Rural BPOs are not merely CSR initiatives for Infosys: Raghu Cavale

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be turned into a business opportunity too. At least, this is what Infosys Technologies is trying to do with its BPO centres in rural area. Betting big on the availability of workforce in the rural areas, the company has opened BPO centres in south Indian villages, vice-president-India Business Raghu Cavale told DNA on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit organised by the World Economic Forum.

The company is aiming to turn what is currently just a CSR initiative into a viable business targeting fast moving consumer goods companies, which are increasingly foraying into the rural areas to generate growth. Excerpts:

You have initiated BPO business in rural areas. What is the rationale?
If you’re not in the rural areas you’re missing out on the majority of the workforce, most of who are in villages. So, if you have BPO centres in the villages, you could capture a latent workforce and also save on the stress created in the urban areas. But the biggest problem is to figure out the right economic model. You have to determine who would use such call centre. What is the right training? What should be there in it for the young people?

Is this initiative a part of your CSR?
It is a CSR activity, but we are trying to make it into a viable business generating operation. In the next 12 months or so, we will have a better idea about the economics, and scale of this business. The local people have taken to it very well.

What kind of services do you provide through such BPOs?
It’s centred towards back-end operations, but the moment Indian fast moving consumer goods companies start coming to these areas, we will also start providing voice-based services in local languages.

How many rural centres do you currently have?
We have two or three such centres in south India. Depending upon how they develop, we will think of our expansion strategy. There is no reason why we can not spread it to other parts. One would wish that a lot of such initiatives are taken in rural India. The initiative started last year or so.

What has been the response?
The response from the rural folks is very good. In terms of business feasibility, we are shifting some of our internal processes, which are not going to affect our customers, to these centres. We are trying to use it from a captive perspective, but we do believe that in the future, the rural markets will be the next big thing for fast moving consumer goods and consumer durable companies. These companies will require call centre services in these markets. It should be possible to make this into a sustainable business model in another one or two years.

What kind of business potential do you see in this?
We are expecting some business work to come in. I think the government needs to step in. We have some contracts with the state governments in which there is some resistance from the government side. We all know what the government can do but the question is who has the political will to do it. The central government should give some directive to the state governments to say that here are the funds to generate rural employment and say how do you plan to take it forward. The government needs to provide the initial thrust.
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