IBM Eyes 50,000-Plus Indian Employees

Excellent article on InformationWeek about IBM expanding R&D in India.

Two of IBM's biggest bets are --Indian talent and software built around service-oriented architectures. IBM is on a hiring binge in India. The company employs about 39,000 people in the country, up 70% from 23,000 a year ago. That rate of growth should continue "for quite some time," says Amitabh Ray, who heads IBM's global delivery operations in India. At that clip, IBM will have at least 55,000 workers in India by next year. And the figure could easily pass 60,000--or 20% of its current worldwide workforce of 300,000.

When IBM decides that it's time for Indian talent to develop it's next generation of products, you know it's time to stop and listen. This is not your Patni type projects that no one else is willing to do but state-of-the-art SOA based software that IBM is betting on as a big part of it's future.

The first customer is shipping company Maersk Logistics. The system features wireless container-level tracking devices developed by IBM researchers in Zurich, Switzerland. It's a sensor network that transmits data from the devices to databases that can be accessed by numerous parties, such as shipping managers, customers, and port authorities, using a variety of front-end applications. Purohit's challenge was to identify and assemble the technologies required for such a system, develop software components where needed, and assemble everything into a working whole.

Another example: Teams at the Bangalore center are designing a system that uses telemetry devices, embedded processors, and mathematical algorithms to help automakers predict and manage costs from warranty claims.

We're definitely going to see U.S. graduates finding work in IBM Bangalore soon. This is the kind of work that attracts people over to the U.S and also why they spend thousands of dollars on U.S. University degrees. To get hired by the likes of IBM. If these jobs are not going to be in U.S, what's the point of coming to the U.S?

I believe one of the biggest reasons for IBM to move this out of the U.S is because they can't bring in the really bright graduates from IIT, VJTI and the likes to U.S. in the numbers they would like to, thanks to the highly restrictive and painfully slow U.S. immigration system. Even if U.S. increases the number of H1B visas allowed per year, what happens when the visas expire? Do they let these employees go back home? IBM needs them permanently, not just for 6 years. Meanwhile you have folks at WashTech who are hell bent on reducing the number of H1B visas down to 65,000 from the proposed 115,000 that is in the Senate Judiciary Committee bill being debated in Congress right now.

When will groups like them get it? Their main argument is that U.S. companies use these visas to hire cheap labour. That's like comparing high-tech product development at IBM to doing some clerical work in an office. You mean, can they find a body to sit in that chair from the entire U.S. population of 295 million? Sure, but will that person be of the same calibre as the IIT graduate? Or even if they do, will they be able to hire in the numbers they like to? For example, Microsoft has 3,500 to 4,500 open positions at anytime in the U.S. that go unfilled due to a shortage of qualified candidates. Those IIT graduates are going to be hired by someone for sure and if not by IBM then by their competition until there is no IBM, because IBM can't compete with the other companies who always grab the most brilliant engineers they can find and come out with products that beat theirs in the market.

Do some companies abuse H1Bs? May be. But reducing the numbers isn't the solution. Rather reform the H1B law so that it cannot be abused. There are a number of things that can be done, but I'm not going into that right now. Also, make sure legal immigration is increased as just hiring on H1B is not enough, some H1B are needed permanently by the companies and the U.S. economy.