African countries are fast emerging as the preferred business destination of IT companies back home. Since the governments of African countries (specifically in East Africa) are laying stress on developing their IT infrastructure in a big way, a sizeable amount of work is being outsourced to companies in Hyderabad.

The US, which was the biggest business destination for IT companies here, till a couple of years back, has now given way to other countries like Africa, China and Bangladesh. Among them Africa is the ‘next upcoming destination’ and outsources IT Development and Product Development work to companies in Hyderabad.

“Africa is presently in the same situation we were in about ten years back. They are now planning to set up IT parks and SEZs and provide a lot of opportunities to companies here. East African countries like Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are today where Hyderabad was 10 to 15 years back. They are growing exponentially and with good IT and Mobile Infrastructure, it would take them just 5 years to reach where we are today. This is the right time for Indian IT companies to set up shop in Africa. We have acquired over 200 clients in African countries within a span of one year,” said Sriram Bharatam, CEO of iridium Interactive, a NASSCOM member company.

Having realized the potential of African countries like Namibia, Sudan, Tunisia, Angola and Zambia, the Software Technology Parks of India’s Hyderabad chapter has also been collaborating with officials from the African Embassy to help interested companies get in touch with the industry in Africa, indicated a Nasscom member.

R Krishna / DNA

Sunday, December 27, 2009 0:48 IST

Mumbai: Sriram Bharatam, founder and CEO, iridium Interactive, an internet consultancy firm based in Hyderabad, runs a non-profit called Cause an Effect Foundation. Last week, the foundation installed a water treatment facility in a village near Hyderabad. Bharatam, who was in the village to oversee the operations, started tweeting and updating his Facebook status message about what he saw there — the villagers, their culture and the curiosity they showed in the project.

Within a few hours, close to 100 people on his network responded, says Bharatam. “Initially, the comments were about how great the project was. Then, a few started asking more serious questions such as ‘What is reverse osmosis?’. I started getting into the details like the chlorine levels in the water which can cause disability, and that it takes Rs2 lakh to install a water treatment unit. It was then that five people came forward to donate money. In one day, I inspired these five people to give around Rs10 lakh.”

According to Bharatam, 10 years ago he would have had to put in a lot of effort convincing people. “Today, I am having a simple conversation and call to action is happening.”

The internet, especially social networking, is a great enabler for people who have a cause, but lack the wherewithal to get a large number of people to pay attention offline. Ask Ranjeet Walunj, a Mumbai-based professional, who started The Sapling Project this month. The project aims to get people all over the city to plant saplings (which were given away for free at the inaugral event) and nurture them for two years.

Walunj and his friend Satish Vijaykumar with whom he started the project, talked extensively about The Sapling Project on Twitter and Facebook. “The first level of contact with people we have is on social media,” says Walunj explaining why social media was central to The Sapling Project. “We could have opted for offline media, but the problem is that I cannot measure its impact. For example, I won’t know how many people will come for distribution. But in online media, I know exactly who is doing what. Measurability is an important reason for opting for social media.”

There was also an off-shoot. Following Walunj’s posts, bloggers from Chennai and Bangalore too got interested and started chapters of the Sapling Project in their cities.

Collaborative Tool
Social media can be used not just to raise money, spread the word or get people together. It’s a great tool for collaboration and drawing upon a diversity of expertise. IIT Bombay, for example, has built an online service called aAqua (aaqua.org) that allows farmers to post queries related to farming or allied activities (such as setting up a dairy).
According to Krithi Ramamritham of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at IIT Bombay, a set of experts from various Krishi Vigyan Kendras and some agricultural universities then provide solutions to the problems which the farmers can implement.

This is similar to Yahoo Answers, where you post any question, and someone from the community provides the answers. The key difference, Ramamritham points out, is that “both the farmers and experts are shy of computers.” Still, after about five years of operation, close to 15,000 people have registered with aAqua and now around 25,000 farmers get their answers on SMSes, says Ramamritham.

Social media’s “reach” however does not ensure success. Many causes that grow through tweets and pokes fizzle out quickly. Netra Parikh who works with Pinstorm, a Mumbai-based online marketing agency, and an active Tweeter, says, “I myself have experienced that. Causes tend to fizzle out due to lack of consistency, determination, and focus. But most important, one needs to own that cause.”

