Kashmir-based Software Co amidst terrorism

New York Times reports abut Magnum Software Services. I always thought that terrorism orginates and sustains because the youth have nothing to do to improve their life. Hopefully we see more such hope.

Undeterred by the regular bursts of gunfire, grenade attacks and bomb blasts, a lone tech firm in revolt-torn Kashmir is trying to catch up with an outsourcing boom that has earned India billions of dollars.

Magnum Software Services, located on the outskirts of Srinagar, Kashmir's main city and the nerve center of a 15-year revolt against Indian rule, has become the first company in the region to bag an international back-office services contract.

The firm has recruited 315 young Kashmiri men and women in recent weeks to format medical files and research data for a Singapore client. Soon it also plans to provide accounting and legal transcription services.

Officials at Magnum said they hope to be an outsourcing pioneer in the troubled region where barely two years ago Internet and mobile phone services were barred because of fears separatist militants could use them to foment violence.

``Anything can happen anywhere, even here in our labs,'' said Umar Manzoor, a director at Magnum, located at Rangreth, an industrial center outside Srinagar.

``We have come to the conclusion that amid bomb explosions, fire fights and suicide attacks, the show must go on,'' he said.

``This is the first time such a project is happening in Kashmir and we are struggling to expand it,'' Sajad Ahmad Kanth, Magnum's chief executive, told Reuters. ``Inshallah (God willing) Kashmir will soon be on the world outsourcing map.''

Young Kashmiris, many of whom were unemployed before getting jobs at Magnum, agreed.

``I enjoy working here,'' said Shazia Bashir, a young Kashmiri woman who sat in front of rows of computers with her colleagues. ``For young computer graduates this is a very good opportunity under the present circumstances.''