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News WTF

BPO Apartheid

In a move that seems ill-timed given Raj Thakre’s Neo-Nazi-esque actions in Maharashtra, Netambit in Noida invited applications for positions in its BPO business, but candidates belonging to UP, Bihar and Islamic backgrounds need not apply. The reason cited for this is diction and other language problems candidates with these backgrounds generally have.

Why don’t you take a look at the email that sparked this controversy over ‘language’?

The picture is taken on a low-end phonecam. The highlighted line reads: “Those candidate belong to Bihar & U.P. & Muslim are not eligible. Required English/Hindi/Punjabi profiles.” The words within the quotes are verbatim as they appear in the email / the news item.

(The main story and photograph courtesy evening Delhi paper MetroNow 4th March edition.)

Categories
News WTF

Long Live Indian Journalism!

How does it go? “The King is dead, long live the King!”

Around a week back, the Pointy-Haired Dilbert aka Chandoo wrote a blog entry about the “must read” section of a famous Indian news channel’s website. That just corroborated the general sentiment prevalent among people who care about journalism and news and its present state in the country.

News channels have been serving us items about ‘ghosts’, supernatural ‘incidents’, television soaps news, page 3 type parties, kissing scandals, timeslots dedicated to comedy shows, while keeping journalistic professionalism at bay. A ghost story or a faith story is covered with sensationalism, but without any coverage on the rational angle as is done by any self-respecting news agency. Page 3 scandals are covered with juicy gossip intact. And half the time when you switch to these channels they are either discussing cricket with a has-been cricketer, or showing a comedy gig featuring one of the new crop of Indian stand-up comics.

And ofcourse the love affair of these news channels with India’s first family – no, I’m not talking about Mrs. Pratibha Patil & family – the famous Bachchan family of Allahabad to Juhu fame is there for all to see. But they took it too far today with this:
Breaking News: Amitabh Bachchan ko thand lagi The “Breaking News” ticker reads: “Amitabh Bachchan ko thand lagi” (Amitabh Bachchan catches cold).