Bollywood and the Radiologists
Bollywood and the Radiologists
Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 1:33 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
www.ZaZona.com
Now our movies will be made in Bollywood instead of Hollywood, thanks
to the cheap labor in India. In case you haven't heard of Bollywood you
can learn more here:
http://www.bollywoodworld.com/
Bollywood can put U.S. workers out of business. The reason: the
starting salary of a graphic artist at Compudyne is just $5,000 a year,
paltry by US standards.
If India isn't busy entertaining us with their movies, they are hard at
work analyzing our X-Rays. Their radiologists work for dirt salaries
for Wipro as they outsource for U.S. hospitals. Sanjay Saini, head of
CT services at Massachusetts General, must have gotten some acting
lessons in Bollywood because he deserves an Indian Oscar for best
foreign acting for this rationalization:
"It's not really a cost advantage; it's a time advantage,"
says Sanjay Saini, head of CT services at Mass General and
a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School.
"The best place to do that nighttime work is on the other
side of the world, where it's daytime."
from the June 18, 2003 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0618/p01s03-wosc.html
India winning higher-status jobs from US
By Amol Sharma | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
BANGALORE, INDIA - Remember that scene from "The Nutty Professor II"
when Eddie Murphy morphs into a baby?
It looks like Hollywood at its special- effects best. But the scene was
produced in a studio 16 time zones - and a cultural world - away, in
Bangalore, India.
US companies have outsourced mundane data entry and programming to
India for years. But increasingly, US firms are farming out much more
sophisticated work to the world's second most populous nation, taking
advantage of skilled accountants, market researchers, and medical
technicians - even special-effects artists - who work for nickels on
the dollar.
Behind the push is the need to cut costs, advances in
telecommunications technologies, and growing confidence in India's
labor force. "As large global corporations and institutions are
becoming more comfortable with the offshore model and more
sophisticated in managing business practices remotely, they are moving
more complex processes offshore," says Peter Lowes, a partner in the
outsourcing practice at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.
Forrester Research estimates that 3.3 million jobs will be outsourced
to low-wage countries like India by 2015. India's leading technology
trade group, NASSCOM, says the Indian back-office sector will grow 65
percent this year, to $2.3 billion.
The trend is not sitting well with laid-off workers in the US, who are
protesting the phenomenon in online chat rooms and discussion groups.
Six states are considering legislation that would ban taxpayer-funded
contracts from going offshore, which means India in many cases.
But the austere US economy may leave companies with little choice.
"In order to drive earnings growth in an environment where revenues are
flat, the only alternative is to cut cost," says Mr. Lowes. "But you
have to do that while maintaining quality of service to your
customers." India is attractive, he says, because the quality of
service is often comparable to or better than in the US.
Years of outsourcing experience have convinced many American companies
that Indian workers are highly skilled, efficient, and creative.
"The comfort level of American companies with Indian workers is
growing, and it will continue to grow," says Gurucharan Das, a leading
economic analyst and a consultant for Indian companies looking to win
outsourcing contracts.
Coming back for more
The quality of special- effects work done in India has apparently
impressed the big Hollywood studios, who keep coming back for more.
"The artistic traditions in this country are ancient, so we draw on
that," says S.S. Dahiya, whose Bangalore firm, Compudyne Winfosystems,
has crafted special- effects scenes in "Independence Day," "Men in
Black," and "Swordfish," among others.
Mr. Dahiya says he can do the same work as a Hollywood effects studio -
but for 70 percent of the cost. The starting salary of a graphic artist
at Compudyne is just $5,000 a year, paltry by US standards.
The outsourcing of animation and film production is just picking up
steam and appears to be poised for a boom. The trade group NASSCOM
recently pegged the country's animation and digital-media industry at
$600 million, and said it is expected to grow to $5 billion by 2008.
"The Indian animation market is suddenly waking up to a host of global
opportunities," says NASSCOM president Kiran Karnik.
Another industry poised to send high-skilled jobs to India is financial
services. Indians have proved their merit over the years in processing
insurance claims and credit cards. Now some of the world's leading
firms are handing over more sensitive, higher-end financial-services
work.
Consulting firm A.T. Kearney recently released a study that made waves
on Wall Street. It stated that 500,000 financial-services jobs will be
outsourced to India in the next five years. The reason: Top Indian
business graduates are viewed as highly competent - and their annual
salary of $12,000 pales in comparison with the six figures demanded by
top American MBAs.
This year, Ernst & Young started sending tax returns - which far
outpace simple data entry in complexity - to its Indian office for
processing. About 50 American companies now trust Indians to tabulate
some 35,000 returns, a figure that is likely to grow dramatically,
experts say.
The Indians charged with this work are chartered accountants. Still,
this sector may grow gradually, given that many firms aren't convinced
Indians can learn the US tax code thoroughly and are reluctant to
outsource such a sensitive process.
Investment banks are also taking a closer look at India's offerings. JP
Morgan Chase & Co. said staff in its Bombay office will begin producing
research reports on US stocks this summer. There is speculation in the
industry that Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley plan to do the same, but
neither company has officially announced such intentions.
Help on the night shift
India is making forays into medicine as well, building on years of
experience transcribing dictation for American doctors.
In a small Bangalore office building, Indian radiologists are
downloading CT scans done at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital,
analyzing them, and sending back three-dimensional computer models
highlighting problem areas - though not providing official diagnoses.
Wipro, one of India's leading technology companies, has made the
arrangement possible by building a telecommunications system that
allows several gigabytes of data to be sent between Mass General and
Bangalore every day.
Unlike other outsourcing ventures, the primary goal isn't to save
money, but to alleviate stress on Mass General's radiology staff,
particularly during night shifts.
"It's not really a cost advantage; it's a time advantage," says Sanjay
Saini, head of CT services at Mass General and a professor of radiology
at Harvard Medical School. "The best place to do that nighttime work is
on the other side of the world, where it's daytime."
But even if there are no savings for Mass General, the hospital is
still getting a good return on its investment. The Indian radiologists
are doing the work of US medical technicians and earning comparable
pay, though their education and training is more like that of American
doctors.
Eventually, Dr. Saini hopes to bring Indians to the US to gain medical
licenses so they can return to India and offer full patient care
services, albeit remotely.
But, he says, that idea is meeting with resistance. Some in the
American medical community question the overall quality of Indian
medicine - and the privacy safeguards for medical information sent to
India.
Average yearly salaries for IT programmers
US $63,331
Poland and Hungary $4,800 to $8,000
India $5,880
Philippines $6,564
Malaysia $7,200
Russian Federation $5,000 to $7,500
China $8,952
Canada $28,174
Ireland $23,000 to $34,000
Israel $15,000 to $38,000
SOURCE: CIO Magazine, Nov. 15, 2002
Help to Keep ZaZona.com Online
Donate to the Cause at
http://www.zazona.com/Donations.htm
To Subscribe or Unsubscribe send an email to
Back to archives