Rioting in Bangalore leaves outsourcers unaffected

Rioting in parts of Bangalore, India, over the weekend did not affect work at the local operations of outsourcing companies and other IT companies in the city.

“We are working as usual, and our operations were not affected,” a spokeswoman at Infosys Technologies said Monday. Infosys, India’s second largest outsourcer, has its headquarters and large operations in the city.

Riots between Muslims and Hindus starting Friday caused damage to property and led to the death of one person. A procession by Muslims on Friday, to protest the hanging of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, turned violent as Muslims attacked Hindu establishments in the area. On Sunday, a Hindu mob retaliated against the Muslims in the locality.

But the rioting was confined to a communally volatile sector of downtown Bangalore where outsourcing and IT companies do not have their operations. Most of these companies have set up their facilities in the suburbs of the city where land is available and is relatively cheap.

Transportation of staff to work was also not affected, as most staff left for work early in the morning, before the rioters could get to the streets, a spokesman for outsourcing company iGate Global Solutions Ltd. said. Some companies also used alternate routes to get staff to work.

Most outsourcing companies offer transport to staff. Many of them, particularly those running business process outsourcing (BPO) operations, work during the weekend.

Businesses in Indian cities have often faced disruption from rioting, terrorist attacks, and flooding by rainwater. Outsourcing companies have set up facilities in multiple locations across the country, which makes it easy for them to move work from one city to another if there is disruption at one location. “We did not have to trigger off our business continuity plan because of the riots,” the Infosys spokeswoman said.

The riot-affected areas were returning to normal on Monday, according to the Bangalore police.

A number of Indian outsourcing companies like Infosys and Wipro, and multinational services companies like IBM and Accenturehave large operations in Bangalore. Multinational technology companies like Texas Instruments and Oracle develop products in Bangalore.