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<ul><li>The second-largest city of <keyword id="20154" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="tamil-nadu" source="Orion">Tamil Nadu</keyword> is all set to host the most prosperous business of the day – technology.</li><li>After the pandemic, most IT employees have been working from home and have been reluctant to come back to work, after they have shifted base to their hometowns.</li><li>IT companies have started moving closer to talent, most of which resides away from large cities.</li><li>As per a report by Naukri.com, <keyword id="6361828" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="coimbatore" source="Orion">Coimbatore</keyword> showed the maximum year-on-year growth of 60% in hiring across all non-metro cities in June this year.</li></ul>A year after Coimbatore shifted hands from Tipu Sultan to the British, a failed coffee merchant Robert Stanes kickstarted its long journey of industrialization. Apart from motor works and other foundries, he also helped establish textile mills. By the time the Bombay textile boom had started to wane, this Southern city on the other end of the country picked up – and prospered as road and rail connectivity improved. A similar revolution seems to be afoot in this second largest city of Tamil Nadu, and is all set to host the most prosperous business of the day – technology. <keyword id="6357150" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="tcs" source="Orion">TCS</keyword> already has a small office in the city. <keyword id="6354512" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="infosys" source="Orion">Infosys</keyword> and IBM’s ‘future of work’ strategies are making them set-up offices in tier-2 cities and on the top of these lists is Coimbatore. <keyword id="43217" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="tech-mahindra" source="Orion">Tech Mahindra</keyword> however has already inaugurated its new campus there, which it hopes will drive business growth in unexplored markets. “The campus will focus on developing new technology stack pertaining to intelligent automation, artificial intelligence/robotic process automation, full-stack development, customer experience (CX), and other next-gen application development and management skills (ADMS) skills,” Harshvendra Soin, global chief people officer and head of marketing at Tech Mahindra told Business Insider India. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="IT companies are going where talent is" comment="subhead" text="IT companies are going where talent is">IT companies are going where talent is</cmsannotation> After the pandemic, most IT employees have been working from home and have been reluctant to come back to work, after they have shifted base to their hometowns. Rental expenses and other increased living expenses have been holding them back from returning to cities. IT companies have started moving closer to talent, most of which resides away from large cities. “Through this new campus, we will aim to provide growth opportunities and make the most of the immense potential held by several individuals residing in Coimbatore,” Soin said. Most such people graduated from top engineering colleges in and around the city like <keyword id="748277" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="coimbatore-institute-of-technology" source="Orion">Coimbatore Institute of Technology</keyword> (CIT), GCT Coimbatore and many more – providing them with ready-made talent. After the city of <keyword id="12864" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="chennai" source="Orion">Chennai</keyword> has expanded to its zenith with various IT offices, the state government too is keen on promoting Coimbatore to tech companies. On July 4, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin inaugurated the Rathinam Business and IT Park in Coimbatore which will be home to at least 20 companies – and aims to create over 3,500 job opportunities both directly and indirectly. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Better than metros and then some more" comment="subhead" text="Better than metros and then some more">Better than metros and then some more</cmsannotation> This city has already been creating jobs and is the best amongst all non-metros. As per a report by Naukri.com, Coimbatore showed the maximum year-on-year growth of 60% in hiring across all non-metro cities in June this year. The overall hiring in tier 2 and 3 cities is expected to rise in the coming months. Coimbatore is also high on livability index a<a href="https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/310317/coimbatore-ahead-of-metros-study.html">nd has been </a>beating Chennai, Bengaluru, Gurgaon and all other tech hubs for years now. Livability index is calculated on the basis of the cost of living, pollution, traffic, quality of living etc. As per reports, cost of living in Coimbatore is around 22% less than Gurgaon and as many as 65% techies would rather work at tier-2 and tier-3 towns rather than a metro. Moreover, Coimbatore city is well-known for its diverse offerings to tourists and residents alike with malls and temples and history that dates back to none other than Romans. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/this-is-why-it-costs-more-to-order-online-on-zomato-and-swiggy-than-to-dine-in/articleshow/92798769.cms">This is why it costs more to order online on Zomato and Swiggy than to dine-in</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/retail/news/dmart-gets-it-mojo-back-from-monsoons-and-school-going-children/articleshow/92796927.cms">Unlockdowned - DMart gets it mojo back from monsoons and school-going children</a>

