Mumbai: Unemployment is rising in the bread and butter market for Indian IT companies, the US, and IT biggies know that to survive in this tough environment they need an image makeover from being seen as job destroyers to job creators.
No wonder the Indian IT brigade is going on a hiring spree in the US opening swanky new development centers across mainland America hoping it will hold up as a shield in case the anti outsourcing rhetoric gets louder as we head closer to the US presidential elections. Wipro is a case in point having just opened a center in Atlanta and the company planning three more development centers in the US including Detroit, a state where employment has been a core issue. If clubbed together it could mean over 2000 jobs created.
"In Atlanta out of the initial 100, the number of Indians are 50 and rest American nationals. Soon the employee mix of MNCs and ours will be the same," said Sudip Nandy, CEO, Telecom & Product Engineering Solutions.TCS and Infosys also have over 10 per cent of their workforce in the US and TCS for instance is ramping up rapidly in places like Cincinati to cash -in on job creation incentives and to avoid any outsourcing backlash in this politically important state."We are increasingly hiring graduates not just because its election year but its part of our larger consolidation in US," stated N Chandrasekhan, COO, TCS.
Indian IT companies are ramping up onsite operations in the US also because cap on H1B visa at 65,000 is unlikely to increase to 115,000 as has been demanded by the tech lobby both in India and the US.The argument being the companies in the US take undue advantage of the provision to import cheap labour. The status quo on H1B visa quota leaves no other alternative but to hire on ground.
