Rants on outsourcing
Barack Obama wants to remove tax cuts to companies which send jobs outside America. I am not sure what tax cuts these companies are getting now. That apart, a lot of naive Indian IT coolies are worried that they might lose their jobs. What would happen to their commitments? On the other hand, there are a few NRI folks who are happy that there is some one who is taking the path of going against the outsourcing wave. One I spoke to even mentioned, ‘Sub prime mortage naale ella IT projects um gaali.. Rupee appeciation naale inime IT outsourcing wave avlo dhaan…TCS la onsite la irukara neraya pera thirumba vara solitaangalam’ with barely concealed glee. I am sure these guys might want to listen to Barack Obama speak against outsourcing in their iPods which incidentally is manufactured like this here. I would like to know what would be the cost of iPod had it been manufactured in Cupertino? And how many desis , or even Americans who oppose outsourcing would be prepared to buy at that price? TCS may or may not have called back all the onsite resources. But Cognizant is building a mega campus in Coimbatore.
The first time I came to know about outsourcing is not when Infosys and Wipro made headlines. It was much before that. Nikon, my favorite camera manufacturer introduced a model called FM-10. For the first time, a new Nikon was available at affordable price for a middle class guy. My father then said, ‘Ellam China la panradhu da, ellam cheap stuff’. On the other hand, the German made Leica always costs a bomb. Its like you basically get half the features for double the price. Leica R4 costed 1500$ when a comparable Nikon / Canon would cost half of that with more features. Right now, My D50 body is manufactured in Thailand. My favorite 50mm f/1.8 plastic lens is manufactured in China.
Barack Obama, Michael Moore, and some NRIs in general are against outsourcing. But the decision to outsource is a business one, not political.
Personally, i am neither for nor against outsourcing. All I would say is that with the current level of integration among the economies of the world, and whose pace is only increasing, outsourcing is inevitable. We can stop outsourcing, if we are prepared to move out of this globally interconnected economic model to small, localized economies using intermediate technologies as envisioned by E F Schumacher. Such a model is more environment friendly albeit less sophisticated. But that would mean No to iPods, no to Japanese cars in US, and No to Nike shoes. Perhaps we can stretch the logic to even ask people to return to their home countries.
Sitting comfortably in countries like US, UK and talking bad about outsourcing is called ‘pithalaatam’ in my lexicon.
August 30th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Desis in the US think their jobs are protected if Offshoring is reduced. Well, it might work like that but only in the very short term.
What offshoring does is change the kind of jobs that are available in the US. Here the jobs are getting more into R&D, architecture, project management, ERP and generally jobs which are more functional than technical.
Typically, these kind of jobs require different skill sets than the typical coding jobs. A project manager job here is also different from such a job in India where a manager is really a boss, not a leader. Many desis are not really well prepared for these kind of jobs.
At a single company, number of IT jobs may go down due to offshoring but what really happens is that there is a growth in number of companies and a healthier economy with consequently more jobs in total.
August 30th, 2008 at 11:40 am
BTW, the mention about the FM10 brought back old memories !.
Those days , I also used to dream about the Leicas and Hasselblads but think about saving for an FM10 which was an affordable purist camera !.
In 1995, when I bought my first camera, the FM series was available as FM2 I think but I still went and got the N6006.
That camera was used for every possible occasion and sold in in 2004 before moving to the US again. It was a workhorse and the body was still in perfect working condition when selling it. Only the dirtied lenses and advent of digital cameras made me sell it.
August 30th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Mahesh,
As much as I liked Obama’s acceptance speech, i am not too sure about some of his ideas. Ippodaiku nalla pesaraar, neraya pesaraar… nu vena solluven. He is somewhat projected as the cure to all ills that america suffers now.
All US needs right now is a sensible President. Americans were not exactly sensible when they elected and then re-elected George Bush. If Obama is more sensible than McGain, way to go!
>>What offshoring does is change the kind of jobs that are available in the US
I completely agree. I think you should definitely read ‘A whole new mind’. I liked the idea in that book. Same goes for Tom Peters ideas on Outsourcing. These guys are not Republicans by any standards.
August 30th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
reg. FM 10,
mithadhu ellam second hand dhaan.
that was the first new SLR camera from Nikon that i could’ve purchased from the stores. In fact my present D50 is the first and only first hand SLR
FM2 was one of the all time great best-selling manual SLRs. It was made avlble right from very early 80s. That was the first camera to offer 1/250 flash X-nch. FM2, Pentax K1000, Olympus Om-1N laam neraya kudumbathuku soru potruku. Basic battery kooda illama photo edukalaam.
August 31st, 2008 at 2:09 am
A real free market doesn’t exist. When you talk about globalisation, you are essentially referring to an spin that is put out by various companies
to justify moving jobs overseas and mindlessly repeated by the media. With respect to farming America is anything but globalised. Their farmers enjoy massive subsidies and we get to taste these bland American apples everywhere in India now.
“But the decision to outsource is a business one, not political. ” - why doesn’t politics have the right to influence business ? Let’s consider a small example - The internet as it exists today is the result of tax payers money mainly in the US, and the www mainly result of tax payers money in Europe. Now the same infrastructure is used to effectively take work away from America. A
politician is duty bound to protect the interests of tax payers and intrinsically, I don’t see anything wrong with questioning outsourcing.
Why do tech companies heavily donate to the Democrats (Al Gore is on the board of Apple) if they are so protectionist ? Silicon valley has always been pro-democrat. Maybe we don’t understand American politics enough ?
Namma problem - IT industry got a boost due to a unique set of circumstances. Adhaye vechu kaalam fulla bajanai pannuvom, adhey subsidies, adhey nonsense - the IT industry in India is now like the farmers lobby in America. Thoroughly spoilt bunch. How about innovating ?