Beyond I, Me, Myself
Bharatam agrees. “Conversation is merely the trigerring point to start anything. And social media is where conversations happen. But you have to follow up. A casual conversation should turn into a serious conversation, then into an organised conversation, which finally will result in concrete action.” Bharatam who started Cause an Effect as a website to raise money to help victims of the 1999 Orissa cyclone, says that while the online medium makes things easier, it is also very demanding. “Internet itself was a new concept in India when I first started the website. People wanted to know who I was and how they could be sure I wouldn’t run away with the money. It took a week for me to convince people about the cause. Initially we were asking people to send in cheques. But that was taking too long. So we set up a system where people could wire the money. Next, someone suggested that we put up a payment gateway so people could pay with credit cards. I didn’t even know what an online payment gateway was!” Bharatam was just an ordinary citizen with a regular job when he started the website. But it turned out to be a 24/7 job. “I don’t know whether people have that kind of commitment. If you look at Twitter or Facebook right now, it is all about I, me, myself. There is no agenda. There is no focused activity. If there’s a single point agenda, people will respond to you.”

I

Its my privilege to talk about the other three you see here in the clipping …. Sriram, CEO of iridium Interactive, the company I am part of and proud to be associated with. As a person who began my career with NGOs , what attracted me to iridium Interactive in the first place was the importance the company accords to social responsibility – be it through the various social welfare activities of CauseanEffect or by training and employing disabled people or as crusaders of web accessibility. And Sriram has been at the helm of it all ..

You also see Rakesh, my colleague, who works as a software engineer and Raj Kishore who handles the front office. Guys with the most pleasant disposition, they really are an inspiration – the way they have handled adversities in life and emerged winners are perfect examples of what disabled people can do given the right opportunities. Three fantastic people ….read on to know more about them and the place we all work ….

The Hindu had earlier announced the conferment of the award to Mr. Sriram in the Business Line section of the newspaper dated September 10, 2008. You can read the full article here.

The award, instituted by the Institute of Economic Studies (IES), was presented on September 15, 2008 at India Habitat Center, New Delhi by Dr.Bhishm Narain Singh, Former governor of Sikkim and Tamil Nadu and Mr.G.V.G.Krishna Murthy, Former election commissioner. The previous winners of the award include the likes Shri Ram Kishan Bajaj, Shri Hari Shankar Singhania, Shri Vijay Malya, Shri Abid Hussain, Shri K. G. Ramachandran (CMD-BHEL), Shri A. A. Khan (MD-PFCL), Shri S. K. Gupta (CMD-VSNL), Mr. J. R. Tanti (Director-Suzlon Energy Ltd.), Shri A. K. Saxena (MD-Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.), Mr. M. Sengupta (MD- Tamilnadu Telecommunications Ltd.), Mr. P. K. Ruia (Chairman-Jessop & Co. Ltd.), Shri S. C, Basu (CMD- Bank of Maharashtra),Shri Abhiram Sharma (CMD-MCL), Mr. Y. N. Apparao (CMD-Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd.), Shri M. K. Thapar (CMD-SECL), Shri T. N. Thakur (CMD-PTC), Mr. S. C. Sharma (CMD-NORTH EASTERN EELCTRIC POWER CORPN. LTD.), Mr. Vishnubhai M. Patel (CMD-Sadbhav Engineering Ltd.), Dr. A. K. Chanda (IAS) (Chairman-Kolkata Port Trust), Mr. H. Ramulu (MD-W B Small Industries Development Corpn.), Mr. V. Mahadevan (MD- Ennore Foundries Ltd.), Mr. M. Thiagarajan (MD-Paramount Airways (P) Ltd.) and Shri Arvind Pandlai (CMD-STC) Shri. Nikhil Danani (Vice-Chairman & MD-Bharat Bijlee Limited.), Mr. Ruchen S. Barua (I.F.S.) MD-Arasu Rubber Corporation Limited.), Mr. R. K. Gupta (MD-Taurus Asset Management Company Limited.) Mr. T.K.Ranganathan (MD-Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd.), Smt.Rani Jadhav (Chairman-Mumbai Port Trust.), Mr. L. Madhusudhan Rao (Executive Chairman- Lanco Infratech Ltd), Mr. Abhaya Shankar (MD-Hyderabad Industries Ltd), from time to time to mentioned name few.

The  award presentation was also covered by the Telegraph Paper and the Eenadu Paper .

September 2008, New Delhi: Mr. Sriram Bharatam, CEO & Founder of iridium Interactive Limited, has been awarded the ‘Udyog Rattan Award’ by the Institute  of  Economic  Studies,  New  Delhi,  one  of the  country’s  premier research institutes. This honor was conferred on Mr. Bharatam in recognition of his contributions towards Industrial development. In the same function, iridium Interactive Ltd, also received the Excellence award for outstanding performance in Productivity, Quality, Management and Innovation.

