Their job is to move NRIs

MUMBAI: When 35-year-old Nikita Ramamurthy’s employer, an IT multinational, offered her the post of operations manager in India in 2002, she leapt at the opportunity.

But buried under the excitement was anxiety: how would she cope with life in India, which she had left 20 years ago for the US?

Nikita’s dread, though well-founded, was unnecessary. Her company made sure of that. Hiring the services of Ikan Relocations, it ensured that Nikita’s family made a smooth transition.

“They handled immigration, found us a house in Bangalore, even short-listed schools for my daughter,” she says. “It was a relief.”

With hundreds of NRIs and expatriates arriving in India following the industrial and tech boom, the country has seen the emergence of a secondary service segment - relocation services.

Providing these services - packing and shipping, handling immigration formalities, and destination support like finding a house, hooking up gas and telephone connections, even locating a maid - are companies like Ikan, Writer Corporation, Global Adjustments, and Your Man In India.

Some also provide cultural- and city-orientation programmes. The objective: to enable an outsider to hit the ground running.

“There was a growing need for these services, but no suppliers,” says Rohit Kumar, joint managing director, Ikan. His clients include Intel, Reuters, and American Express.

The 10-year-old company assesses each group or family’s background and needs and provides a suitable package of services.

“For instance, a person from a highly punctual culture needs to be told that in India, if a wedding invitation says 7.30pm, it’s not non-negotiable,” says Kumar.

The costs vary. Your Man In India, for instance, charges a service fee above the cost of a particular service. “Our service fee to get, say, a gas connection, is $25 (Rs1,100) besides the cost of the connection, which would probably be Rs3,000,” says Parasuram Prabhu, senior manager, operations.

“The service fee for the entire package - from moving to destination support - for a family would be $400-500 (Rs17,000-Rs22,000).”  

Earlier, the task of relocation was assigned to personnel departments. Many companies still do so, but big MNCs prefer to outsource the work. The service is better and standardised.

Chennai-based Global Adjustments, founded in 1995, provides orientation visits to Indian and expatriate homes, a guide to essential shops and services, and an education on Indian gestures, habits, and conversational styles. “We publish the only Indian cultural newsletter for expatriates,” says founder-director Ranjini Manian.

These are not frills. Expatriates and NRIs moving to India need all the help they can get. Says Imraan Ramdjan, British Telecom business manager, “You’re coming to a country you don’t know. You have no idea how it operates. It’s necessary to learn the nuances of the culture.”

But not everyone vouches for the package. “The destination support services were good, but the cross-cultural training was not particularly useful,” says Reuters journalist Braden Reddall, who moved to Mumbai two years ago.

Yet, business is booming for these firms. “With a stable political situation, open investment climate, and large urban centres, everybody is interested in India,” says Manian.