Bangalore has been an attrac tive location for Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) firms in terms of human resources, policy support and nature of work. Bangalore has a large base of education and research institutions, good telecom connectivity, better quality of life and better state policy. It has gained a competitive edge in the ITES segment and has become an end to end ITES hub with the right mix of third-party vendors, BPO arms of software companies and captive centers. The growing list of global ITES firms in Bangalore includes Accenture, Sykes and Convergys and Indian ITES companies such as ICICI one source, 24/7 customer.com, Msource, HTMT and Transworks. Most of Bangalore's ITES industry is related to financial services, tech support and insurance claims processing. Many companies are leveraging Bangalore city for higher value-added BPO activity. At present two very different images of ITES employment exist in popular consciousness. On the one hand, consultants and employers have presented a positive image of ITES sector as new high-tech working environment in which favorable working conditions and highly skilled knowledge intensive and flexible work are the norms. This image has been reinforced by the state governments, many of whom have been offering tax and non-tax incentives to attract ITES firms to invest in their states in order to create new employment opportunities. On the other hand, a good deal of criticism has also been directed at these ITES jobs. ITES sector has been condemned for providing mainly low-skilled dead end jobs, for causing health problems and also for their high rates of employee turnover.
The research has found that there is a gender dimension to various segments of ITES sector, as women do not make up the majority of employees in all segments of ITES industry. For instance, voice-based call centers are staffed predominantly by women, where they are preferred for their soft skills required to deal with customers. Further, call centers and financial services call centers are staffed predominantly by women and computer services/tech support call centers are staffed predominantly by men. This clearly indicates that women are highly concentrated in those segments which require least by way of prior knowledge and training. From the Table 3, it is clear that more than 55% of ITES workers are women.
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