#➹ ( defector ) ━ isms.

[savesgalaxy]

iv

[blackpiano]

Top Reasons UK Companies Are Choosing IT Talent from India  

In today’s cut-throat business environment, UK companies are always in the quest to get a competitive advantage over their competitors. One increasingly popular solution is to recur outsourcing recruiting IT staff from tomorrow’s global defector nation: India.  

However, what could be quite interesting about this strategy? Now let us analyse the top drivers for companies to employ IT staff from India and understand how this practice impacts the UK tech landscape. Here are some of the benefits of hiring Indian tech workers.    Cost Savings  Above all, there is a consideration of cost reduction. Often, it is possible to recruit tech talent from India for a wage which is lower than the local rate. The cost of living is relatively lower in India as a result wage demands get to be more competitive.  

This does not mean that companies are cutting on the quality; on the contrary, they are upping the ante. ISM skills are globally renowned and dedicated; therefore, Indian IT professionals are more economical for many organisations in the UK.  

If you wish to know about the financial details you can use our employee cost calculator to plan the estimated saving of your business.    Technical Expertise  There is another vast factor why UK companies hire IT staff from  India and consider it as their single source supplier of technical skills. There is a large reserve of qualified IT talents in India.  

Firstly, being residents of a country that promotes education and lays a focus on STEM fields and becoming introduced to a society that embraces technological progress, Indian IT workers are usually on the cutting edge of the latest advances in IT.  

You will be hard-pressed to find a speciality of IT that won’t be represented by experts within its ranks. They get impeccable tech talent and high quality tech services at a cheaper price.     Large Talent Pool  The size of the talent pool itself is another factor that can make a difference India offers a huge pool of talent. Every year India produces 3 billion IT graduates making India one of the biggest suppliers of IT graduates. This means that the UK firms have a pool of talent that they can draw from and these individuals come with various specialisations.  

It is the same with developers – regardless of whether one wants experienced developers or new talent with innovative concepts, the Indian market offers the best. It also helps that this pool guarantees that companies will be able to match the right employee with the firm, which will ultimately yield better results and unique solutions.

High-Quality IT Services 

The quality of IT services in India is another factor that draws UK companies. Indian tech firms and freelancers are known for delivering high-quality work on time and within budget. Many Indian IT professionals have experience working with international clients, ensuring they understand the standards and expectations of UK businesses.  

This reliability and professionalism make India an attractive destination for offshoring IT projects. For more insights on offshoring IT talent to India, visit our detailed blog post. 

Flexibility and Scalability 

UK companies also benefit from the flexibility and scalability that come with hiring Indian IT staff. Whether you need to ramp up your team for a big project or scale down after its completion, Indian tech talent can adapt to your needs.  

This flexibility allows businesses to manage their resources more effectively and respond quickly to changing market demands. 

Time Zone Advantage 

The time zone difference between the UK and India can also be an advantage. With a time difference of about 4.5 to 5.5 hours, Indian IT staff can work on projects overnight, providing UK companies with the ability to operate round-the-clock.  

This can lead to faster turnaround times and increased productivity. 

In conclusion, the decision to hire IT staff from India is driven by a combination of cost savings, technical expertise, a large talent pool, high-quality services, flexibility, and the time zone advantage.  

As more UK companies discover these benefits, it's clear why UK companies hire IT  staff from India and this trend is gaining momentum. To learn more about why companies hire IT staff from India, check out our comprehensive guide here. 

Exploring these advantages can give your business the competitive edge it needs in the ever-evolving tech landscape. So, if you’re looking to boost your IT capabilities, India might just be the perfect place to start. 

[mythlived]

You're the stupidest person I've ever had the displeasure of knowing.

Rhys, to himself, immediately after telling Nona that the cookies she made for him taste a lot like grapefruit when he’s also just told her he doesn’t like grapefruit. 

[m0r1bund]

Regarding the Arts, Mortal Injury, and the Endling Cult

Continue reading below or at m0r1bund.com ▶︎

Content warning: Fictional -isms, typical Empire behavior, abuses of power in the context of medicine and healthcare

◆ ◆ ◆

They call themselves a cult, but what deference to clerical authority they demand, if any, is unclear to me. Observation tells me that their doctrine has as much in common with the Imperial Code as a child’s drawing of a tree. Ah—but at least the drawing is chronicled in indelible ink. In their secrecy, the Cult leaves no records that I am aware of.

