11 Articles Worth Reading
11 Articles Worth Reading
Date: Monday, January 02, 2006 4:31 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
January 02, 2005 No. 1395
<<< COMMENTS FROM ROB >>>
Article #3 about flying to India for a physical is silly when you see who
the author is because he is an Indian who goes to India as a matter of
routine. Nobody needs to fly to India for a physical because the HMOs are
all hiring Indian doctors right here in the USA.
Article #4 is very interesting because it appears that U.S. companies
aren't the only ones to wallow in shortage shouting. Notice how Indian
employers, like their U.S. counterparts, are pushing the "education
button". Usually Indian employers spout talk about the superiority of
Indian educations and their workers, but this article begs to differ. If
the shortage shouting is true, why is the Indian workforce so mediocre, and
where are all the engineers India is supposedly producing (see #8)?
Aritcle #7 is about Adobe's outsourcing. Recently I received a Horror Story
about Adobe's use of H-1Bs. To read that go here:
http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/Horror.htm
Article #8: The Chicago Sun-Times allowed a shill to write another one.
This time they are raising alarm bells over the fact that China supposedly
produces 600,000 engineering graduates annually while the U.S. graduates
fewer than 100,000. Of course their solution is to create more U.S.
engineers, but not once in the article was it ever suggested that if U.S.
engineers were guaranteed to have job security and decent salaries that
more students may choose to get technical degrees. Notice who is on the
board of this shill organization (IITA) that wrote this drivel - they are
all CIOs and CEOs.
Article #9: OK if your head isn't spinning after reading #8, this one will
surely send you over the edge! A new study by Duke University directly
contradicts the numbers in #8. Don't make the mistake of thinking that the
one who did the study, Vivek Wadhwa, is on our side though because he is a
strong supporter of H-1B and offshoring. Wadhwa's agenda is just the
opposite of the shills at the IITA - he wants you to believe that H-1B and
outsourcing isn't a problem. So who do you believe, the IITA or Vivek
Wadhwa? I choose "none of the above"!
Article #10: Could it be that Islamic Jihadists are good for American jobs?
<<< END OF COMMENTS >>>
Article 1:
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=175701172
H1-B visa shortage is top story for '05
Not only is the "article of the year" missing coverage of the H1-B visa
shortage, but maybe EETimes coverage in general has been missing too
[many of these stories] recently.
Article 2:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/13441900.htm
HEADQUARTERS HERE, WORKERS IN ASIA
Valley start-ups' cubicles thousands of miles apart
There's a new breed of start-up in Silicon Valley: the mini-multinational,
launched from the get-go as a global business. The upstarts, often in tech,
set up headquarters in Silicon Valley to take advantage of funding, ideas,
management and the prestige. But they have major operations in places like
Bangalore or Shanghai, China, giving them access to overseas markets, a
cheaper but increasingly innovative pool of talent and ever-faster product
development by a round-the-clock workforce. Take NetDevices, a networking
technology start-up founded in 2003. Its headquarters is in Sunnyvale, but
two-thirds of its 150 employees, including most of its engineers, are in
India. Stephen Savignano, chief executive of Ketera Technologies, a
procurement start-up that has about 80 engineers in Bangalore and 30
employees at the company's Santa Clara headquarters, noted that it's now
essential for even small companies to move overseas
Article 3:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/13508407.htm
SILICON VALLEY LIVES CHANGED BY GLOBALIZATION
Flying to India for a physical
28-STEP EXAM COSTS $110, INCLUDING MEALS
Article 4:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=1428299
India's Outsourcing Boom Runs Into Trouble
Shortage of Skilled Workers Could Mean Losing Jobs to the Philippines and
China
A chronic shortage of skilled workers is threatening India's outsourcing
industry. Call centers and outsourcing firms are growing fast, but their
human resources employees despair because most of the young Indians they
interview are, they say, "unemployable." With half of its 1.2 billion
people under age 25, how can India possibly be short of workers? The
problem is not quantity but quality. Many of the 3.6 million graduates
churned out every year by Indian universities are considered mediocre.
Article 5:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1351511.cms
Now India gets US manufacturing jobs
A small town in America is bracing itself for loss of jobs to India. No big
news here, except, this is a flight of manufacturing jobs. Residents of
Danville (population 48,000) located in Southern Virginia, seem reconciled
to losing up to a 1,000 jobs after the Indian firm Gujarat Heavy Chemicals
Ltd (GHCL) bought the storied local company Dan River recently.