Mr. Bharatam is also the founder of the not-for-profit Causeaneffect Foundation (CnE). The Causeaneffect project was first launched to help the victims of the super cyclone that devastated Orissa in the year 1999. The same team then moved on to generate funds for the victims of the Gujarat Earthquake and Andhra Floods, as well as the Tsunami-affected victims across Tamil Nadu & Andhra. In all Causeaneffect projects, iridium Interactive (ii) functions as the commercial interactive agency, and has been highly successful in generating awareness and publicity. The ii management and employees are actively involved in all the initiatives of Causeaneffect, giving generously of their time and expertise.

Mr. Bharatam himself made an abrupt departure from a very promising consultancy career to establish CnE. An avid believer in the World Wide Web, he used the power of internet to raise significant funds for the cyclone victims & to build a global community of 18 million in just 45 days. This effort led him to win the world’s prestigious Kauffman Community Award for ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ in the year 2004. Known for his creativity and innovation, he currently spearheads the Web Accessibility and Usability Initiative, i.e. making websites accessible for the differently-abled.

Accepting the Udyog Rattan award, Mr. Bharatam said that both the awards rightfully belong to management, staff and well wishers of iridium Interactive who have contributed towards making the company  a success story.
The award was presented at India Habitat Center, New Delhi. The ceremony was graced by the Governor of Sikkim, Bhism Narain Singh, Ex-governor ,TamilNadu ,G.V.G.Krishna murthy,Former Election Commissioner and other dignitaries.

The Udyog Rattan Award and Award for Excellence is conferred by the Institute of Economic Studies every year.  IES (http://iesindia.org) was established in 1980 by a group of economists, parliamentarians and industrialists who came together to study and discuss problems concerning various aspects of the economy and economic development of India and offer their expert advice and services.

The previous recipients of this prestigious award include Vijay Mallaya, R Krishna Bajaj, H S Singhania, Dr B K Modi, B R Chopra, Renuka Ramnath and H P Nanda.

Over the years the institute has been patronised and inspired by the likes of Pranab Kumar Mukerjee, Khursheed Alam Khan, N D Tiwari, A K Panja, V N Gadgil, Madhavsing Solanki, Giani Zail Singh, Shankar Dayal Sharma, Kumudben Joshi, M Arunachalam, P Shiv Shankar, Ram Vilas Paswan, Ram Rao Adik, M Hidayatullah and Rabi Ray.

About Iridium Interactive

iridium Interactive (ii) specializes in offering unique user-centric e-business solutions.  With a presence across three continents, it has been at the forefront in integrating strategy, design and technology to build unique, robust user-centric e-business solutions. We take the time to understand our client’s goals and develop interactive solutions to meet them. Our talented team has worked on a variety of disciplines for a multitude of clients drawn from various industries, and has a number of award-winning works to its credit. In the year 2007 iridium Interactive was chosen by NASSCOM as one of the top 100 Innovators of India.

iridium Interactive operates in the digital virtual world – but with the feet firmly entrenched in the physical real world. The raison de’ etre is social responsibility.  And that’s the core genesis.
Speaking on this occasion Sriram said, “We believe that every citizen has a responsibility to give back to the society, and we at iridium Interactive have steadfastly followed this adage. Our socially responsible approach is our differentiator – bringing smiles to more faces, and winning us a few accolades along the way. We translate our ideology into action in many ways: we advocate web accessibility in the virtual world; while working towards up-lifting the disabled in the real world through our non-profit arm, Cause an Effect foundation.”

Cause an Effect (CnE) is an award winning Not-for-Profit organization with international repute focusing on Disability, Organic farming and Livelihood. The organization harnesses the potential of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for sustainable and equitable development, to enable the poor and the marginalized communities to transform their lives.

The process of empowering disabled is an end-to-end value chain that spans Iridium and Cause an effect, and is done through multiple initiatives. Cause an Effect has conducted disability camps bringing together the State Governments, transport authorities and medical personnel to issue 5000 disability certificates to the differently abled. It has also conducted livelihood trainings that have empowered thousands of people with financial viability, and workshops in education and English language to bring the needy community closer to the mainstream.

iridium has also been instrumental in promoting ‘web accessibility’ for visually impaired and motor disabled people, enabling them to access technology- and information-related products through the use of Internet. The company creates awareness amongst website owners (government and private) on the need to make sites accessible to disabled users, and also on promoting Internet usage within the disabled sections of the society.

About  Sriram Bharatam

Sriram started his career with Hewlett-Packard JV in the Strategy & Consulting practice, rising quickly through the ranks. He left a very promising career to establish a non-profit to aid victims of a natural calamity that occurred in Orissa, India in late 1999. An avid believer of the power of the world wide web, he used the power of internet to raise significant sum of funds for Cyclone victims & build a global community of 18 million in just 45 days through CauseanEffect foundation. This effort led him to win the world’s prestigious Kauffman Community Award for ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ in the year 2004.

