experience. So, before any thing else, look into classes to help you get those medical billing jobs.There are several ways to be certified. One is to go to your local community college and see if they offer a medical billing business opportunity course.

Many of them do or they can tell you whom to contact. The other option is to check into some courses to study medical billing at home. These are usually less expensive and you can take the time to go over areas as often as you like. Either way take the classes and get certified.While taking the classes, begin creating a medical billing business plan. This is an essential document. It will help you get all the information and start up costs you will need to know, before opening your business.

Most medical billing businesses start up costs average between $2000 and $5000. The medical billing business plan will help you budget all the necessary things so you will know how much you need before you get started.You can go to your local Small Business Administration office or visit them on the internet. You can get sample business plans and forms that can help you create your medical billing business plan. They will also be able to tell you whom to contact in local and state governments regarding regulations and requirements in your area.

If you know the requirements, you will be better off and your business is more likely to succeed.You may want to start out you medical billing business from home as a sole proprietor, but check into all the types of business entities before choosing one. They each have advantages and disadvantages, so it is best to see which one fits you best. You should also decide on a name for your business and register that name with the appropriate agencies. Medical billing and coding specialists work for practicing physicians and licensed healthcare practitioners in small to large group practices, dental offices, pharmacies, nursing homes, medical care facilities and clinics.

Medical Billing at home

2009-03-04T07:16:00.001-08:00

What the masses didn't know was that during those two years several so called home based medical billing support companies were in full swing selling their wares and services to the undereducated looking to get into this lucrative field. The majority of the companies were well thought out scams and because most people had no idea of what was needed to successfully run and operate a business in this industry the companies quickly became rich while giving nothing to the clients in return (except for empty wallets, dashed dreams and a lot of headaches). In 1999 several entrepreneurial and financial magazines stated that medical billing was one of the top ten home based businesses for the new millennium.

While the reports were correct it took almost 2 years before the information sunk into the heads of those that were desperately looking for ways to leave the nine-to-five rat race and work from home. Friends, let me tell you right now that there are no companies out there that can afford to supply all of that for $400 and stay in business! Common sense would alert most people that this is a scam, but because most people are so blinded by the money making potential they don't listen to that little person inside that usually yells "It's Too Good To Be True".Today, while the industry is still a growing field there are several companies (usually the same ones from 2000 on but with the same product and different names), that spend a lot of money advertising in different venues to take further advantage of the unsuspecting public.

These companies know that the majority of folks will not do any research before getting involved, they make it easy for you to contact them, they have very convincing sales reps waiting to con you out of your money and for a mere $400 they tell you that they will supply you with everything you'll need to make $40-$60K per year from the comfort of your home. How does the work get delivered to the doctor? I think most medical transcriptionists deliver the work to the office still, but there are many that send the work via modem back to the doctor's office .

How much does it cost to get the equipment to do this type of work? This varies of course, but generally, start up costs including the cost of a computer and transcription machine and necessary books, can actually be as low as $200.00. An older second hand computer can be purchased nowadays for as little as $100.00, and a transcriber can bepurchased on an internet auction for pennies on the dollar. These are your two main purchases. You can of course spend several thousand dollars if you want to. You can find some accounts which will only take an hour or two a day, and some that will take 4-5 hours. It varies.

Credit Checking Companies

2009-03-04T07:15:00.000-08:00

You should always research a company before you do business with them unless you are getting a referral from a very trusted friend. The best way to start your research is by going to the BBB and doing a search for the company you are looking to do business with. You can learn a lot about the company including if the company has any open complaints against them from their customers. You will also see if they have a favorable rating, which goes toward their credibility. The next thing that you should do is visit and partake in the discussions at any one of the several medical billing forums.

These forums will become the basis of your support network and will give you the opportunity to ask questions of established home-based medical billing business owners. The other benefit is that you will also meet other new medical billers that are on the same level of getting their business started as you are, so you know that you're not the only one who has fears about getting started. Once you dispel the fears then you can focus on the topic at hand and proceed with full confidence in your decisions.

The home-based medical billing industry is a great business to start but it's not for everybody so before you decided to get involved I suggest that you research the industry in full and read all the books on the topic that you can. There are several books on the market but the majority of them are rather outdated so they aren't going to do much for you since the industry tends to change quicklyIf you are entertaining the thought or you're just curious about the field then do yourself a favor before you do anything else and read the ebook entitled "Medical Billing Book For Beginners" by Paul G. Hackett.

In the United States, a credit score is a number that is based on a statistical analysis of a person's credit report, and is used to represent the creditworthiness of that person—the likelihood that the person will pay his or her debts. A credit score is primarily based on credit report information, typically from the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. There is no single credit score for any one person because each of the three credit bureaus has different information in its credit files for each person, and there are many different credit scoring models in use. Many lenders use third-party credit scoring systems, such as Fair Isaac's FICO scoring model, to evaluate the creditworthiness of a borrower. While the terms credit score and FICO score are synonymous in many people's minds, in actuality a FICO score is a credit score calculated using one particular credit scoring system.

Medical Billing in Bpo’s

2009-03-04T07:14:00.000-08:00

There are several ways to be certified. One is to go to your local community college and see if they offer a medical billing business opportunity course. Many of them do or they can tell you whom to contact. The other option is to check into some courses to study medical billing at home. These are usually less expensive and you can take the time to go over areas as often as you like. Either way take the classes and get certified.While taking the classes, begin creating a medical billing business plan.

This is an essential document. It will help you get all the information and start up costs you will need to know, before opening your business. Most medical billing businesses start up costs average between $2000 and $5000. The medical billing business plan will help you budget all the necessary things so you will know how much you need before you get started. You’ve seen the commercials and web sites about starting medical billing businesses in your home. You can’t just start calling doctors and telling them you will take care of the billing for them.

It is their income and they want to know you are a true business and that you have experience. So, before any thing else, look into classes to help you get those medical billing jobs. You may want to start out you medical billing business from home as a sole proprietor, but check into all the types of business entities before choosing one. They each have advantages and disadvantages, so it is best to see which one fits you best. You should also decide on a name for your business and register that name with the appropriate agencies.

You can go to your local Small Business Administration office or visit them on the internet. You can get sample business plans and forms that can help you create your medical billing business plan. They will also be able to tell you whom to contact in local and state governments regarding regulations and requirements in your area. If you know the requirements, you will be better off and your business is more likely to succeed.