Dr Shahid Choudhary, DC Srinagar, talking to the employees of AEGIS, who were being retrenched due to losses t... Read More

NEW DELHI: In a swift move, the Kashmir administration on Friday saved the jobs of 70 employees of a multinational company, after they were put on notice due to massive loss in business since the lockdown in the Valley.

AEGIS, a leading global business services provider of customer experience management, closed its Srinagar BPO on Friday retrenching all 70 employees citing reduction in business. The BPO has 240 seats with potential of over 700 employment and six training rooms with 150 capacity.

The Valley businesses have been mostly closed since August 5, when the Jammu and Kashmir state was reorganized and bifurcated into two union territories. Anticipating Pakistan-sponsored violence and terror attacks in the Valley, the government put restrictions on the movement of people and shut down mobile phones, internet and other telecommunications. As a result, Vodafone, AEGIS' only client reduced calls from 1 lakh to 10,000 a day.

On Friday, 70 employees of the AEGIS BPO were told that they had been put on notice ahead of termination of their services. After the news reached the Kashmir administration, DC Srinagar, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary intervened immediately. On Saturday, he reached out to AEGIS and it's employees and provided a bailout offer for three months.

The government headed, by Governor Satya Pal Malik , has offered to manage minimum three months salary for all employees. "I assured them government business, getting private clients business from outside and finalized a plan for employment of 2000 local youth within 18 months up from existing 70 facing termination," Choudhary told TOI.

Interestingly, Choudhary is not new to promoting IT sector in Kashmir. As DC Bandipore, he established state's first official BPO in Bandipore, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi early this year. Impressed by the Bandipore model, the Prime Minister had announced and sanctioned a similar BPO for all 21 other districts. Later, the state government released funds to all the districts for establishment of similar BPOs.

Business experts in Kashmir believe that the Valley with a huge number of English-speaking educated youth has a huge potential for IT sector. In the first ever investor's summit hosted by Srinagar and scheduled for October, the government is likely to invite investment for BPOs in the Valley.



In Video: Govt saved the jobs of 70 MNC employees