I am convinced this is part of the joke. There is, of course, safety in secrecy. I do not deny that more sophisticated codices could exist, unbeknownst to outsiders; It is only wise to conduct their business viva voce and in code, when the Archive twists any word it can understand. But there is also no consensus among them except, perhaps, the implicit consensus of associating with one another. My former subordinate once asked when in the year they gather to perform maintenance on themselves—an innocent question which, in her mind and mine, was a given. Not so. The question was first met with silence, and then the raucous sound of many voxes talking over one another. No consensus was reached, that day. They all scattered like splinters from the first tree.

It was only later that we learned the indiscretion was ours. A mutual friend informed us that the very act of seeking repair is not practiced by all members of the Cult. This is due in part to the rarity of specialists who are willing to work with ex-secutors. Bioengineers alone [1] possess the depth and breadth of knowledge needed to maintain a secutor. To the average ex-secutor, seeking repair means seeking out the very ones who made them the way they are today.

The risk that this poses to the Cult is self-evident to them as it is to I, though few outsiders are aware of it [2]. Still, it does not surprise me to hear that I and my ilk are considered too dangerous to negotiate with. Most secutors have traumatic memories attached to Bioengineers, to speak nothing of the great physiological and psychological transfiguration they experienced in our facilities. Even if a Bioengineer harbored sympathy for an Endling, we would sooner decommission them than risk incurring the Inquisition’s wrath. I am sure at least one desperate secutor has made the gamble to go under the enemy’s knife, and lost. There may be other defectors who have managed to escape the hounds of the Empire, but few will risk coming out of hiding to aid insurrectionists.

There is the matter, too, of our own culpability. The Archive entrusts us with the art of iron and blood, which we gladly use to shape its puppets. Therein lies the irony: We are uniquely qualified to minister them, and uniquely fatal in their hour of need.

There is another matter that complicates this, as well—one which I was ignorant to as an outsider. Seeking repair is not merely a question of risk management. It is also an epistemological paradox.

The Endling Cult is called to dismantle the very machine that created it. In other words, the Cult imagines a future in which it does not exist. This poses certain ethical dilemmas to the Endlings, should they seek to extend a life lived on ‘borrowed time.’ Some consider it selfish and short-sighted to solicit an Imperial Shaper for repair, even indirectly. No good can come from the hand that made the wound—even if that means the ex-secutor will break down and functionally die. This is a luxury they were not afforded in their previous life, and to rebuke death is to rebuke transformation, decay, and the right to life of what comes next.

Others hold a more utilitarian view. There is no reason to believe that efforts to maintain their bodies are anything but an expression of the natural will to live. Someday, every part of them will die and rot and be made new. The hole left behind in the original organism will be filled by a patchwork of borrowed matter. As experience has taught the elder secutors, no self lasts forever. This cycle of incremental death and becoming is less like the manufactured immortality of a machine, and more like the succession of a forest.

Controversy notwithstanding, the Cult’s heathen sentiments have at least some founding in reality. The Endeme intervenes when old machinery fails, particularly where there are fragments of organic matter to build upon. This form of self-maintenance is both permitted and encouraged, and it is common to inoculate wounds with Endeme-contaminated plasm. Still, this leaves the matter of artificial prosthetics and other apparati unresolved. If the disease manages to take hold in these components at all—an unlikely prospect—it usually results in bizarre transformations. Such growths make my work more difficult when the situation inevitably becomes too desperate to manage alone.

This is not a judgement of the Cult. I am happy to do my work. It is only a symptom of the same problem: I know that I can be trusted. They do not. There is no way to know that the cutting will stop when I say it will stop. The Endeme, at least, demonstrates a common interest in their survival, where the Archive has shown them only contempt and apathy.

One cannot begrudge the Endlings a desire to live, when their time draws short, and there is still so much work to be done.

________________

As I understand it, efforts are being made to ensure that this will not be true in the future. My former subordinate has leveraged her background in mechanics to strongarm me into teaching her the fundamentals, with the intention of disseminating this information to the Cult. Those who are unwilling to go under my knife may find that of a confederate’s more palatable.  