Coimbatore – from a textile hub to tech hub

<ul><li>The IT sector saw a decline in hiring by 10% in August this year as compared to last year.</li><li>The attrition rate in the IT sector has been constantly high as compared to other industries.</li><li>It is interesting to note that the insurance sector saw the highest steep year-on-year jump of 87%, says <keyword id="4298612" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="naukri-jobspeak" source="Orion">Naukri JobSpeak</keyword> Index report.</li></ul>The demand for IT sector jobs is beginning to thaw after a hiring spree during the pandemic. In the month of August, IT sector hiring declined by 10% as compared to the same month last year, as per Naukri JobSpeak Index.The attrition rate in the IT sector has also been hovering around 20%, which is the highest among other industries in <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>. Along with IT, the graph for hiring in pharma and biotech companies also remained flat in the month of August this year compared to last year. It is interesting to note that the insurance sector saw the highest year-on-year jump of 87%, with a flurry of job opportunities, among other sectors. Within the sector, maximum traction of 103% was seen for professionals with 4-7 years of experience followed by people with 0-3 years (99%), and 8-12 years (42%). “Important to note that insurance as a sector has been flourishing since the start of this year as there has been continuous growth in hiring which is creating opportunities across experience bands with over 100% yoy growth in 0-7 years' experience band,” said <keyword id="2554121" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="pawan-goyal" source="Orion">Pawan Goyal</keyword>, chief business officer, Naukri.com. Apart from the insurance sector, the hiring graph was seen to be moving up in the travel and hospitality, BFSI, auto, real estate and retail sectors as well. <div type="image" title="Hiring trend across various sectors in August&amp;#39;22" msid="93952725" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Hiring trend across various sectors in August&amp;#39;22&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="NCR region hired the most people" comment="subhead" text="NCR region hired the most people">NCR region hired the most people</cmsannotation> Hiring in the insurance sector was mostly seen in the NCR region — a significant jump of 136%, followed by Mumbai at 129% in August’22 as compared to August’21. Overall, intent to hire across all the industries was noted to be the highest in <keyword id="6361828" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="coimbatore" source="Orion">Coimbatore</keyword> among tier 2 cities — up by at least 28% year-on-year. A similar trend was seen in Kochi, Ahmedabad and Jaipur as well. The overall hiring activity in India remained stable with 6% yoy growth in Aug '22, as per the report. “After witnessing an extravagant growth rate in the last 2-3 months, hiring activity is seeing signs of stabilization, and it would be interesting to see how the trend continues in the coming months,” Goyal added. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/wipro-tech-mahindra-lead-rout-in-it-stocks-as-recession-risks-loom/articleshow/93876535.cms">Wipro, Tech Mahindra lead rout in IT stocks as recession risks loom</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/itcs-marketcap-is-back-to-4-lakh-crore-after-a-5-year-gap/articleshow/93952648.cms">ITC’s marketcap is back to ₹4 lakh crore after a 5-year gap</a>

Hiring in the IT sector went down by 10% in August, says report

The silicon valley of India, Bengaluru, is too noisy and and perhaps even over-hyped. We aren’t saying this, but the start-ups based out of that region claim as much. So, what are they doing about the situation? A few of them are quietly shifting their base from <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=coimbatore">Bengaluru to Coimbatore</a> to avoid the hullaballoo of the state capital and focus on quality. Some of them include Dhruv Kumar of online medical advice platform, iCliniq who shifted to Coimbatore 3 years ago after his 2 year stint in Bengaluru. 
 
"I wanted to be out of all the noise and focus on building a quality product," said Kumar. "There are events all the time and the place is flooded with funding stories. Those days, we thought we were a tech startup and did not focus enough on the health and business side." 
 
A much-focussed development and the wait for the product to mature have been rewarding for him. iCliniq now has more than 1,000 doctors on its platform and they have so far addressed tens of thousands of health issues. It gets a large portion of revenue from the US and Europe. 
 
"Entrepreneurs are celebrated in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/indian-govt-wants-more-indian-airlines-to-take-up-international-routes-says-civil-aviation-minister/articleshow/43165558.cms">Coimbatore</a>," the 27-year-old told ET, cheerfully. The cotton-growing region saw its first industries in ginning and moved on to make garments, machinery, automobile and many ancillary products. It is often called the 'Manchester of South India', drawing comparison with the first industrial city. 
 
Several young entrepreneurs like Kumar, who started up in Bengaluru are shifting to Coimbatore. Do-PartTime, a part-time job discovery portal, is another example and one of the reasons for the shift was talent retention. "Every company has a dynamic workforce, which frequently shifts, and a static workforce with loyalty. In a place like Coimbatore, the teams stick around," said Kumar. 
 
Coimbatore has pleasant weather conditions like Bengaluru and is seeing its fair share of startup activity. The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Know-why-GAP-HM-chose-Delhi-over-Mumbai-and-Bangalore/articleshow/47328005.cms">Coimbatore c</a>hapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), a non-profit consortium that promotes entrepreneurship, has identified 47 active startups. 
 
One of the catalysts for them is the educational institutions in the region that have helped establish a sound technical ecosystem, TiE-Coimbatore President Selvakumar said. 
 