Some locals appeared stoic about the events, pointing out that more than
50% of Dan Rivers manufacturing was already being outsourced to India,
Pakistan and China in any case and there wasnt much manufacturing remaining
in the US in any case.
Article 6:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4570450.stm
US set to miss Cafta start date
The US has admitted it will miss its 1 January target date to implement the
controversial Cafta free trade pact with six Central American nations.
Article 7:
http://www.washtech.org/news/industry/display.php?ID_Content=5030
Adobe firing here, hiring overseas
Potentially 600 Employees at Adobe Systems were handed pink slips last week
in the U.S., while more than 300 tech workers in India are expected to be
handed job offers in the coming year.
Article 8:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/krauss/cst-fin-krauss02.html
Now it's the knowledge economy, stupid
Here's a New Year's party riddle. If education is so valuable, why aren't
college towns filled with millionaires? Other tech economy New Year's
questions: If China produces 600,000 engineering graduates annually (a
disputed but oft-quoted number) and the U.S. graduates fewer than 100,000,
should we be concerned? You bet!
Article 9:
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=190481&cat=Business
New study debunks America's outsourcing fears
A new study attempts to debunk the myths that India or China beats the US
in producing qualified engineers and that the American economy is facing a
decline as it loses jobs to emerging economies. "Our study has determined
that one of the most cited statistics is simply wrong. The US isn't
producing 70,000 engineers a year versus 350,000 from India and 600,000
from China. We're actually graduating more engineers than India, and the
Chinese numbers aren't quite what they seem.
Article 10:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1144564,00.html?cnn=yes
Is Outsourcing the Next Terror Target?
Its a possibility that's staring India in the face after a terror attack
in Bangalore, the center of the country's thriving outsourcing industry
Article 11: (must click link to read)
http://www.newwork.com/Pages/Opinion/Raynor/Unbalanced.html
Globalization and Outsourcing In a Flat, but Unbalanced World
by William Raynor
Thomas Friedman has provided us with "flatness" in his best selling book,
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, as a new
way to debate globalization. Agree with Friedman or not, he deserves
applause for elevating the globalization discussion to a new level. Even
his strongest critics acknowledge his contributions. Perhaps the world is
going flat, but this does not necessarily mean that it is balanced. Thus,
coming to terms with living in a flat world must include an understanding
of what "flat" really means, and the contexts in which the concept is used.
1. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=175701172
H1-B visa shortage is top story for '05
This "letter to the editor" is in response to EE Times recent list of
top-10 stories for 2005 (see Dec. 16 story).
Editor,
Not only is the "article of the year" missing coverage of the H1-B visa
shortage, but maybe EETimes coverage in general has been missing too
[many of these stories] recently.
There is no question what is the most critical issue for the U.S. industry,
especially in electronics and related industries like EDA, ATE, and fab
equipment.
Even for small companies like ChipMD (and others Ive been with prior to
ChipMD), it is not uncommon that the only way we can find the right talent
for our specific area of expertise is by utilizing non-U.S.-born staff.
Sure, the world is becoming global, but Silicon Valley is still the heart
and primary brain of the electronics industry. Now, we have startups with
headquarters in Santa Clara County and R&D centers all over the world:
India, Taiwan, China, Czech Republic and Slovenia.
Of course, many companies also have R&D centers located in Texas,
California and other states.
If you do not amend your "top articles" list to my liking, then maybe this
e-mail will at least help stir you to do more articles in this extremely
key area.
Thanks and have a great holiday season and may the New Year bring us all
better health, happiness and business.
Dale A. Pollek
President/CEO
ChipMD
2, +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/13441900.htm
Posted on Mon, Dec. 19, 2005
HEADQUARTERS HERE, WORKERS IN ASIA
Valley start-ups' cubicles thousands of miles apart
INDIA IS MAJOR PLAYER IN A GROWING TREND
By John Boudreau
Mercury News
BANGALORE, India - Call it the global garage.
There's a new breed of start-up in Silicon Valley: the mini-multinational,
launched from the get-go as a global business. The upstarts, often in tech,
set up headquarters in Silicon Valley to take advantage of funding, ideas,
management and the prestige. But they have major operations in places like
Bangalore or Shanghai, China, giving them access to overseas markets, a
cheaper but increasingly innovative pool of talent and ever-faster product
development by a round-the-clock workforce.
