Outsourcing IT poses risks in Britain and in India | Letters
by Letters from Technology | The Guardian on (#2R8XD)
Sue Roaf says excessive electricity use is causing power cuts in India, Nigel Boddy worries that we're overreliant on modern technology, and Richard Gilyead wonders whether there will be resignations at British Airways
British Airways and many other businesses have offshored electricity-dependent functions like IT services and call centres to northern India (BA chief refuses to resign after 'catastrophic' IT failure, 30 May). Increasingly this is a region in the grip of extended droughts and annual heatwaves associated with record-breaking temperatures that scientists say will only get worse with climate change.
Catastrophic electricity system failures are exacerbated by heat-triggered thunderstorms and regional outages resulting from the air-conditioning-related energy demand spikes that are common in India. In July 2012 power failed for 600 million people in northern India in the biggest blackout in history.
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