There are five incubation centres in and around the city, almost all of them set up by a technical education institution. PSG STEP, the incubation arm of PSG Institute of Technology, was established in 1998, much before any other college, including IIM Ahmedabad, did so. 
 
The centre incubates startups in IT, electronics and mechanical streams from Coimbatore. NanoTechnolgy was added to the list recently. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/be-it-intracity-orinter-city-these-5-expressways-make-travelling-a-breeze/Hosur-Road-Elevated-Expressway-Bangalore-Karnataka/slideshow/30985057.cms">Also Read: Be It Intracity Or Inter-city, These 5 Expressways Make Travelling A Breeze</a> 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

Move over Bengaluru, Coimbatore is the new start-up city

<ul><li><keyword id="6142533" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="ekki-pumps">EKKI Pumps</keyword> is now a part of the MBA curriculum at <keyword id="6384930" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="insead">INSEAD</keyword> – one of the world’s top three business schools. </li><li>The company which had started as Deccan Pumps in 1981, has evolved from being just a <keyword id="15300" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Water">water</keyword> pump company to a sustainable water technology provider.</li><li>The company’s business evolution is a part of the case study titled “Sustainability in Asia” included in the MBA reading list subject “Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation”. </li></ul>A 39-year old water pump company EKKI Pumps, is now a part of the MBA curriculum at INSEAD – one of the world’s top three business schools. The company’s business evolution is a part of the case study titled “Sustainability in Asia” included in the MBA reading list subject “Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation”. “EKKI, which was the only firm based in India in our study, was archetypical: with generational change, external orientation, and a focus on innovation to help the community being key factors driving them towards sustainability. Their mission, to become the leading provider of sustainable water solutions, in India and globally emphasized the kind of fundamental societal change that all of the firms pursued,” said Stephen J. Mezias, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at INSEAD in a statement. A look at EKKI’s transformational journey The company which began operations as Deccan Pumps in 1981, has evolved from being just a water pump company to a sustainable water technology provider and that’s what made it a case study in the business school. Founded by K.K. Veluchamy, M.S. Sundaram and P. Arumugam with just ₹90,000, the company used to initially make submersible pumps for farmers. Today the company services sectors like agriculture, domestic and commercial building spaces, public utilities and more. Over the years, the company has turned to focus on sustainability. The company in 2018 had also signed a partnership with the German leader in waste-water pumps Homa Pumpenfabrik GmbH. With the partnership, the companies have set up a plant in Coimbatore which produces waste-water pumps for India and its neighboring countries. ‘Water is one of the least technologically influenced industries, so it holds big opportunities for EKKI. From office towers to factories to homes and agriculture, the need for clean water has never been greater. The future wave is water sustainability, and EKKI will be part of it. Our goal is to ‘Provide access to Clean Water using cutting edge technologies and sustainable ways’. This has been our fundamental purpose since 1981,” said Kanishka Arumugam, the Co-CEO of the company. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/spicejet-now-allows-customers-to-book-two-seats-or-even-a-full-row-to-maintain-social-distancing/articleshow/77367061.cms">You can now book a ‘full row’ to maintain social distancing on SpiceJet flights</a>

This Coimbatore-based water pump company has become a case study in one of the world's top MBA schools – INSEAD

Passenger car major <keyword id="44883" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="maruti-suzuki" source="Orion">Maruti Suzuki</keyword> India Ltd had transported over 3.2 lakh vehicles in 2022 through Indian Railway and is setting up dedicated railway sidings at its facilities in Haryana (Manesar) and Gujarat, said a top company official. The company last year transported over 3.2 lakh vehicles using rail wagons, the highest in a calendar year since 2013 when the company got the Automobile Freight Train Operator (AFTO) license. "Going forward, we aim to further increase these numbers. For this, we are setting up dedicated railway sidings at our facilities in Haryana (Manesar) and Gujarat," <keyword id="13455711" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="hisashi-takeuchi" source="Orion">Hisashi Takeuchi</keyword>, Managing Director &amp; CEO, said. "Aligned with the Government of India's aim to reach net zero emissions by 2070, we have enhanced our efforts to reduce carbon footprint in our business operations. Our strategy to increase the use of rail mode in outbound logistics has resulted in dispatching record 3.2 lakh vehicles using railways in CY2022," he said. According to him, the use of railway wagons instead of trucks has resulted in offsetting around 1,800 MT of CO2 emissions. "In addition, we have been able to save over 50 million litres of fuel during the year which contributes to enhancing the energy security of our country," <keyword id="333559" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="takeuchi" source="Orion">Takeuchi</keyword> remarked. The share of railways in carrying Maruti Suzuki's cars is on the rise and last calendar year it was 17.1 per cent up from 13.9 per cent/2.2 lakh units in 2021. The AFTO license allows Maruti Suzuki to fabricate and operate high speed, high capacity autowagon rakes on the Indian Railways network. Maruti Suzuki uses 40 specially designed railway rakes to transport vehicles across the country. Each rake has a capacity to carry over 300 vehicles. Presently, the company uses loading terminals across Delhi-NCR and Gujarat and 18 destination terminals - Bangalore, Nagpur, Mumbai, Guwahati, <keyword id="46519" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="mundra-port" source="Orion">Mundra Port</keyword>, Indore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Delhi-NCR, Siliguri, Coimbatore, <keyword id="2094" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="pune" source="Orion">Pune</keyword>, Agartala, Silchar, Ranchi and Ludhiana- Maruti Suzuki said. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/french-automaker-citroen-has-unveiled-its-ec3-electric-hatchback-ahead-of-its-india-launch/slidelist/97048865.cms">Citroen eC3 electric hatchback unveiled – range, booking date, and everything you need to know</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/mahindra-xuv400-electric-suv-launched-starting-at-15-99-lakh-range-specs-and-more/slidelist/97046819.cms">Mahindra XUV400 electric SUV launched starting at ₹15.99 lakh – range, specs and more</a>