Take NetDevices, a networking technology start-up founded in 2003. Its
headquarters is in Sunnyvale, but two-thirds of its 150 employees,
including most of its engineers, are in India.
Communication among NetDevices colleagues, more complicated than mere
cubicle chatter, is carefully choreographed to avoid work-flow hiccups that
can cause days of delay. There is the critical nightly handoff of software
code-in-progress to engineers across the Pacific Ocean. Quick cell phone
conversations at all hours. Weekend e-mail exchanges.
``You have to bring order out of chaos,'' joked Ramesh Maganti, general
manager of NetDevices, with offices in Bangalore and Hyderabad.
India, with its booming tech economy and wealth of engineering talent, has
become one of the biggest participants in the global garage. In the past
three years, venture capitalists have invested more than $400 million in
U.S.-based start-ups operating in India, according to TSJ Media, a VC
tracking firm in Chennai, India.
The model was used in Israel five or six years ago, said Ash Lilani, head
of global markets for Silicon Valley Bank, which has an office in
Bangalore, the southern Indian city that is the pre-eminent tech center in
the country. In the past 15 months, Silicon Valley Bank has helped as many
as 50 valley start-ups set up offices in India, he said.
`Instant companies'
In the past year or so, Bryan Stolle, chief executive of San Jose-based
Agile Software, has seen a dramatic uptick in start-ups using his company's
product-management software for high-level work conducted across many time
zones. He calls them ``instant companies.''
``The true impact of the globalized economy is just starting to work its
way through everyday life,'' he said. ``There are going to be radical
changes in the historic definition of what a company is.''
Agile has its own operations around the globe, including Suzhou, China, and
Bangalore. Managing the far-flung business, Stolle said, ``is not simple.''
But companies have no choice as India and China become major economies,
said Sanjay Anandaram, founding partner with JumpStartUp, an early-stage
venture fund with offices in Bangalore and Santa Clara.
``The distribution of capital is global,'' he said. ``The rise of two
continent-size economies onto the world stage is causing these disruptions.
Your markets are no longer just the United States.''
India's tech economy, for instance, is taking off even as the country
continues to suffer basic infrastructure problems such as poor roads. There
are more than 55 million cell phone subscribers in India, and that is
expected to explode to 170 million by 2007, according to technology
research firm Gartner. This year, Indian consumers are expected to buy 5
million PCs, 70 million wireless phones and about 4 million DVD players,
reports Semico Research.
The rise of these ``micro-multinationals,'' Anandaram said, is changing the
work rhythms of Silicon Valley engineers and executives and prompting young
companies to develop multiple market strategies.
July Systems, a Santa Clara start-up founded in 2001 to provide software
that allows companies to sell ring tones, games and other content for
mobile phones, was among the first global start-ups to land in India. All
of its engineers are based in Bangalore so the company can capitalize on
the booming Asian cell phone market, said Guruprasad Krishnamurthy,
director of product management. ``The product was completely
conceptualized, architected and implemented here,'' he said.
`Hybrid' start-ups
New Path Ventures is a venture fund that backs ``hybrid'' start-ups
operating across the globe.
Tushar Dave, co-founder of New Path, said that if one of the start-ups it
backs, Nevis Networks, a Mountain View start-up with significant India
operations, were solely in the valley, ``we would have spent over $150
million as opposed to about $30 [million] to $40 million.
``It wouldn't have been a viable company to fund,'' he said. ``A lot of
people get concerned that a lot of jobs are moving outside the U.S. We
fundamentally believe that by using these innovative models, we are
creating jobs'' in the valley, too.
Stephen Savignano, chief executive of Ketera Technologies, a procurement
start-up that has about 80 engineers in Bangalore and 30 employees at the
company's Santa Clara headquarters, noted that it's now essential for even
small companies to move overseas -- and not just for technical reasons.
``The writing of code isn't as big of a differential of the value of the
company as it used to be. Now it's understanding the market requirements
and translating that into solutions as quickly as possible,'' he said.
Rafiq Dossani, senior research scholar at Stanford University and an expert
on India's tech explosion, has some doubts about the global start-up
concept. Having engineers scattered in different parts of the world can be
unwieldy for early-stage innovation, he said.