Ironically, the divisions between us are all but invisible to the Cult’s non-Imperial sympathizers. It is very difficult for an outsider to discern between a secutor and a Bioengineer. This leads to some misunderstandings about the Cult’s relationship with other heretics, fugitives, and exiles of the Empire—particularly when they observe that some ‘secutors’ inexplicably refuse to associate with other ex-secutors This is normally a source of amusement for the Endlings, when even the most decorated Archivist can be held equal with his lowliest servant (at least, in the eyes of the uninitiated.) It is less amusing, however, to be confused with the Archive’s Bioengineers. Perhaps we represent the last meaningful redoubt of the Empire’s power over them. Perhaps the nuances of self-maintenance are hopelessly apocryphal, within and outside of the Cult. No matter. I believe this confusion will be the next greatest source of grief for the Cult, once they secure adequate healthcare. Of course, the Inquisition will not pause to ask which heretics they are burning at the stake, when we pay our final dues to the God-King. It makes no difference to me.

◆ ◆ ◆

More in-world documents puttering around in my brain. The Doc is a good excuse to lean into my brainstrange and go full roundabout sentences and pretentious lingo. She's also got her tongue-in-cheek doublespeak and genuine layers of indoctrination that bleed into each other in a way that I think is both interesting and uncomfortable in a constructive way.

[bonefall]

If I rewrote Warriors, I'd focus a lot more on ideology and make it so there's always been 'parties' within a clan.

I think it would have helped Rowanstar and Onestar feel less like heel-faced turns if they'd established a name and some general beliefs they follow. Onestar would have swapped to Mudclaw's 'party', Shadowclan would have had a religious resurgance and been praying for a prophecy.

In addition, Tigerclawstar and Brokenstar would both follow some sort of Thistleclaw-ism, and it keeps rearing its ugly head through the series. On that note, the Great Battle would have had a ton of StarClan and Dark Forest defectors.

[ncfan-1]

Today in writing...

Wrote 3.5k for Chapter Six of An Arrow Piercing the Heart’s Eye, finishing the chapter at 11.5k. Writing about all the background nasty -isms that, on top of the declining Crest system, really turn Fodlan toxic has been such fun.

Now, Lord Rodrigue grimaced. To Flayn’s admittedly jaundiced eye, he seemed genuinely apologetic—but that was not really enough. “It is regrettable,” he admitted. “Were I free to do so, and were I risking nothing but my own life, I would ride out myself. But none of us are so free to risk our own lives, or others’. This next push will be critical. As it stands, I do not know if we have the men to take Fort Merceus and hold it, and secure our staging point to breach Enbarr’s gates. If we thin our forces searching for missing soldiers, it could be the end of everything we’ve worked for. It makes no sense for the emperor to kill either of them. We have no choice but to trust in that.”

At least he had not dismissed them as deserters or defectors. But that wasn’t good enough. Flayn stared at Lord Rodrigue, her lips mashed together so tightly that she could feel them going numb. She willed herself to ferret out any sign of weakening in his resolve, but there was none. Was this how it was to be, then, her stealing out of the monastery alone and on foot, completely unsupported by any of her faithless fellow-soldiers?

“Nevertheless…”

For the first time since Flayn had entered the room, Melusine had spoken. As usual, her soft, even voice carried a hint of rust, as if it had been days since she had last spoken, but while she was so quiet that Flayn did indeed have to strain to hear her, the moment she spoke, all eyes were on her. This, too, was typical. Melusine blinked, pausing in the face of such sudden, intense scrutiny, before going on, “Nevertheless, it is true that if they can be found without having to commit our forces to foraying more than a few miles into Imperial territory, they must be recovered.”

[greenwire]

It’s easier for people to believe a comforting lie than the awful truth. I don’t for one second think that USAmericans actually think the Taliban has reasonable beliefs, but it’s easier to rationalize it with, “oh the propaganda machine is Islamophobic and these men say they’re just fine and found a few women who will say this is all just fine as well.” I saw the same thing with people on tumblr insisting that North Korea isn’t a totalitarian state and that the conditions described there by defectors are just lies. It’s easier to believe it, when you live with plenty, that everyone else lives with enough too.

Taliban is Arabic for “students” and these are students of the most regressive conservative part of the most strict and unforgiving sects within Islam. This is like saying that if you don’t want the Westboro Baptist Church to establish a new government in the US and make new laws, it means you’re anti-Christian. There’s a lot to be desired about US politics, but the separation of church and state is something I believe they got right. There’s no room for a theocracy in a fair and free government.