Maruti Suzuki to increase transport of cars through rail wagons, to set up dedicated railway sidings

<keyword id="6368965" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ZoomCar">Zoomcar</keyword>, India’s first 100% self-drive car rental company, announced the launch of Hop, the one-way intercity self-drive service. With this one-way segment a customer can drive from point A to point B. This means customers can pick up a car from Zoomcar location from one city and drop it off to another city at a Zoomcar location. The launch of one-way intercity launch adds flexibility and options to people’s travel plans. Zoomcar is bringing new innovations to the Hop service which will be available across 24 cities including intra-state and eventually inter-state routes as well. The 24 city routes are Bangalore – Mysore, Bangalore – Mangalore, Mangalore – Mysore, Bombay – Pune, Ahmedabad – Surat, <keyword id="6354925" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kolkata">Kolkata</keyword> – Siliguri, Chennai – Coimbatore, Vijayawada – Vizag. Zoomcar caters to an audience where travelers are seeking self-drive purpose for both business and leisure purpose. “With the launch of our pathbreaking one way, inter-city self-drive rental product, Hop, we're offering a whole new level of convenience for our 20 lacs+ Zoomcar customer base. After careful study and countless deliberations with customers, we have designed a product offering that caters to a wide range of point to point, intercity self-drive use cases. We anticipate strong demand for Hop from both business and leisure travelers. We look forward to pushing out to more than 30 routes later this quarter,” said Greg Moran, CEO &amp; Co-founder, Zoomcar. The procedure for booking a car will be done through the app or website. The user will be asked about their drop off city and location. Based on the provided pickup and drop off, the minimum duration is computed to cover the distance. The price of the fuel is included. The price of the trip will be decided by the hours required to cover the distance between starting point to destination with 20km/hr.

Now you can self drive a car for one way inter city travel

New Delhi, Feb 3 () Engineering and construction major Larsen &amp; Toubro on Monday said its joint venture with European defence major MBDA Missile Systems -- L&amp;T MBDA Missile Systems (LTMMSL), has set up a missile integration facility in Tamil Nadu.
 "LTMMSL has set up the assembly, 'inert' integration (without explosives) and testing facility for missile sub-systems and missile weapon launch systems spread across an area of 16,000 sq meter in a special economic zone at Coimbatore," Larsen &amp; Toubro (L&amp;T) said in a regulatory filing.
 'Inert' refers to systems integration process without explosive component of the missile systems being handled at the facility.
 Founded in 2017, LTMMSL has received a few export orders and the new facility shall start delivering weapon systems using test equipment such as missile launchers and airframe segments, including control actuation units, from calendar year 2020, the filing added.
 L&amp;T owns 51 per cent stake in the JV, while the rest 49 per cent is owned by the European partner.
 "L&amp;T MBDA Missile Systems has been working proactively to offer advanced missiles and missile systems to the Indian Armed Forces through domestic production. The creation of this new integration facility at Coimbatore is a first step in this direction. We are showcasing some of these next-gen offerings at the DEFEXP020 to be held at Lucknow," said J D Patil, Chairman L&amp;T MBDA Missile Systems.
 Pasquale Di Bartolomeo, Vice Chairman and Member of the Board L&amp;T MBDA Missile Systems, said: "With the technical and human capabilities offered by this site, India will be ideally placed to offer its armed forces and the export market the very latest generation of defence equipment technology." SID DRR