``You can't have 10 people sharing ideas -- the serendipity you have from
people sitting around talking,'' Dossani said. ``It can't be planned
through a WebEx call.''
Fly 30 hours for a chat
Indeed, the global start-up requires delicate communications skills,
workdays that stretch into different time zones and a willingness to fly 30
hours to have coffee chats with colleagues to foster creativity and
camaraderie.
``It's tough, believe me,'' said Ron Victor, general manager of marketing
and business development for HelloSoft, the San Jose start-up whose
software is used to operate chips on cell phones and other devices. The
company has an engineering team in Hyderabad.
Yet the 24-hour workforce means much more can be accomplished more quickly,
he said. It also makes for long days as workers stay up late or get up
early to communicate with colleagues across the globe, Victor said.
For Indian engineers, it's a chance to be involved with product creation
from the white-board stage onward, instead of simply being handed
specifications from headquarters in Silicon Valley, said Sampada Joshi,
senior software engineer with NetDevices.
``It's a great feeling,'' she said. ``We are doing everything from
scratch.''
Global innovation also requires more than virtual communications. ``There
is nothing in the world that can replace a handshake,'' Victor said.
Executives and engineers must endure regular journeys to India and Silicon
Valley. ``Physically, it takes quite a bit of energy,'' said Seenu Banda,
co-founder and chief executive of NetDevices. He travels to India about
once every two months. ``It's not as easy as it may sound on a piece of
paper.''
Communications rules must be established, executives say.
For instance, some employees who have children prefer to have phone
conferences later at night; others want to wrap things up earlier.
Workers need to understand each other's cultures. Colleagues in India know
not to call the United States on Christmas Day; likewise, those in Silicon
Valley shouldn't expect to reach someone in India during the Hindu autumn
festival of Diwali.
Banda said U.S. employees of NetDevices have learned not to pepper their
language with American sports metaphors, which can be confusing. Workers in
India and the valley have trained themselves to speak slowly and clearly,
so information isn't lost in accents.
``Bangalore told us, `If you don't cut down on your swearing, it's going to
be very hard to work with you,' '' said Banda, who grew up in India. ``As
little swearing as we do, it was still too much for India.''
3. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/13508407.htm
Posted on Thu, Dec. 29, 2005
SILICON VALLEY LIVES CHANGED BY GLOBALIZATION
Flying to India for a physical
28-STEP EXAM COSTS $110, INCLUDING MEALS
By Nicole C. Wong
Mercury News
Hemant Buch, founder of the California Cricket Academy, flew to India last
month to recruit coaches for the upcoming youth cricket tournament in
Cupertino. The healthy 42-year-old also made an appointment for an annual
check-up at Sterling Hospital in Ahmedabad, a city just north of Mumbai.
The 28-step examination lasted from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., providing the medical
team with enough time to assess his health in painstaking detail.
In between the phases of the physical, a friendly staffer served him
breakfast, then coffee or tea, lunch, and then more coffee or tea. The
bill: about $110.
The Cupertino resident is among the world's 150,000 so-called ``medical
tourists'' who mixed business or pleasure with health care when they
traveled to India this year.
Medical tourism is a side effect of globalization, which has encouraged
more international business ties and opened up more frequent flights to
far-off destinations.
Buch, who grew up in Ahmedabad, immigrated to the United States to pursue a
master's degree in engineering at San Jose State University in 1987. During
the 1990s, he only visited his homeland once every two years. The flights
were expensive and grueling, requiring an eight- to 12-hour overnight
layover at the airport in Mumbai or New Dehli.
Now the engineer travels to India about three times a year, often because
of cricket. The trip isn't as bad as before, in part because the more
convenient flight schedules shave off seven to 13 hours of thumb-twiddling
time.
Improved hygiene
For the past two years, Buch has been getting his annual check-up in India.
Years ago, he wouldn't have entertained the idea, largely because of
hygiene. He recalled that when he was a child, some of his doctors didn't
wear gloves and those who did may not have put on new ones in between
patients.
But he has no doubts about the hygiene standards now. During his last exam,
he watched the medical staff dispose of the used syringes in a machine that
instantly incinerated the needles, instead of tossing them in a special
trash can that someone eventually has to empty.
``I've never seen this even here'' in Silicon Valley, Buch said. ``I wish I
had taken a picture.''
