Spotlight on Our India Teams
/by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
KGL’s New Delhi (NOIDA) office, Prior to the pandemic
The worldwide publishing industry today would not function without the experience, support and technical skills of vast content services operations in India. Publishers, in the Global North especially, rely on the production and technology expertise of an entire support industry in one of the world’s largest emerging markets.
While initiatives to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) among staff, authors, reviewers and other stakeholders have (rightfully) taken center stage in recent years at scholarly, education, and trade publishing houses in North America and Europe, they have largely focused on issues of race and gender. Not nearly as much recognition is paid to geographical inclusion or to our industry colleagues in the Global South who ensure the ultimate delivery of a large quantity of the world’s books, journals and other publications.
In addition to the US and UK, we at KGL have facilities employing the majority of our staff spread throughout India, with locations in Mumbai, Chennai, Noida (New Delhi) and Bengaluru. Our over 1,300 employees in India enjoy the benefits offered by KGL’s SA8000 social accountability certification and our focus on retention and employee engagement. As a result, many have been with the company for years. Over the past summer, we recognized the longest-serving employees in each of our locations on social media, and we want to further appreciate and shine the spotlight on these loyal and valued colleagues.
Om Prakash "Owpee" VK is the longest serving employee at KGL's Noida facility with 22 years of experience. He currently serves as Associate Director in the Composition Department. “I feel very proud and humbled to be a part of this organization. KGL has strong leadership, offers positive work environment, and great learning opportunities.”
With 21 years at KGL, Pon Saravanan is the longest-tenured employee at our Chennai office, working his way from multiple production, project management, and technology roles to Senior Manager, Software. “In last two decades, I have been witnessing constant and consistent push in implementing innovative solutions to the eWorld. The entire team makes and delivers all the difference.”
Mallik Babu Manam has spent the last 20 of his 22 years in publishing services at KGL to become the longest-serving employee at our Bengaluru location. He is currently Senior Operations Manager. “I love the work culture at KGL which gives me a sense of ownership and it gives me the freedom to make my own decisions. Probably it’s the same reason why many of my colleagues never looked out for options and those who did, came back in no time.”
Salim Abbas Pawane has 18 years of experience at the company working across HTML, XML and ePub formats for many customers' books and journals. Salim is one of the longest-serving employees in our Mumbai facility, where he currently is a Mentor in the digital team. “To the best of my knowledge, all the talented people working across most of the companies in the publishing industry, were a part of KGL at some time or the other. KGL helped them to build and enhance their skills to such a level that they are now part of big companies across the globe.”
Also with 18 years' experience in the Mumbai office, in operations, production, and ePublishing, Preepti Manoj has applied her skills as an architect, team leader, and is currently Delivery Manager. “Being associated with KGL for years, learning never stopped. KGL provided the right platform to learn, experience, and grow. Honestly, I would not like to be highlighted as the employee with longest tenure, but for the work!”
Obviously there are many hundreds more employees in our India facilities committed to serving our customers and their publication programs. By raising the profile of just some of them, we hope that the dedication, contribution, and talent of solutions providers in India can approach the same level of recognition and visibility as our Western publishing colleagues.
KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL) is the industry leader in editorial, production, online hosting, and transformative services for every stage of the content lifecycle. We are your source for intelligent automation, high-speed publishing, accessibility compliance, digital learning solutions and more.