L&T MBDA Missile Systems sets up missile integration facility in Tamil Nadu

India’s <keyword id="20312255" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Business-Process-Management" source="keywords">Business Process Management</keyword> (<keyword id="700088" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bpm" source="Orion">BPM</keyword>) industry is defying predictions that generative artificial intelligence (Gen-<keyword id="6355999" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ai" source="Orion">AI</keyword>) could pose challenges for them. Instead, the sector is making a bold bet on AI and skilled talent to fuel its resurgence. With significant investments underway, industry leaders are confident that these efforts will show results within the next 3-5 years. “All of us are investing. And, the ROI will start coming in the next 3-5 years,” Harita Gupta, Head of Global Experience, SVP Global Business Operations Solutions and Support at Sutherland and the chairperson of <keyword id="19955786" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nasscom" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Nasscom" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Nasscom">Nasscom</keyword> BPM Council. She shared these insights during a panel discussion on “Data, Technology, Skill and Customers – The New Value Levers for BPM in India,” hosted by Business Insider India. Leaders in the <keyword id="21482461" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="BPM-industry" source="keywords">BPM industry</keyword> are confident about <keyword id="19985355" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gen-AI" source="keywords">Gen-AI</keyword>’s potential to create markets that have never existed before, help them do what they have already been doing for a decade more efficiently, and transform their companies into AI-driven enterprises. The Indian BPM industry generated $48.9 billion revenue as of FY24. <div type="Youtube" id="utbJS9i9RgA" title="Unlocking New Value Levers For BPM In India: The Role Of Data, Tech, Skill And Customers" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/utbJS9i9RgA/mqdefault.jpg"><url><![CDATA[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utbJS9i9RgA]]></url></div> <h2>Tapping into emerging <keyword id="21859797" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="talent-hubs" source="keywords">talent hubs</keyword></h2> Traditionally, it is present in India’s metro cities, like Delhi, Bombay, Bombay and Pune. In its second innings, the BPM industry has shifted its focus to Tier-II and Tier-III cities, which offer a wealth of talent, lower operational costs and more accommodative regulations. “The industry has started to take jobs to where the talent is rather than the other way around,” remarked Sapna Bhambani, the Senior VP of Operations and Geo Leader at TaskUs. She highlighted that over half of TaskUs’ business is now based out of Tier-II cities with Indore and Mohali leading the way. “The states where the government is extending a helping hand are the most successful emerging hubs,” Bhambani added. Nasscom too is keen on Tier-II and Tier-III cities for the expansion of the BPM industry, identifying Lucknow, Kanpur, Coimbatore, Trichy, Indore, Bhopal, Vizag and Vijayawada as notable emerging hubs. Gupta emphasised that the industry body will be working hand-in-hand with the universities and institutions in the area to build talent pipelines and garner support. And hiring from Tier-II cities is not just about tapping into new talent pools; it’s also improving employee retention, which has been a pain point for the industry in recent years. Tech Mahindra has tried to counter this by hiring for non-frontline roles from within the company, rather than hiring new talent. However, as Venkatesh Korla, the CEO of Americas at Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) pointed out, a cultural shift is still needed to rebrand BPM jobs. “It’s changing. It’s not 100 percent there yet… They’ve realised there’s a lot more stickiness and a lot more opportunity in the BPM space, and we see talent also want to take on these jobs,” Korla explained. <h2>Creating new markets</h2>Most AI processes are trained using large language models (LLMs). Many, GPT-Neo and BERT, are open-source, which means they’re free for anyone to use. However, enterprises are looking to build their own LLMs in-house to train their AI products primarily to maintain control over proprietary data – a move that opens up new opportunities for BPM firms. “Large SAS companies want to integrate their own LLM in their products and they require the same BPM services to actually train their models. That’s a huge opportunity,” Birendra Sen, the President of Business Process Services at Tech Mahindra, told Business Insider. <h2>The need for experimentation</h2>While the use of Gen-AI in the BPM industry is widespread, many initiatives are still in the Proof of Concept (POC) stage. This implies that while there is investment, both in terms of money and manpower, directed at creating more Gen-AI led solutions, they may not necessarily succeed. “If something fails, we just fail fast and move,” Gupta told Business Insider. Moreover, leaders like Venkatesh Korla view AI as a transformative tool that complements human expertise rather than replacing it. “AI is going to help in coaching, compliance, and in quality control. I call this the Iron Man's suit or the J.A.R.V.I.S. for Iron Man because it never replaces the human inside the suit. So, that's really how we need to look at it,” Korla remarked. India’s BPM sector has demonstrated resilience and adaptability in the face of previous challenges, such as the rise of automation and the shift towards digital services. It is now poised to reinvent itself, this time by integrating AI with human expertise and expanding into new talent hubs. With a strong focus on innovation and upskilling, industry leaders are optimistic about the future, anticipating that these strategic moves will secure India’s position as a global leader in the BPM landscape over the next few years. This article is part of a four-part webinar series in partnership with Nasscom. These monthly webinars aim to delve deep and offer insights into the evolving BPM landscape. You can watch the full video of the first session <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utbJS9i9RgA">here</a>. Disclaimer: This article is generated and published by the Insider Studios team. You can get in touch with them on insiderstudios@businessinsider.in