I’d also like to point out that as of 2005, there was only one Jewish person in the entire country of Afghanistan. His name is Zablon Simintov and he cared for the only synagogue in Kabul. In April of this year (2021), he expressed a desire to emigrate to Israel. I hope he is safe from the regime change. The Taliban did detain, beat, and rob him on more than one occasion. If he is indeed safe, this means that the Taliban have effectively ethnically cleansed the country of all Jewish people. If he’s still there, well, he’s in a lot of danger.

Jewish people have lived in the Middle East for millennia and are being ethnically cleansed by these hard-right totalitarian regimes. This isn’t merely a religious issue, the Kurdish people are mostly Sunni Muslim (although virtually all Yazidi are Kurdish speakers). But religion is providing the justification for ethnic cleansing here. Look to nearby Iran and Iraq for other examples. Look to Israel for examples of religiously justified ethnic cleansing as well.

Your religious liberties end where someone else’s right to self-determination begins. That’s why it is impossible to join religion and government in a free and fair society.

It’s also so easy to throw around an ‘ism’ or a ‘phobia’ to shut down conversations you don’t want to have. That’s why those of us who are ethnically from majority-Muslim cultures AND feminists so often get accused of ‘Islamophobia.’ It’s easier to pretend that a feminist who is from your same culture is somehow oppressing men by telling the truth about them than it is to actually address her ideas. That’s how you get people conflating a disdain for Islam as a disdain for Muslims. That’s how you get people who are more upset over a woman saying hijab is unnecessary and regressive than who are upset by a gunman shooting and killing 51 people in Christchurch. It works because most people put zero logical thought into the beliefs they have. Both conservatives and liberals have zero problem parroting the party line they heard on twitter or the news or some youtube video.

The Taliban are embracing PR and have just done an actual press conference where they downplayed some of their beliefs and insisted that women can still work (only in certain sectors)

So this attempt at legitimacy will be jumped on by states who'll now feel better about the optics of talking to the Taliban and working with them. So get ready for pieces in the rags about how the Taliban are more progressive.

[motleystitches]

he thinks of doing good (but it’s been a while) 3/7

Summary:

Most days, Cassian Andor prefers not to remember he is officially married to Jyn Erso, but rumors of the Death Star bring them together again while the Alliance and the Partisans keep an uneasy truce. (Arranged marriage AU with a dash of Victorian-ism later on)

#rebelcaptainweek: Prompt- Undercover (is not under the covers)

When the name ‘Erso’ started leaking out of the imperial reports they intercepted, people started look at Jyn, but she was a girl and looked more like Lyra than her father. It helped that human features were oftentimes indistinguishable for certain races.

“She’s young,” Maia reminded Saw. “And you’re marrying her to a spy.”

“She’s just small. You liked him.” Five years was not a great difference as they get older. He had seen the man. Jyn could take out a fully armored Storm Trooper and Cassian was distinctively slighter than one of those.

“I didn’t know I was vetting a prospective husband,” she hissed. “He is Alliance. Draven hand-raised him.”

“You are making him sound like some sort pet mynock,” Saw complained, then paused, reminded that the Ersos had entrusted him with their daughter. “There’s nothing wrong with him, is there?”

Maia rolled her eyes. “Except for the fact that he’s exactly the sort of man you expect Draven would like.”

“Yes,” Saw said, pleased at the reminder. “Mothma assured me he’s their finest officer, even outside intelligence. Seven languages, conversant in small arms, a good pilot. Draven mentioned he would follow orders.”

“And do you expect Jyn to issue them?”

“I expect Jyn to be safe in Yavin when it’s necessary.”

Maia sighed and said nothing more.

Then Saw was too distracted by Draven’s attempt to eek information out of him to observe how Jyn took to the wedding ceremony. Coruscant customs, where Jyn Erso registered her birth, would not have permitted it so easily on account of her age. Liana Hallick, however, belonged to a different planet entirely. The name ‘Jyn Erso’ is buried in her name in another language to render the whole deal legal. After all, they were talking about the Alliance.

Saw gave Jyn a blaster and left Maia behind with her, just in case. For the Rebellion, for Galen and for Lyra, they had to part. It had been made easier knowing that he was giving her a better chance.

-=-=

In Cassian’s imagination, Jyn followed him down the hallways, but Jyn was waiting for him outside his room. Someone had shown her a way, after all.

