Reversing
the earlier trend derogatively referred to "body-shopping"
locating Indians to work in the US on temporary
visas Indian companies are hiring aggressively
in the US, as they acquire greater global strengths.
The
new trend is referred to as "reverse offshoring".
Asia''s largest offshoring firm, Tata Consultancy Service
Ltd (TCS), Infosys and Wipro, which make up India''s three
largest IT companies, have emerged the largest employers
of laid-off American workers after training them suitably
in India.
According
to a report in BusinessWeek, Indian firms are recruiting
a combination of fresh college graduates and experienced
workers who have worked at American companies.
The
report says Indian employers are particularly active at
campus job fairs, and unlike a few years ago students
know who these companies are and respect them. In fact,
the Indian connection has become an attraction.
Wipro
Ltd, for instance, is scouting US locations for two big
software-writing centres that eventually could employ
hundreds of programmers each. Cities on its short list
include Austin, Tex, and Atlanta, because of their deep
tech-talent pools and reasonable salary costs, the leading
business magazine says.
"The
work we''re doing requires more and more knowledge of the
customers` businesses, and you want local people to do
that," Wipro Chairman Azim H Premji is quoted as
having said in the article.
Today
Wipro''s global work force includes 2.5 per cent non-Indians,
which the company expects to grow to over 10 per cent
in the coming years.
Hiring
close to clients, also saves Indian firms the trouble
of having to bring in employees from India on temporary
visas, says S Padmanabhan, HR head for Tata Consultancy
Services Ltd (TCS), India`s largest outsourcing firm,
said.
Of
TCS''s 10,000 US-based workers about 1,000 are Americans,
which the company plans to take up to 2,000. TCS currently
has 90,000 employees worldwide.
Interestingly,
the appreciation of the rupee by over 10 per cent against
the dollar this year, has made hiring Americans cheaper.
Forrester
Research analyst John McCarthy made a comparison of Indian
IT firms hiring in the US with the hiring of American
workers by Japanese auto makers, "The Indians are
doing to the world`s IT processes what the Japanese did
to manufacturing."
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