The future of BPM in India: AI, talent hubs and a new growth strategy

In March 2023, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser anointed Anand Selva, as the bank's chief operating officer. His mandate: oversee a deeply unsexy yet crucial initiative to regain compliance with regulators. At the time, she praised his "long track record of delivering results."So far, Selva's tenure has been rocky.In July, two regulators <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/citi-jane-fraser-regulatory-citigroup-transformation-2024-7">fined Citi $135.6 million</a> for failing to make enough progress in fixing its data-management issues. The bank had agreed in 2020 to work on this problem and others, including poor risk controls, after <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/citigroup-slammed-400-mln-fine-longstanding-deficiencies-regulation-occ-fed-2020-10-1029660295">paying $400 million</a> in fines to the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The OCC said in July that the bank had made "meaningful progress overall" but that the agency wanted to ensure Citi allocated enough resources to address the "persistent weaknesses" regarding data.These new fines are despite Citi dedicating massive resources to a firmwide initiative to overhaul the bank's technology. This program, called the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/citi-transformation-citigroup-regulatory-fine-anand-selvakesari-2024-7">"Transformation"</a> and overseen by Selva, has about 13,000 employees. Citi spent $7.4 billion on the endeavor from 2021 through 2023. This year's budget has been increased by $250 million, to more than $3 billion.The pressure is on, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren urging the OCC to "impose growth restrictions" on Citi, arguing that it has grown "too big to manage." The regulator and Citi declined to comment."We've always said that progress wouldn't be linear," Fraser said after the latest fines, "and we have no doubt that we will be successful in getting our firm where it needs to be in terms of our Transformation."For Selva, leading the Transformation is unlike any test he has faced in his three-decade career at Citi. Selva, who goes by the shortened version of his last name, Selvakesari, joined Citi as an assistant operations manager in Chennai, India, in 1991. He rose through the ranks in Asia before taking over the US consumer bank in 2019. When Fraser was made CEO in 2021, she chose Selva, who's now 57, to replace her as the global head of consumer banking.In his current role, his mandate is to make the bank safer, not to turn a profit. To do so, he has to solve for Citi's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-real-reasons-behind-citi-mike-corbat-early-retirement-2020-9">decades of underinvestment</a> in its infrastructure, which affects every business line of the bank.Business Insider talked to 14 current and former Citi employees who have worked under Selva to get a picture of the challenge facing him and why he was put in charge of the bank's No. 1 priority. All but two spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal or the sensitivity of regulatory matters. Three senior executives pointed to his experience navigating regulation and working with technology from running Citi's consumer bank. Gonzalo Luchetti, Selva's successor as the head of the US consumer business, told BI that serving 70 million customers required handling tremendous operational risk."If we mess it up, usually you don't mess it up for one; you mess it up for hundreds of thousands, if not millions," he said. "You have to be super good at process orientation and making sure that there's high discipline and rigor."Luchetti also emphasized Selva's longevity at Citi and experience across regions."He knows the fabric of the firm very well," Luchetti said. "The Transformation is about really repiping the machine. He's touched a lot of the machine himself."But touching the machine isn't the same as fixing it. Eight employees told BI that they were surprised that Selva was made the head of the Transformation given that he had never held a leadership role in technology or compliance. They described Citi's culture as a cliquey environment that rewards managing up over results, noting that the COO promotion followed dismal performance for the wealth unit he oversaw."The biggest job was given to a guy who with 1 ½ years in wealth wasn't able to do anything," a former managing director said.Selva has also come under scrutiny for a lawsuit filed against him and the bank by an ex-Transformation executive in May. Kathleen Martin, a former interim data chair, alleged that Selva pressured her to hide information from the OCC that would make Citi "look bad" and that she was fired in September 2023 after multiple refusals. Citi denied the accusations and filed a counterclaim in late August, alleging that Martin was fired for underperformance. Citi has recently made leadership changes to Selva's unit. The bank tapped its new tech head, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/citi-data-tim-ryan-anand-selva-memo-transformation-regulators-2024-9">Tim Ryan</a>, to lead the data effort alongside Selva and take over management of the 800-employee data team. The work on data, along with risks and controls, is paramount to the Transformation.Splitting the burden may expedite the massive task, which requires coordinating work from employees across the entire bank. Citi declined to specify a timeline, citing the confidential nature of regulatory matters. A managing director in the Transformation estimated that the work required would take about two decades.Mike Mayo, a Wells Fargo analyst, said that until Citi meets the requirements of the OCC and the Federal Reserve, the bank is in "regulatory purgatory.""Citi has thrown over 10,000 people and $3 billion and more at this problem," Mayo told BI in July. "They just have to get it done."Selva does have a long track record at Citi. Born in Madurai, a large city in southern India, he studied engineering and played basketball at the Coimbatore Institute of Technology. He earned his master's in business administration at Madurai Kamaraj University before joining Citi in 1991.Selva made his name at Citi by shaping its consumer-bank businesses across Asia. He led retail banking in China and India before taking over the Asia Pacific market in 2015. His approach was digital-first, eschewing branches for banking apps. Despite closing 60% of bank branches in Asia from 2016 through 2018, Selva grew deposits by 10%.