“You need to understand-” she began.

He crossed his arms and tried to ignore her. She shouldn’t be here. Or perhaps she should. K2 was in an oil-bath. He probably would’ve reminded Jyn of protocol if he saw Cassian’s distress.

But he was alone with her. “Cassian,” she said. “Listen to me.” Her hand rose toward his face.

“We can’t do this here,” Cassian said as she came closer.

“What? People are going to see? To hear?” Jyn asked, naming the worries that crossed Cassian’s mind. However, her hand fell away to flutter somewhere around his waist. “What are you afraid of?”

“You were her,” Cassian said, under his breath. He was never sure, afterwards. It was a question that had become a gnarled knot in his head, better left forgotten than waste effort in untangling. Even tracking Jyn Erso had allowed him to think of her in the abstract: a name, an objective.  Now she was in front of him and that mission and all her declarations were as fresh as yesterday. “Aren’t you?” he asked, a little softer.

“You are just being ridiculous. How could you be a spy if you don’t get the concept of spying?” The confusion in her face only made it worse.

“Yes, I’m the spy,” Cassian said. “But all that time, you never gave me your real name.”

Jyn inhaled sharply. For a moment, Cassian thought that Jyn was going to hit him, but then she said, “So now you know why. Thanks for getting me out of prison.”

Her father, her parentage, the rumors of the Death Star- none of it was enough to erase the fact that once upon a time, Cassian had wanted to be hers, but then she left.

-=-=

“You are teasing me,” Jyn had said. “He wouldn’t say no.”

As much as the Alliance disapproved of Partisan tactics, they needed on-the-ground information that only the Partisans and their extensive network with local rebel groups could provide. Draven was an ambitious man, Saw had said, his fledgling intelligence initiative needed their support.

“Have you ever known me to to tease? Anyways, that’s not the issue.”

It was, admittedly, a good point. Maia was Saw’s left hand, literally. She’s only teased people for missions.

“What do you think I’ll do?”

Maia cocked her head. “Knowing you. Something awful or violent. Stay in your room.”

“Why? Is he horribly ugly, old?” Jyn felt a sudden wave of fear. “Does he have bad breath?”

Maia frowned. “The man’s grieving. Leave him alone.”

Jyn had been looking forward to meeting another young human. Andor’s figure, seen at a distance, was trim and tight; he had floppy hair like Jyn’s, but cut short. They looked soft.

-=-=

Cassian was awake in the dark.

“There’s a tunnel,” Jyn’s voice said.

“What?” The familiarity of it made him irritated and the memory made him sullen. “You didn’t use it last time.”

For the better, perhaps. Cassian did the calculation later. She had been sixteen. She was not the woman that Cassian had slept next to for a month.

“Maia didn’t let me.”

“O.” Cassian remembered Maia. She died.

“You said we are going to Jehda,” Jyn said. “I know that planet.”

“It’s the home planet of the cargo pilot, the defector with empire-wide warrant on his head.”

“Bohdi Rook,” she said.

Cassian couldn’t see the expression on her face under the low light when she said the name.

“Would he know where Saw is?” he asked, almost unwilling to continue the thought. What did it mean if the pilot did or did not know where Saw was? Where Jyn Erso would be if not for Wobani.

“He wouldn’t, but you are hoping he’s traveling in the same direction,” she said.  

Cassian wondered whether Jyn was hoping the same and what reasons she had. Cassian remained silent.

At length Jyn spoke again, “Do you still have a blaster beside your bed?”

She wasn’t allowed any weapons, Cassian realised. Is this what she came for? “You can have one in the morning,” he said. “Let me sleep.”

She left. Cassian stayed awake for half the night.

-=-=

By the time Draven realised the Partisans did not conform to the rules of the Alliance. it was too late. Draven said he should’ve known. Saw could not have recruited from all those planets and held sway over all those races if he followed the rules of the Alliance. For the first time, he began to see the Senate and the senators like Mon Mothma as an obstacle, rather than means to an end.

This was their chance.

Unbeknownst to them, he sent Cassian on a mission with a Partisan liaison named Kestrel. Cassian had a different identity lest anyone realised who he was and what connections he had. It was agreed that it would be the same for his new partner. Nothing must be able to be traced back even from a Coruscant system.

-=-=

[mythlived]

- ✧ Tag Drop 8/?  !