Confidence-boosting changes like that are part of a new government campaign
to attract 1 million additional medical tourists to India by 2010,
according to Indian news reports. The government and the medical industry
have been working to accredit India's hospitals under international
standards.
The overseas promotional campaign, detailed two weeks ago by India's
Minister of State for Tourism, will cast India as a medical tourism hot
spot through brochures and CD-ROMs. The government has formed several
committees to deal with medical insurance issues, and the tourism
department has begun creating alliances between some hospitals and European
insurance companies.
India is also promoting its low-cost medical treatments to travel agencies.
At the World Travel Market held in London in November, India's tourism
ministry for the first time brought along hospital representatives and
dedicated 32 of its 212 stalls to the health care industry.
Even though annual check-ups, hip replacements, liver transplants and other
procedures in India typically cost just one-tenth to one-fifth of the price
paid in Western countries, medical tourism could be lucrative for India. An
additional 1 million international patients could bring the country as much
as $2 billion, the government estimates.
Some experts believe medical tourism, which is already growing by 15
percent annually, will be India's second-largest economic engine, right
behind information technology.
Dental work
Mahesh Nihalani, 55, visited a dentist while vacationing in India three
years ago to take care of a cavity, a crown and two bridges.
``Insurance doesn't cover too much of dental here anyway,'' said Nihalani,
of Cupertino. And he snagged an appointment within a week, rather than
enduring the usual monthlong wait in Silicon Valley.
``If you buy a ticket and fly to India and get your dental care done and
fly back,'' Nihalani said, ``it's still cheaper than if you get it done
here.''
For some potential patients, the lure of savings is offset by fear of
complications that could arise after they return home. But Buch has no such
worries.
By the time he left Sterling Hospital in Ahmedabad, copies of his medical
report, X-ray and ultrasounds were waiting for him. The hospital also
e-mailed him the report, which he can forwarded to his primary care
physician in Silicon Valley.
Buch said his wife, who flies to India much less frequently, will get her
annual check-up in India when she travels there next year. And he has his
sights set on getting Lasik eye surgery, which will cost less than $1,000
in India.
If he doesn't get the corrective eye surgery done in India, he isn't going
to get it done at all.
``I definitely will not do it here,'' he said, ``because of the cost.''
4. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=1428299
India's Outsourcing Boom Runs Into Trouble
Shortage of Skilled Workers Could Mean Losing Jobs to the Philippines and
China
By SATISH JACOB
Dec. 24, 2005 - A chronic shortage of skilled workers is threatening
India's outsourcing industry. Call centers and outsourcing firms are
growing fast, but their human resources employees despair because most of
the young Indians they interview are, they say, "unemployable."
Some people in the IT industry have said that only one in 10 graduates is
worth taking on. "Just look at their English," fumed a frustrated
Mumbai-based call center manager as he waved around letters written by
employees. One read: "As I am marrying my daughter, please grant a week's
leave." Another said: "I am in well here and hope you are also in the same
well."
India employs about 350,000 people in the outsourcing industry and adds
150,000 new jobs each year. But filling those vacancies is proving to be a
nightmare. At this moment, the industry needs to hire around 9,000 people
but can't find them.
The crisis is set to worsen. The industry faces a shortfall of half a
million workers in a few years' time, according to a study this month by
McKinsey & Company and the Indian IT body Nasscom.
The specter haunting the industry is that it could lose its leading
position as the world's "back office."
"If the industry has to go on paying higher and higher salaries to retain
the staff it has, costs will rise and India will lose its biggest advantage
-- cheap labor," said Saurabh Wig, a former call center sales manager.
If the industry fails to recruit workers at reasonable wages, India will
lose orders to countries such as the Philippines and China, according to
Nasscom.
With half of its 1.2 billion people under age 25, how can India possibly be
short of workers? The problem is not quantity but quality. Many of the 3.6
million graduates churned out every year by Indian universities are
considered mediocre.
The Nasscom-McKinsey report confirmed the experiences of HR executives. It
said that only about 10 percent to 15 percent of eligible workers are fit
for employment in the offshoring industry. Fluency in English apart,
employers complained that graduates lacked computer skills, the ability to
reason clearly, solve problems, think critically, analyze, work in teams
and think creatively.
