India, one of the top offshore outsourcing destinations, faced both good and bad news on Tuesday when three multinational corporations announced their future plans.
On the one hand, IBM, the U.S.-tech giant, announced that it will invest six billion dollars in India in 2009. The company has already invested two billion dollars in the country, and will invest more in the coming years. Under the investment plan, the company has shifted its IBM Research Laboratory from the IIT campus (the country’s top engineering school) to a commercial area in Delhi (the capital of the region). The new laboratory will provide IBM better bandwidth to address innovation needs of a larger client base worldwide. The expansion of IBM Research facilities in India is driven by a growth in research activities related to IBM’s software, services and systems businesses, as well as client collaborations in the country. IBM has eight research labs in India.
Another reason to cheer is Accenture, the Bermuda-based consulting and tech services firm, which also announced its plans to increase the headcount of its management advisors in the counts from 500 to 2,000 in the next 16 months. The newly hired consultants will provide services to global as well as domestic clients.
The company sees huge opportunity in the countries like Brazil, Russia, India and China, in terms of large skilled labor pool, and maturing market of management consulting. The company’s investment plan largely focuses on low-cost countries like China and India, where MNCs are increasingly outsourcing tech and back-office support.
Last month Accenture had announced that it will have more employees working in India than in the U.S.A. Currently, Accenture employs 27,000 people (non management consultants) — roughly 19 percent of its global workforce — in six Indian cities: Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai. In the U.S., the company has between 31,000 and 32,000 workers.
On the sour side, Dell, the world’s largest PC maker, announced that India doesn’t fit in their $19 billion global investment plan. The company says that India’s high tariff keeps it away to invest there. For the global investment plan, the company chose Vietnam over India. Dell plans to invest $5 billion dollars in Vietnam. China and Taiwan has also bagged some investment amount.
Yet, Dell still has something for India. The company also said that it will start making desktops at a factory in Chennai, India by July. Dell also aims to double its annual sales to one billion dollars in the coming years.
