threeplusfire | (no subject)

Bangalore, Sept 21. (PTI): First Indian Corporation, the Indian subsidiary of US-based First American Corp, today said it planned to add 1,700 people in the next 24 to 36 months to its present workforce of 2,500.

"We are aiming to double our workforce in the next 24 to 36 months", First American Executive Vice President Dennis Gilmore told reporters here.

The NYSE-listed firm has invested USD 40 million in India over the last 10 years at its unit in Hyderabad and Bangalore.

First Indian LLc President Peter W Gorrie said the firm presently had 2,500 people including 250 software programmers, 150 call centre workers and 2,100 people in back office processing.

"We have a definite plan to ramp up to 4,200, which includes 2,700 in back office, 1,000 in call centres and about 500 in software development," he said.

The USD 6.1 billion firm was exploring Mysore, Chennai and Mangalore as alternative location for its third facility and a decision would be finalised in two to three years, First Indian Country Manager Anoop Hegde said.

Gorrie said First India was also exploring opportunities with various government and private agencies for introducing products like Title Insurance and Credit reporting in the country, adding, "it was too premature".

First Indian outsources to third party vendors and about 850 people do back office processing with vendors which would be increased to 1,000 in two years, he said.

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I lost one job to cheap labor in India. Will I really lose another? Thought perhaps I'll get fired before it comes to that. I recieved a verbal warning today, for mistakes made this summer. I'm trying not to obsess about it. But I really fucking hate my job, and I hate the fact that corporations can exploit the Indian workforce and make all our jobs disappear. Fuck you fuck you corporate America.

So I'm doing laundry and the cat is pawing at my arms as I type.

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Heh. I found out just before leaving today that senior management was freaking out over my elevator thing. They even took down the article I posted in my group.

Maybe I'm a sadist, but I love to watch those fuckers squirm.

Dude. Good thing you already turned in your notice. ;)

They should fucking squirm.

My job got sent to India too.

"Hello, Scottish Provident... this is the Bangalore branch... how may I help you?"

It makes me so angry, just so angry. I feel bad for the people in India who can hardly say no to these new jobs and angry with companies that get away with cut-rate wages.

In the arrangement with our company, workers were being paid by the case, and if they made one single mistake, they would lose the money for that case. If, at the end of the day, they had fallen short of their target, they would lose most of that day's pay. At one stage I was quality checking the work from India while they were still working on the transfer, and I was just passing them all because I felt so bad for the workers. How could I hit 'fail' knowing that it meant someone probably wouldn't be eating that day?

And that's the huge problem isn't it? We pay them by the piece, so any notion of quality goes right out the window. That's what happened with the dotcom I worked for, and I'm suspicious about it now.

It's all fairly typical of the evils of capitalism. I note that the US has rejected a plan backed by more than 100 countries to ease world hunger by introducing a small tax on global transactions. America says it's 'undemocratic' to do that. I'm sure those starving to death will be happier for knowing that they're helping maintain democracy for international corporations.

Corporate America is possibly the scariest government on earth. I'm so ashamed of the things my country does sometimes.

Don't forget to vote Kerry!

What is sad is that I would vote for almost anyone to get Shrub out. Ugh. But at least Kerry's a bit more of a decent human being.

I hate that you might have to go through all that again. Once is enough for a lifetime :-( Death to Poononia!

I keep vacillating on the outsourcing thing.

Sometime I feel like one of the yahoos on South Park (the time immigrants episode), yelling "Deytookurrjuuubs!"

Supposedly, sending these jobs far, far away has distinct economic benefits all around. I can see the logic, to some degree. I mean, Wal-Mart wouldn't have all that cheap merchandise to sell if it weren't for global trade, and many people would be able to afford a lot less for their budget (esp. low-income families) if those prices weren't so low. (Of course, I'm leaving out Wal-Mart's anti-competitive practices, unfair wages, etc etc.)

Supposedly, these savings also allow these companies to turn around an higher new Americans with the increased profit they're making. Makes sense -- if they do indeed hire domestically instead of bolstering the cheap overseas labor force again.

Of course, this is all a bit vague compared to "You're fired and your replacement lives in in Delhi".

I'm no macroeconomics whiz, but supposedly some of those individuals who are claim that, historically, this outsourcing has helped the domestic economy, and created as many or more jobs as those lost. The Statesman had a spread a couple weeks ago about predictions on outsourcing, and they named off a few fields, like health-care, that should be fairly immune to long-distance outsourcing, sometimes due to regulatory hurdles and sometimes due to simple economics.

It just scares me that India, in particular, has this huge emerging workforce that is not limited to making widgets on an assembly line. They're smart, English-speaking, hard-working, increasingly well-educated, and willing/able to work for a fraction of our salaries. It just makes me wonder if I should move to Bangalore and reap the benefits of being able to live high off of a salary that would be below the poverty line here.

Sorry for jabbering overmuch in your journal.

I'm scared we will all have to go through it again...

The SKU liberation army shall set fire to Poononia!

I've yet to see any of these mythical better jobs appear because of the profits outsourcing my first one to India. What has replaced the thousands of jobs lost? Mostly lower paying positions like restaurant and service industry jobs.

I think it's one of those things you wouldn't see directly, since the idea is that the jobs are created in supporting businesses (e.g. Trilogy needs more bandwidth for keeping in touch with Bangalore, so they buy up the equivalent of 10 T3 lines, which they wouldn't have otherwise bought and now have plenty of capital for).

Like I said, it's probably an explanation best left up to people who have a better grasp of macroeconomics. I don't buy it 100%, but it's interesting and perhaps a little balm to the sting of outsourcing.

All that said, I hope your job doesn't go away.

No email by the time I left today... tomorrow, my campaign of uncivil disobedience kicks in to high gear! That is, if I can bring myself to care about anything tomorrow. :P

Bwahahahah, I'm so excited.