You pointed out cameras , camera lenses that you can get cheaply because of outsourcing. Can you point out some software that you can get cheaply because work was outsourced to India ? Maybe most of the work done here is for internal business use, software that will never see daylight. Still that’s an intriguing thought.
About NRIs, vendam … veneer on laptop screen and you will have to replace it
August 31st, 2008 at 11:03 am
BNB
As I already mentioned, I am neither far nor against outsourcing. Nor does my stance is of any concern to the MNCs.
I am saying outsourcing is a natural corollary to globalization. The moment you say you can source raw materials from country X, manufacture it in country Y, and sell it in country Z you give birth to outsourcing. I am not convinced that Barack Obama or anyone can and is willing to stop this globalization. I don’t see how someone can stop outsourcing by any other way. I am certainly very skeptical about the tax breaks route.
Unga example laye kooda, i can argue that its not just the individuals who pay taxes. American corporations pay taxes too.
Outsourcing is more on the agenda of top MNCs whose primary motive is profit maximization somewhere somehow. A politician is more concerned about a nation or a region of the world and his power equation.
Why go till US farmers. What exactly is the fed doing to JP Morgan in the Bear stearns issue? Oru level la loss podhuvudamai, profits thaniudamai nu dhaan iruku.
I agree that free market is a myth now. Just like we endured illusions with socialism. Maybe we may need to refine our concepts. Maybe we will come up with something new. But ippo irukara MNC agenda la outsourcing, with all its pitfalls is inevitable is my take.
It’s fair to say I do not understand US politics. But one plausible reason i can conjure for the bay area techie companies being pro democrats is because the bay area have always adopted immigrant friendly ideas, and multicultural atmosphere. These ideas are closer to democrats than republicans.
August 31st, 2008 at 11:07 am
Naan namba IT companies pathi perusa solla virumbalai, thats why i stopped with iPods, Nikons.
About 90% of IT work done here is of the services type. Most of the companies who do get product dev done here are monopolies. There is no necessity for them to lower the price tag of their products even if all Indian coolies start working @ three days for 30 Rs. like Goundamani in ‘Chinnathambi’.
August 31st, 2008 at 12:57 pm
PK,
You cannot be sitting in India and talk about American Politics and its agenda’s.Its like you get owned to your own criticism that NRI’s cannot talk about India and Indian politics,policies and potholes and so should you be.
September 1st, 2008 at 3:00 am
Asaithambi,
>>You cannot be sitting in India and talk about American Politics
This blog is for me to present my ideas. I don’t go to some other’s blog and say you should not write this. I am nobody to say that.
If I have something to say about their posts, i either do in their comments section or i write a post here.
I feel a few in the developed countries want to encash on the benefits of the globalization and then kick the same bad when it starts hurting them, without any sense of objectivity. I am labeling that Pithalaatam. I see its no different from the stance politicians take.
My labeling is not intended to stop their right to express.
I do feel I am entitled to talk about stuff which impacts me sitting here in Chennai. I and a lot other IT pros (or coolies as some call it) have a stake on globalization and outsourcing. I also have a stake as a consumer when i buy Coke, when i buy iPhone, when i watch Hollywood movies.
September 1st, 2008 at 3:17 am
BTW
I never said that NRIs’ should not be talking about India. Its just that some are so ashamed of having originated in this country. And they want to defame this country to the maximum all the while keeping their mouth shut about the problems they and their kids face in their adopted countries.
They feel bad about paying several hundred USD for their wives for ordinary fever and cold and basic checkup when they are without insurance.
So they do all that during their India trips. But want to only write about the potholes in Indian roads once they are back. If all this is only out of love for their country, i am sorry i am not good enough to understand that love. I am also curious why they have no such love for their adopted country which after all is feeding them.
Thats was my counterpoint. A few of the folks still write on such stuff. I am not stopping them.
I know there are lot of NRIs who do their best for this country. Good or bad, they know they cannot take India out of them.
September 1st, 2008 at 9:37 am
BTW, have you watched ‘Roger and Me’ by Michael Moore ? It’s a documentary by Michael Moore on the fallout of a General Motors car plant closing down. Michael Moore is from Detroit, the heart of the automobile country that has been worst affected by layoffs and outsourcing. One of the things that our makkal have is “Vella kaaran idhu varaikum romba enjoy pannittaan, inimey namma turn” - adhavadhu ennamo ivanga dhaan karma calculator pocketla irukkara madhiri pesa vendiyadhu. But the poor are poor, no matter where they are and some of the scenes in this movie are heart rending.
BTW, there is no real product development going on in most MNCs here despite tall claims. Real product companies seem to outsource only peripheral work, which is understandable.
September 1st, 2008 at 11:16 am
>>But the poor are poor, no matter where they are..
I felt the same when i saw the scenes in ‘The pursuit of happyness’ when the father and kid will go seek refuge in a place…
This system is not perfect nu solradhai thavira vera onnum thonalai enakku…
Vellai kaaran kashtapadradhu irukkatum.. inga local laye lot of small time soda companies closed down unable to compete with Coke and Pepsi… They have adopted all the unfair trade practices as much as possible, i read abt this in Gurumurthy’s book.
Ungalai pathi theriyadhu.. idhukaaga avanga urimai ku aadharavu kuduthu naan onnum mariyal poraatam ellam pannalai….
September 1st, 2008 at 12:35 pm
this karma clock matter is true.
at the same time, ‘ ippo naan vangura salary ellam en thiramai ku kedacha mariyadhai’ nu ellam naan poi solla virumbalai..ippodaiku idhu irukku.. innum evlo naal nilaikum gradhu ellam question mark.
ippo indha matter ku market irukku.. avlo dhaan… nijamaana ennoda sila thiramaigal market la 10 paisa peraadhu…