Business ; More British jobs to be outsourced to India
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RSA has been shedding thousands of jobs as part of a major restructuring intended to refocus on general insurance. The firm has also sold its life business and other assets to strengthen its finances.
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(InfoWorld) - Export revenue of a large number of Indian outsourcing companies was brought under the tax net in the country's federal budget. The tax could be the first of measures by the government to reduce tax benefits for the country's outsourcing industry. Prices that outsourcers charge their customers are unlikely to go up as a result, but profit margins will be affected, said N. Ramachandran, chief financial officer of outsourcer iGATE Global Solutions. In his budget speech before India's Parliament Wednesday, Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced the decision to extend a minimum alternate tax (MAT) to income that is currently covered under tax exemptions. There are other tax issues looming for the Indian outsourcing industry, consisting of software services, business process outsourcing (BPO), and call center companies. A large number of the operations of these companies were set up under an export-promotion scheme called the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), which entitled them to tax breaks under the Indian Income Tax Act. However, the STPI scheme ends next year. Although the industry and the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) have asked for an extension of the scheme for another 10 years, the finance minister made no reference to this request in his budget speech. The imposition of MAT is disappointing, as is also the absence of any announcement on the continuation of tax benefits beyond next year, said Ananda Mukerji, managing director and CEO of Firstsource Solutions, a BPO company in Mumbai. If the STPI scheme is not renewed, outsourcing companies will have to locate themselves in special economic zones (SEZs) for tax benefits. Under the STPI scheme they could locate their facilities where it was most viable for them from the point of view of cost and availability of staff, Ramachandran said. A small group of executives in India's outsourcing industry, including N. R. Narayana Murthy, chairman of Infosys Technologies, believes that the outsourcing industry is now large enough to pay taxes at levels similar to other industries in India. The finance minister has also brought employee stock options (ESOPs) under a fringe benefit tax. This move will make current ESOPs expensive, and will make it difficult for the IT industry that uses ESOP as a major tool to attract talent, said Deepak Ghaisas, CEO of the India operations and chief financial officer of i-flex solutions ltd., a financial software company that is majority owned by Oracle. The focus of the budget this year was on the agriculture sector, where growth is faltering. India's gross domestic product is forecast to grow by 9.2 percent in the year to March 31, with 11.3 percent growth in the manufacturing sector, and 11.2 percent growth in the services sector. Growth in the country's agriculture sector is likely to be only about 2.3 percent. There are about 115 million families engaged in agriculture in the country.
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LONDON: British insurance major Royal &amp; Sun Alliance (RSA) has announced that it would shift as many as 1,100 jobs from Britain to India in the next two years.
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India's premier software body has said outsourcing of engineering services by global firms presented the country with a 40-billion-dollar opportunity.
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One of the country&#39;s biggest insurance firms today announced plans to transfer more than 1,100 jobs to India over the next few years, sparking fears of a &quot;crisis&quot; in the UK.
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Brighton (England), September 29: Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday Britain must build a new skills base to avoid losing jobs to developing economies like China and India.
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Despite country's "growing and youthful IT workforce," China and India to remain dominant in outsourced business services.
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Lloyds TSB is moving another 1,000 jobs to India, increasing its workforce in Bangalore and Mumbai to 2,500 by the end of next year.
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London, Aug. 19: Yet another fault has been found by British unions with the quality of outsourcing to India but this time perhaps with some justification.
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Offshore outsourcing&#39;s reigning champion, India, squares off against its upstart rival, China, on software quality, staff costs, advanced business skills and more. We also figure in a few top of mind questions for the IT manager who&#39;ll be traveling to his company&#39;s offshore provider once a quarter: Can I get a decent cup of coffee, and how long will I actually be on the plane?
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(InfoWorld) - Indiaâs largest outsourcer Tata Consultancy ServicesÂ (TCS) has set up a global delivery center in Guadalajara, Mexico, with plans to hire up to 5,000 staff there over the next five years. Having a center in Mexico helps TCS, of Mumbai, as it will be closer to U.S. customers and on a similar time zone, said Pradipta Bagchi, a spokesman for TCS said on Thursday. The South American market also provides a significant opportunity for TCS because of a large number of regional companies investing in information technology and related services, Bagchi said. TCS currently has about 5,000 employees in South America, which service over 150 clients there. It operates global delivery centers in Brazil, Mexico, and Uruguay, besides a business process outsourcing (BPO) services center in Chile. Indian outsourcing companies are grappling with the appreciation of the Indian rupee against the U.S. dollar, andÂ rising labor costs. Indiaâs National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) has said that the 8 to 9 percent appreciation of the rupee over the last three months is worrisome. The U.S. is the largest market for Indian outsourcers. TCSâ expansion in Mexico led to speculation that the company may be looking for alternative locations to India. Staff in India is still cheaper than in Mexico, and the company has no plans to scale down its operations in India, Bagchi said. A number of Indian companies have set up operations in South America and Eastern Europe to offer a near-shore option to their customers in the U.S. and Europe. Indian companies are also expanding in other countries to look for new talent pools, as it gets tougher to hire staff in large numbers in India. Satyam Computer Services, an outsourcer in Hyderabad, said last year it wasÂ expanding in China, Malaysia, and other locations to tap regional markets and supplement its Indian operations. TCS and Indiaâs second largest outsourcer, Infosys Technologies, have alsoÂ set up operations in China. China has, however, fallen short of expectations as an offshore location, according to Forrester Research. Two years ago, China was viewed as a key challenger to India because of its large number of engineering graduates and the support of the Chinese government to establish it as a key offshore location, Forrester said. But after an initial burst of momentum, there has been relatively little evidence of the countryâs success, the research firm added. TCSâs new center at Mexico will primarily offer software development, Bagchi said. The center will serve clients in Mexico and in the U.S., he added.
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AVIVA, owner of Norwich Union and Britainâs largest insurer, plans to make around 150 people in the UK redundant next year as it increases its offshoring capacity by creating 950 jobs in India and Sri Lanka.
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One of the countryâs biggest insurance firms today announced plans to transfer more than 1,100 jobs to India over the next few years, sparking fears of a âcrisisâ in the UK.
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OCTOBER 15, 2004  - In quarterly reports released this week, three big India-based offshore outsourcing companies detailed sharp increases in employee head count, clear evidence of growing demand for offshore services.
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InfoWorld - IBM plans to continue hiring global services delivery staff in India by the thousands, adding to the 73,000 it already has in its global services and other operations in the country.
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London, September 22: Britain&#39;s leading insurance company Aviva on Wednesday announced plans to shift another 760 jobs to India, in addition to the 3,700 jobs already created in the country.
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IT services company Accenture will have more staff in India than in any other country by the end of August.