The Confederation of Indian Industry said that what's taught at
universities is not what industry needs. This is why the Indian government
has set up a "Knowledge Commission" to improve Indian brainpower.
Sam Pitroda, who is based in Chicago but visits India regularly, is the
chairman of the commission. One of his tasks is to overhaul higher
education from top to bottom. "About 80 percent of what is taught in Indian
universities is obsolete. A professor boasted to me about how he'd used the
same notes for 20 years. Think how much the world has changed, and he
hasn't updated his notes." said Pitroda.
Could Foreigners Benefit?
The labor shortage, however, is good news for foreigners. Disgruntled
British and American workers who have seen their jobs outsourced to India
could get them back -- with one catch. They need to move to India where
their English and their accents will be an asset.
"When foreigners take calls from their respective countries, it helps that
they know the culture of the person they are speaking to. That can often be
the differentiating factor between a successful Indian outsourcing company
and a failure," Avaneesh Nirjar, chief operating officer of Hero ITES, an
outsourcing firm.
Young British graduates just out of college and looking for a year's travel
and work experience are already taking jobs in New Delhi, Bangalore and
Bombay. So are British call center workers looking for a change?
Currently, about 30,000 to 50,000 foreigners work in the outsourcing
industry. But a World Bank report says that by 2009, up to 16,000 of those
jobs will be filled not by Indians but by Britons.
It's estimated that, apart from fluent English speakers, the outsourcing
industry will also need 160,000 professionals with European languages by
2010. Only 40,000 Indians are expected to have this specialization. The
remaining 120,000 jobs will have to be filled by Europeans or Americans.
At the New Delhi offices of Technovate e-Solutions, more than 100
foreigners from nine nationalities work alongside 900 Indians carrying out
the sales, telesales and booking work for e-Bookers, a European online
travel agency.
Tea Westerlund, 35, from Finland, said she came for the challenge and
experience of a new culture.
"This experience will widen my career opportunities in the future. Most
people in Finland tend to stay there, so it will be a big plus for me to
have worked here," she said. "In the meantime, I'm being looked after and
having a fantastic time."
5. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1351511.cms
Now India gets US manufacturing jobs
CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2005 01:14:32 AM]
NRIs! Free Calling Card
WASHINGTON: A small town in America is bracing itself for loss of jobs to
India. No big news here, except, this is a flight of manufacturing jobs.
Residents of Danville (population 48,000) located in Southern Virginia,
seem reconciled to losing up to a 1,000 jobs after the Indian firm Gujarat
Heavy Chemicals Ltd (GHCL) bought the storied local company Dan River
recently.
Founded in 1883, Dan River employed almost 2,000 people till recently and
is central to the regions economy.
At one time it was the leading manufacturer of light-weight yarn-dyed woven
fabrics in the western hemisphere. Even today it supplies major stories in
the US products such as bed-in-a-bag and other home products such as
comforters, sheets, pillow cases and draperies.
But the company has been in terminal decline over the past few years and
has closed several facilities in the city. It filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection in 2004 and emerged from bankruptcy only in February
this year.
According to reports from India, GHCL will purchase 90% of Dan Rivers
stock, valued at $17.5 million. GHCL will also assume $80 million of Dan
Rivers debt.
Dan Rivers acquisition is expected to give GHCL direct access to
established American retailers such as as Wal-Mart, JC Penney and Bed, Bath
& Beyond.
Dan River employees and local leaders are on tenterhooks about the fallout
of the acquisition, going by the accounts in the local media.
"I will be anxious to see what impact this will have on the community as a
whole," Danville Mayor John Hamlin told a local newspaper.
According to Calvin Barnhardt, Dan Rivers vice president of human
relations, Dan River employs 1,700 people, about 1,000 of whom work in the
Danville facility, with an unknown number commuting other parts of North
Carolina.
Of those employees, 730 work in the manufacturing jobs that may be at
greatest risk of moving overseas.
Some locals appeared stoic about the events, pointing out that more than
50% of Dan Rivers manufacturing was already being outsourced to India,
Pakistan and China in any case and there wasnt much manufacturing remaining
in the US in any case.
"Its something weve been preparing for," City Manager Jerry Gwaltney
told the local Greenboro News-Record. "Well be able to weather things
reasonably well."
6. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4570450.stm
US set to miss Cafta start date
The US has admitted it will miss its 1 January target date to implement the
controversial Cafta free trade pact with six Central American nations.
