Indian jobs for anybody,
anywhere By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - For all those around the
world who had a problem with Indian call-center
executives speaking a foreign language, there is soon likely to
be less room for complaint. More and more Indian
business and processing outsourcing firms (BPO), those that have
been accused of eating into the rest of the world's
jobs, are hiring foreigners to speak the foreign
language.
A change in the more established software
and information technology firms has taken place
as well. Anybody could take a melange of executives
from the United States or the United Kingdom at
a pub in India's Silicon Valley, Bangalore, to be a group
of tourists. But they are usually among the more than
12,000 foreigners registered to work in the city, mostly
in IT-related fields.
A year ago Indian
headhunters talked of foreigners looking for brighter
employment in India as just a trickle, more at an
inquiry stage. Well, the trend has set in as more and
more Americans, Europeans, Japanese and Filipinos - to
name just a few - have begun to fly in to take advantage
of jobs that provide global exposure as well as an
opportunity to climb the corporate ladder. The number of
foreign nationals working in India has risen to over
50,000 and continues to grow. Meanwhile, there is also
the happy news that Indian tourism has registered a
whopping 27% increase over the previous year, with
foreign tourists contributing to the bulk of revenues.
Norwegian Even Eng (working for call center
Technovate as team leader), Japanese Miki Chiba
(executive sales, Infosys, India's software giant),
American Joshua Bornstein (corporate manager, Infosys),
Polish Magdalena Gazewska (marketing executive, Siri
Technologies), Brits Paul King and David Eddison
(trainers, ITC Infotech) and Swiss Patrick Schapper
(travel consultant) are just some of the names doing the
corporate rounds and in the media as well, as they turn
into emblems of a reverse movement of human resources,
rather than the more usual story of an Indian brain
drain to foreign shores.
The New York Times
recently profiled Bornstein: "He quit his job at an
investment banking firm in Los Angeles and came to this
southern city on the Deccan Plateau [Bangalore]. He pays
US$110 a month to share a two-bedroom apartment with a
Japanese roommate. He takes the company bus to work at
the Infosys campus, as lush and large as Microsoft's in
Seattle. He has Indian, European, Israeli and Asian
friends, and he has become a familiar figure on this
city's thriving pub scene. 'Everyone talks about
globalization left and right,' he said. 'This is the way
the world is moving.'"
As can be expected, the
first off the block in meeting market requirements are
the nimble call centers, which like to move with the
times, both in business generation as well as ensuring
the newest human resource strategies are implemented to
keep their employees in good humor. A recent survey on
BPO companies described their latest mantra as "people
from every part of the world for any part of the world".
Several Indian call centers are offering multilingual
services requiring foreign staff to man the operations
as well as customer interface. BPO companies such as
Wipro Spectramind and HCL Technologies are hiring
Norwegian, Swedish, Swiss, Dutch and Finnish nationals
to handle the language barriers as well as provide
specific cultural inputs in dealing with clients.
While all foreign nationals who wish to come to
India to work or otherwise require a valid passport of
their country and an appropriate Indian visa, the
process is streamlined and quick for US, European or
Australian nationals not considered a security threat.
India does not issue "visas on arrival" nor does it have
any visa waiver program or any visa reciprocity schemes.
Foreign nationals are required to apply for a visa at an
Indian embassy or at the Indian high commissions abroad,
which can be issued on the same day. Visas are available
for single entry and multiple entries for periods
ranging from six months to 10 years, depending on the
need and category.
While
business visas are issued for six months to one year,
employment visas can be issued for a longer duration. It
is mandatory to attach the letter of the
sponsoring organization for such visas. Foreign nationals entering
India on a student, employment, research or
missionary visa, which is valid for more than 180 days,
are required to register with the Foreigners
Registration Officer in India. The foreign national is required
to appear in person for registration, but
most organizations ensure that things are quickly dealt with.
There have been hardly any complaints on this count as
India seeks to project a friendly image to visitors from
abroad and the Foreign Ministry has decentralized as
well as made the process of issue of visas/registration
quite transparent. There are a few instances of
bureaucratic apathy, but these are few and far between.
