Posted on 01/30/2006 7:24:12 AM PST by Fawn
Computer maker Dell Inc. said Monday it planned to add 5,000 jobs in India over the next two years, bringing its work force in the country to 15,000.
"Dell is also looking to set up a manufacturing center in India, a move that could help boost the sale of Dell computers here, President and CEO Kevin Rollins told reporters after a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The Round Rock, Texas-based company will hire 700 to 1,000 workers for a new call center in Gurgaon, a satellite town of the capital, New Delhi, Rollins said. The new call center, the company's fourth in India, will open in April, he said.
The other new hires will staff call centers in the cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad in southern India and Mohali in the northern state of Punjab. Also this year, the company plans to double the staff at its product testing center in Bangalore, which currently employs 300 engineers, Rollins said.
During his previous visit to India in April last year, Rollins had said Dell would make India a hub for its software development and back-office work.
Currently, the company has three call centers in India, a product testing center for corporate customers and a global software development center. Some 10,000 people are employed at these facilities.
Scores of Western companies have been cutting costs by shifting software development, engineering design and routine office functions to countries such as India, where English-speaking workers are plentiful and wages are low.
But Rollins said his company's expansion plans were not limited to tapping the talent, but also benefit from the growing demand for desktop computers and notebooks.
Dell accounts for less than 4 percent of the 4 million computers sold in India, whereas the company's share in the global market is about 18 percent, he said.
Taxes levied by the Indian government on computers and computer parts are a major factor affecting pricing of Dell products and their sluggish sales here.
A manufacturing facility could help the company boost its presence in India, where computer sales are expected to increase to 10 million annually over the next three to five years.
"We have come to the conclusion that time is ripe to consider a manufacturing facility in India," Rollins said. "We want to do it fast," he said, but gave no time frame or investment details.
He said the company was talking to local authorities in several Indian states to identify a site and a decision will be made soon.
Dell currently operates nine plants, six of them outside the United States.
I hope you also like paying taxes to provide the pensions and healthcare for Dell's formerly employed US workers - because when they go to work in lower paid service industries, its government that will make up the difference for what they can no longer afford to purchase for themselves regarding retirement and medical.
I doubt you are the only one.....alot of us here at work get aggravated talking to the guys from India. We all constantly ask them to repeat themselves.
Get the government out of the unconstitutional business of supporting "preferred" businesses, and I don't have to support anyone. Let businesses and employees support themselves. However, Dell isn't talking about any layoffs, just expansion, so I'm not sure what you're talking about,... well, I do know that you're talking about socialism.
they will quietly reduce their US staffs as their india workforce ramps up. and most of those workers will not be able to find comparable jobs in tech.
its a waste of time to call Dell support, the only thing the call jockeys in India can do is read the web page help articles to you - you can search and read those yourself.
Gloom and doom forecasts are the specialty of our opposition.
When is the last time an AMERICAN company announced hiring 5,000 Americans for work?
its reality, the reason you see such low approval numbers on the economy - is because (in part) of the apprehension many americans feel on the job, and what is happening to wages and pension/medical. the administration no economic message to address this.
they hire - for service jobs. government jobs are booming too.
You're right. The internet is a much better help. But this method sucks if you're stuck with only one computer at home, and it is broken. ;^)
Spoken like the opposition. The reality is that a government abiding by the Constitution doesn't address any of these things because they aren't the venue a limited government. Quit looking to government to solve your problems and these issues of who government does and doesn't take care of become irrelevant.
its reality, its not a constitutional issue. you think you are going to win any votes by telling the laid off workers at Ford that its "unconstitutional" to look out for them.
Yes.
Then you must also be opposed to US companies selling their products overseas?
Then why don't you buy the company, and change the practice?
Good for Dell! In fact, I'd suggest going to even lower cost countries to hire, err, "technical support specialists". I mean, how much would it take to train folks in, say, Somalia, to say: "reboot"?
Win votes through socialism. Great.
Your expectation of corporations sounds like the "corps are evil" left. Why do you assume that Dell and Ford want their employees to be unemployed and are going to secretly screw the people that work for them?
having sane trade policies is not "socialism". government has no obligation to provide jobs, but it does have an obligation to ensure that the economic playing field is level, so that people can get private sector jobs. when you have entire industries in which employment is imploding because of trade, or where compensation is under tremendous downward pressure because of it - you've got a serious problem. again, look at the polls on americans view of the economy. the macro numbers tell us the economy is doing very well, why the disconnect? it can't all be attributed to media spin and gasoline prices.
if you think the american executive class gives a damn about any of their bottom rung workers, you are dreaming. they are just cost figures on a balance sheet to them, if they can toss them and hire offshore for less, they go without blinking an eye.
you obviously don't work in one of these industries, and that's fine for you. but many do.
Good.
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