IS COVID-19 A BLESSING IN DISGUISE FOR INDIA
For bringing down the disparities between the cities
In these tough times, while almost the entire technology industry getting to Work From Home for more than 3 months now because of the COVID Pandemic. This thought occurred to me that, although there is a huge socio-economic impact because of the COVID now, things could change fast and there is a chance that this could actually become a blessing in disguise for our Country. I can give you my rationale on why I am saying that. But before that, I want to ask you some questions for you to introspect yourself.
How many of you are lucky enough to study, work and settle in our hometown where we were born and brought up?
I am sure many of us are not. My follow up question to the people who are not lucky enough (like me) is,
How many of you would want to work and settle in your hometown?
Again, I am sure many of us would want to relocate to our hometown, if we were given a chance. If that’s the case,
Why are we not doing that? What is stopping us from doing that?
Primary reason for this would be, in search of a better livelihood as there is unavailability of enough opportunities in our hometown.
If we dissect this even more, As India became the global outsourcing hub, the IT and IT Enabled Services industry had grown multifold in the last couple of decades, and thereby becoming one of the largest employers for the country. And, Since the industry is relying heavily on the high skilled people, strategically, organisations would prefer Tier 1 cities, where they will have a pool of qualified people. This in turn had made the people from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities migrate to Tier 1 cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad in search of opportunities.
If the pace of migration from rural areas to urban centres continues, Indian urban population is likely to reach 600 million by 2030. — Invest India
If we look at the Macro level, On one side, we are making rapid progress as a country through IT and ITES Industry. On the other side, we are creating a significant disparity between the cities.
For Tier 1 cities (to which we are migrating), this migration has contributed significantly to rise in Inflation of goods & services, Scarcity of water / space, traffic congestion and increase in the pollution level.
For Tier 2 and 3 cities (from where we are migrating), this migration had caused significant economic loss. Due to the lucrativeness of the IT industry, many people migrate to Tier 1 cities leaving behind their homes which indirectly affects the growth of those cities. As, everything is driven by demand and supply.
Even our Government is finding it difficult to handle this rapid urbanisation in a Sustainable manner. They are trying to provide alternatives, by setting up Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities too. But somehow they remain non-starters.
Now, getting into the Micro level view, from the perspective of the Individuals who are migrating, although the purchasing power and social status has improved. They were not able to manage a good work-life balance because of which their physical and mental well being is getting affected. Along with that, as they are very far from home, they are not able to be with and support their parents when required. In spite of being in the same city, still they are not able to meet and connect with some other friends who live in the same city due to factors like busy schedule, travel time and traffic congestion.
Similarly, although organisations have built their companies in Tier 1 cities, they also wanted to extend their base to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities mainly to reduce their operating costs and diversify some of the Political / Social / Environment risks which are very common in Tier 1 cities compared to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
Now, if we take a look back, all the associated stakeholders (Government , Individual and Organisations) wanted to solve this problem, although with different motivations, but still we were not able to achieve this. You know why? It’s because each of the associated stakeholders are concerned about the risks and uncertainty involved in it.
Individuals: Although, they want to relocate to their hometown. They are not sure whether they will get the right opportunities there. Though some individuals get to Work From Home occasionally, they are also not sure whether they can operate out of home effectively, by collaborating with their clients and fellow colleagues and deliver the same value.
Organisations: Inspite of the interest in changing their bases to Tier 2 and 3 cities, they are worried about the ability to attract talents and handle other operational challenges like availability of Suppliers for Connectivity etc. in those locations. Some organisations have also tried providing Work From Home (WFH) options to their employees for a shorter duration to support employees during critical situations. They knew that doing it at scale would bring down their Operational cost exponentially, but they were not confident whether the employees would remain accountable and deliver as in an office setting. They were also worried on how the clients will perceive this.
When we are struggling to find a solution to this both at a Micro and Macro level, COVID-19 has taught us a way on how to handle this actually. It gave the answer to all the dilemmas of the associated stakeholders. It taught the organisation that in order to bring down the operation cost, they need not move the Infrastructure to tier 2 and 3 cities by building an office there. Instead, if employees are enabled to Work from their homes effectively, it in itself can solve the problem.
Some organisations (like TCS etc. ) are planning to have 75% of the employees to work from home by 2025
Similarly, from an individual perspective, their dilemma of whether they can collaborate with clients and other colleagues to be effective in their work and delivery, has also got answered now. With this new normal, even the client had seen that Business As Usual (BAU) can continue even by working remotely.
To summarise, I could definitely sense that there will be a significant change in the operating model of all the IT companies post COVID. Work From Home will soon become the future working model of the technology companies. And, once this is achieved, as a ripple effect, we can definitely bring down the disparities between the cities. Individuals will move back to their home town thereby preventing environmental damage to Tier 1 cities and bring back the economic growth in their Tier 2 and 3 cities.
And thus, COVID-19 could become a blessing in disguise for India!
Would love to hear your thoughts as well. If you feel otherwise, let me know your thoughts in comments.