<div type="image" title="Citi's Anand Selva speaking at a panel, seated and wearing a pinstripe suit and a red tie." height="3307" width="4960" msid="114093573" hostid="261" sizebytes="2310830"></div>"He's very tech and digital-oriented," Luchetti said. "We've been to China together to look at startups and firms that were disrupting the world. He was always very connected with learning more about technology, had that curiosity, and then the execution chops to get it done here."In 2019, Selva moved from Singapore to New York, where he now lives with his family, to run the US consumer bank. He assumed the global consumer-banking business from Fraser in 2021. Selva leaned on credit-card and lending offerings, launching products like Citi Custom Cash which allowed customers to pick their reward categories, and Flex Pay, a buy-now, pay-later service. Under Selva, Citi was the No. 2 issuer of credit cards in the US, and deposits grew by more than a third, to about $220 billion.In 2021, Citi started divesting itself of more than a dozen consumer-bank markets across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Selva was an important player on both sides of the table, according to Adora Tidalgo, the head of operational risk management at Citi. She said he helped find Asian acquirers that maximized value for Citi while keeping the businesses running smoothly with low attrition."That skill of balancing how much you want to bring in terms of revenue and the credit loss you want to take is really a skill that very much needs to be honed in the consumer space," she said. "That balancing, to me, I have seen Anand over the year been very successful in doing that."There have been some bumps in the road. As part of Fraser's reorganization of the bank in 2021, Selva gained oversight of a newly formed wealth unit and its new leader, Jim O'Donnell. Six current and former managing directors told BI that Selva's approach focused more on scale and digital offerings than high-touch client service. For instance, he didn't approve loans that failed to meet a certain threshold of return, even if it meant losing an important client, two former managing directors said."The way that every private banker on earth thinks about relationships is you need to invest in relationships, and then as you start to do more business with clients, you start getting more and more valuable opportunities with them," one of the former managing directors said. "You have to look at the relationship. You can't just look at every single transaction."Employees argued that Selva's playbook may have worked to build scale in Asia but not to satisfy well-heeled — and much more sought-after — US clients."I think Anand's decisions were comparing everything to what he knew from his time in Asia, and they are completely different markets," another former managing director said. "In Asia, Citi has a very recognizable brand, and people actually want to bank with Citi. You don't have to sell it that hard."<div type="image" title="Citi CEO Jane Fraser testifying at Congress" height="3828" width="5846" msid="114093582" hostid="261" sizebytes="314760"></div>The wealth business' revenue dropped by 6% year over year at the end of 2022. Fraser called the division's performance "disappointing." O'Donnell's reign over wealth was cut short in January 2023, and it was later placed under <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/andy-sieg-citi-wealth-management-ceo-2024-6">Andy Sieg</a>, the former head of Merrill Wealth Management. With Citi on a campaign to divest itself of 14 international consumer-bank markets, Selva's remit shrank.His appointment as COO thrust him into the spotlight. Tidalgo told BI that he was no stranger to the task of dealing with regulators."When you are the head of a country, you are the face of Citi to the regulators. Good, bad, or indifferent, you have to face them," she said. "That's part of the job."Citi's Transformation and its challenges predate Selva's appointment as COO. It existed as a firmwide initiative before the October 2020 fines but was kicked into overdrive after Citi entered consent orders with the OCC and the Federal Reserve.It can be viewed as two parts. The most visible is the strategy to simplify and modernize the bank, such as divesting Asian consumer businesses, removing five layers of management, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/citigroup-reorganization-layoffs-management-overhaul-reorganization-jane-fraser-stock-price-2023-9">reorganizing</a> so that the five business lines report directly to Fraser.The second part is meant to address the 2020 consent orders. The initiative is separated into seven programs, including finance, compliance, and risk and controls. While some 13,000 employees are dedicated to the Transformation, much of this work is carried out by employees across the bank. Selva sits at the center, coordinating these efforts. He's in a tough position, as much of the Transformation's work is executed by employees in other divisions."The challenge with the Transformation role is you are accountable yet not responsible," the managing director in the Transformation said. "The role is really coordinating and getting others to do what they need to