With this confidence he founded India’s first full-cycle interactive agency, iridium Interactive in 1999. The focus of the organization has been to empower both corporate and their end clients through the medium of the internet. Today his team works with leading corporate in nine verticals across 3 continents. Known for creativity and innovation, he is currently spearheading the Web Accessibility initiative i.e making the web sites accessible for visually challenged in India. He is an alumni of MIT with bachelors in Engineering and Masters in Business Administration & a nominee of Ernst & Young ‘Entrepreneur of the Year Award’.

TV5, the popular telugu news channel , recently featured the web accessibility initiatives taken up by iridium Interactive. Here goes the newsclipping.

Here Mr.Sriram Bharatam, CEO of the company talks of the web accessibility related projects and research work being carried out by the organization in this field. He goes on to explain how it is a part of the HR policy to hire disabled people and also ensure equal Pay and equal opportunities to them. Mr. Bharatam elaborates on the training process followed at iridium Interactive –for the disabled employees so that they can be absorbed seamlessly into the workforce and also for the regular employees on how to interact with their differently- abled colleagues.

CauseanEffect has been conducting disability Camps, contact programs aimed at alleviating the problems of fellow citizens – and enable the differently abled with the Disability Certificate from the Government.This Disability Certificate is a ‘fundamental right’ of the differently abled citizen in India – that helps the holder obtains special pass concessions from the Road Transport & Railways.

The camps conducted by CauseanEffect at various towns/villages in Ranga Reddy District have helped in bringing all the different government bodies together under one roof (shamiana) – whereby the time period for the Certificate processing was cut short from a tedious 3-6 month wait to a 3 hour speedy process.

Taking another step forward in this process, CnE put up a proposal to further streamline the process by introducing computerisation, so that each camp can benefit more number of people. The plan of action proposed was approved by the district collector of Ranga Reddy District.The pilot camp was held on September 5th,2008 at Tandur, RangaReddy District and had the involvement and supervision of top level bureaucrats and government offcials – Mrs. Chaya Ratan, Principal Secretary, Mrs. Anita Rajendran, Commissioner-Disability Mr. Dhana Kishore – I.A.S., collector , Ranga Reddy District, Mr. Sudhakara Reddy, State project manager- Disability program (SERP),Mr. K. Rama Krishna – P.D., DRDA –IKP-Rangareddy District and Dr. Permanas A.D. ,Department of Disabled, Rangareddy district. CnE had already coordinated with Anganwaadis for distribution of slips. The CnE Volunteers along with the support of seven volunteers from iridium Interactive ensured that 41 disabled people with various levels of disablility, various types of disability -orthopaedic, mnetal,Visual, speech and hearing were awarded what is their fundamental right -the disability certificate.The volunteers ensured smooth flow of the process at various levels – at the help desk to explain the process to the visitors, for entering the data into the computers,for directing the people to the respective sections of disability and for dispatch of the cards.The CauseanEffect team ensured the presence and clearance from the necessary authorities of Government Bodies. The sheer joy on the faces of fellow citizens – on receiving their Disability Certificates at the Camp was a truly humbling experience for the CnE &iridium Interactive team, indeed encouraging the team to work that much harder to bring about a few tears less.As one of the volunteers put it very aptly :

It was an overwhelming experience; we had great fun helping them out, directing them and making them feel comfortable. The cheer on their faces on receiving the certificates actually made us feel reenergized after a long days travel and work.

Here is a sample of the Certificate issued to the disable people at Tandur, Ranga Reddy District

Recently the Web Accessibility initiatives taken up by iridium Interactive were featured by ETV2 in ETV2 News.Here goes a synopsis

Visually challenged software engineers are part of the workforce at iridium Interactive which works towards making web pages accessible. Accessibility is more than making a website compatible, it’s about making the pages friendly to the blind.
We can view the world by just sitting infront of our computers. News from space to mango pickle recipe can be known. But blind people who form 10% of total population cannot utilize the information and services available on the internet.

iridium Interactive is actively involved in the cause of disability and web accessibility, engaged in research and testing to make web accessible to the blind, and in this initiative they are supported by Nasscom.It is unfortunate that visually disabled need to take some one’s help to use Computers. With the emergence of screen reader software that reads out the contents of webpage, the visually impaired people have finally been able to enjoy access to the vast amount of information and services available on the internet.This software cannot, however, read all the pages on the web, because the pages are partially /completely inaccessible due to a myriad of reasons.

To overcome this problem iridium Interactive, in association with Enable India has taken up the cause of Web accessibility. Currently iridium Interactive is working on a project to make rediff.com accessible .The tester for this new emerging software is also a visually impaired- Rakesh Paladugula. The vision of iridium Interactive is to make web pages accessible to people with various levels of visual disability.