Typically, the salaries of foreign executives in
India are lower than their earnings abroad and at par
with Indian employees, but most firms ensure that their
stay is comfortable by ensuring health insurance, free
lodging, and a special leave structure that allows for
travel back home as well as providing an environment
that is professional.
The story
goes beyond just a replication of hands at work. Experts
say foreign manpower, apart from the pressure of job
losses, is seeking out India for the opportunities on offer and
as an attractive destination. This is because many
leading global technology firms have started to move
high profile and highly skilled jobs to India, apart from
the many low-end call-center jobs that have already shifted
base to this country.
Indeed,
observers say that overseas professionals feel
comfortable working in Indian information-technology (IT) firms,
as over the years they have imbibed global practices that
are inherent in their operations now. As Indian
companies continue to expand operations worldwide, they have
adapted their management practices and strategies to
compete in the global marketplace. Until recently (even
as recent as a couple of years ago), most Indian
software companies employed Indians in key positions in
global positions around the world. An on-site posting or
assignment was a plum perk that the companies offered budding
masters of business administration (MBAs) and other consultants
wishing to move toward marketing or sales.
During the recent past, Indian companies have
begun to realize the significance of having "local hands
in local markets" and have started recruiting sales and
marketing people in local markets to represent them.
This has not only created a familiarity among foreign
workers about Indians and India, but also acted as a
push to look for placements when the going is tough.
Until recently, Indian outsourcing companies
setting up offices in the US have been restricted to
marketing, generating new clients and as establishing a
countrywide network. But these activities have created
very few jobs. Now, however, Indian IT giants such as
Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have
begun hiring Western employees to deal with local
populations abroad, riding profits generated from huge
international business deals as well as the need to
penetrate markets further.
Infosys, which has
risen to become India's second-largest software maker
mainly due to outsourced work from the West, has
invested $20 million to create nearly 500 consulting
jobs in the United States. The company has set up a subsidiary
in Fremont, California, to provide business consulting
to US corporations. The new company, Infosys
Consulting, has begun "aggressive hiring in America",
Infosys chief executive officer Nandan Nilekani said in
a statement. "As we are looking to expand our global
footprint, we are creating local employment in the
countries we operate," he said.
While the US has
lost thousands of jobs to low-wage countries such as
India, the investment by Infosys shows outsourcing can
also generate new jobs in the US - though on a smaller
scale, Nilekani said. The company's American employees
would advise US corporations on improving their
efficiency by embracing outsourcing and moving work to
Infosys' offices in India. Hiring Americans helps
companies to better understand the needs of the clients
and industry trends, Nilekani added.
Not to
be left behind, TCS announced that it has opened a
training center in Buffalo, New York, as part of its program
to expand its presence and bring jobs to the area. A
global IT services provider, TCS will provide advanced
training in IT to new recruits and existing employees in
the North American region. The training center is aptly
named "Chrysalis", a word signifying the evolution of a
larva into a butterfly. Company executives explain that
this reference is analogous to the emergence of bright
new talent into advanced IT professionals who will lead
the technology industry into the future. The firms said
it has already hired 20 new recruits primarily from
western New York and has plans to triple that number by
the middle of next year.
Estimates suggest that 200,000-400,000 jobs have moved from the United States
since the outsourcing trend began in the 1990s, which
is still only a fraction of the 138 million jobs in the
US. The Information Technology Association of America
says only about 2% of the 10 million computer-related jobs
have been sent abroad; 12% of IT companies have
"outsourced" work, compared with 3% of non-IT firms. The most high-end
projection is by Forrester Research - a loss of 3.3
million jobs by 2015, including 1.7 million back-office
jobs and 473,000 IT jobs - which will create a only dent
in the US job market - not the wreck everyone fears. And
with foreign professionals seeking employment in Indian
firms both here and abroad, the insecurity should be
further bucked.
Siddharth Srivastava
is a New Delhi-based journalist.
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2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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