do, which is very different from running a business where the entire team follows your lead, you own it, you have the ability to actually get them to do this stuff."When everyone is accountable, effectively no one is, a former senior vice president in the Transformation said. Matters got stuck in bureaucracy, bouncing from one department to another and being debated in committee for months.A senior executive in the Transformation acknowledged that the programs often rely on each other's work. For example, a delay in data work can lead to one for a finance project."When we are asked sometimes why it is challenging to execute on the Transformation, one of the challenges is the interconnectivity of those seven works," she said.The senior executive said the Transformation's successes had been overlooked, partly because the bank is limited in what it can say on regulatory matters. For instance, Citi has retired or replaced a quarter of its applications, halfway to its overall goal. The bank declined to specify the number of existing or terminated applications, but as of July, it had retired nearly 300 applications this year. The senior executive also touted the bank's streamlining its risk-management workflow.But the Transformation has earned a middling grade from Citi itself. The bank evaluates the initiative's success for the purposes of a bonus program applicable to about 200 senior employees, including Selva. In 2022, an internal committee gave it a score of 94%, citing targets it met, such as submitting remediation plans to regulators.For 2023, the score sank to 80%, calculated by measuring the timeliness of executing scheduled work, the percentage of work deemed complete by the bank's internal auditors, and a "qualitative consideration of Citi's cultural change" derived from the bank's employee surveys.<div type="image" title="Headshot of Citi's new tech head Tim Ryan, smiling and wearing a black suit jacket with a light blue shirt" height="739" width="985" msid="114093578" hostid="261" sizebytes="32120"></div>Bringing in Ryan, the bank's head of technology and business enablement, to help the bank catch up makes sense. The recruiter Phil Waxelbaum argued that a more traditional candidate to help lead the Transformation would be a seasoned, high-ranking person from a regulatory agency. But someone with a nonbanking background such as consulting or technology can work, too, according to recruiter Jeffrey Warren. Ryan joined Citi in June after seven years leading the US business of PricewaterhouseCoopers."In situations like this when you are looking to drive transformation, you need someone who can work at the intersection of people, processes, and technology," said Warren, managing director at Russell Reynolds Associates. "That includes working from within and likely driving some change with new people who have experience in new technologies or new ways of doing things."Ryan is now sharing data, a significant component of the Transformation, with Selva. Another PwC alum, Citi's head of enterprise risk management, Ashutosh Nawani, will take over the chief data office from one of Selva's lieutenants, Japan Mehta, and report to Ryan. Mehta will move to another role that the bank declined to specify.Employees told BI that they thought bringing in Ryan and Nawani would help."Sure, there might be some reservation that more consultants are coming in to run Citi, but there is a positive vibe of changing senior leadership," the former senior vice president in the Transformation said. "Legacy Citi culture is what got us into this spot in the first place."While the July fines did not meaningfully move Citi's stock, they have placed the bank and the Transformation under greater scrutiny. The OCC has ordered Citi to provide a resource-review plan each quarter to ensure the bank is providing enough resources for the effort. The Securities and Exchange Commission has also required the bank to address the Transformation's progress in future filings.The outstanding issues have also impeded Citi from expanding in China. According to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-23/citigroup-s-china-expansion-plan-put-on-hold-by-us-regulators">Bloomberg</a>, the bank is still waiting on a clearance letter from the Federal Reserve to set up a securities office. The bank declined to comment on the process but said it was "fully committed to supporting clients" in China.<div type="image" title="Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts at a hearing on Capitol Hill on January 11, 2024." height="1333" width="2000" msid="114093583" hostid="261" sizebytes="96482"></div>Regulators placing an asset cap on Citi, as Senator Warren has requested, isn't out of the realm of possibility, said Timothy Coffey, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott."At what point do the regulators just get fed up with Citi's inability to adequately resolve these issues or stick to the timeline that they've laid out?" he said. "That's an open-ended question."But the consent orders and the lack of progress are distractions in themselves. When Fraser took over Citi nearly four years ago, she said the Transformation was her No. 1 priority and asked for patience. Now her requests for time are wearing thin. Regardless of who leads the Transformation, Fraser is still accountable."This stays out here in terms of headline risk, and I think it puts a cap on the valuation that Citi can achieve," said Stephen Biggar, an Argus Research analyst. "It's an overhang on the stock. It's an overhang on the reputation of Fraser."Do you work for Citi? Have a tip or story to share? Reach out to Hayley Cuccinello at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:hcuccinello@businessinsider.com">hcuccinello@businessinsider.com</a> or 917 740 5340, which works for calls, text, and the encrypted messaging app Signal.

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