President George W Bush signed up to Cafta back in August, despite strong
opposition from both Democrats and Republicans, and US trade unions.
Cafta (Central American Free Trade Agreement) aims to remove trade tariffs
between the US and the other members.
Opponents in the US say it will put American jobs and industries at risk.
The other Cafta members are Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,
Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.
The US is now looking to write Cafta into law for 1 February or 1 March.
'Peace & Prosperity'
"It's not uncommon for the implementation process to take several months,"
said Steve Norton, a spokesman for the US Trade Representative.
"We want to do this as soon as possible, but we want to make sure it is
done the right way."
Cafta was approved in the House of Representatives by just two votes in the
summer.
Mr Bush has insisted it will be good for the US and will "advance peace and
prosperity" throughout the region.
US textile and sugar industries, and trade unions had argued heavy job
losses in the US could result because of competition from countries where
workers' rights are poorly protected.
7. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.washtech.org/news/industry/display.php?ID_Content=5030
December 15, 2005
WashTech News
Adobe firing here, hiring overseas
By Marcus Courtney and Roberta Wilson
Potentially 600 Employees at Adobe Systems were handed pink slips last week
in the U.S., while more than 300 tech workers in India are expected to be
handed job offers in the coming year.
A Seattle-based Adobe employee, who spoke only on a condition of anonymity,
reported to WashTech, "rumor is we had 15-20% cuts across all parts of the
company, which is consistent with my department." However, the employee
went on to say that the company did not report the exact numbers of people
laid off. A contract employee also confirmed that layoffs did happen at the
company last week when asked.
The quiet layoffs in the U.S. and future hiring in India follow Adobes
recent acquisition of Macromedia, a $3.5 billion stock deal that closed on
December 3. The newly combined company would employ around 4,000 people
before the layoffs according to Security and Exchange Commission filings.
The Adobe office in Seattle employs an estimated 450 workers.
"I personally think it was shortsighted given that this merger is all
about growth according to our CEO," said the Adobe employee in an e-mail
to WashTech.
Meanwhile in India
The Press Trust of India reported yesterday that Adobe plans on hiring
aggressively in the country next year. "Adobe is planning to add an
additional 300 engineers at its research and development centres in the
country in 2006." The article went on to say that Adobes presence in
India now totals 650 employees as a result of its merger with Macromedia.
Looking at the companys web site and job postings, however, the good,
new jobs are largely going out of the U.S. With several offices of varying
sizes in the U.S. and Europe and one in both Japan and India, Adobe has job
openings in some of its locations. However the majority of engineering jobs
are being offered to prospective employees in its Noida, India, location.
The site lists 20 position openings with only three in its San Jose office
and none in Seattle.
Adobe Systems, Inc., an established software company that makes products
such as PhotoShop, PageMaker, and Adobe Acrobat, is headquartered in San
Jose, California, and was named one of Fortunes 100 Best Companies to
Work For in 2005.
Marcus Courtney is president of WashTech/CWA and Roberta Wilson is its
communications chair.
8. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.suntimes.com/output/krauss/cst-fin-krauss02.html
Now it's the knowledge economy, stupid
January 2, 2006
BY MICHAEL KRAUSS
Here's a New Year's party riddle. If education is so valuable, why aren't
college towns filled with millionaires?
I go to strange New Year's celebrations, but that's a question I asked. No
wonder I get invited to so few galas.
Other tech economy New Year's questions: If China produces 600,000
engineering graduates annually (a disputed but oft-quoted number) and the
U.S. graduates fewer than 100,000, should we be concerned? You bet!
Fifteen top organizations led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are worried.
They formed the Education for Innovation Initiative aiming to double the
number of domestic science, technology, engineering and mathematics grads
by 2015. If current trends continue, by 2010, 90 percent of all scientists
and engineers will reside in Asia. Scientists and engineers drive
knowledge-economy innovation, and innovation creates wealth.
The group thinks we need another national initiative, like the effort
following the Russian Sputnik launch in the 1950s, to train
knowledge-economy professionals.
Questions for the future
Is Chicago producing and retaining enough knowledge-economy talent to fuel
growth? What should be done to grow Chicago's knowledge economy? Why aren't
there more millionaires in those college towns?
"College towns aren't the most prosperous because their knowledge isn't
deployed in the most economically productive occupations," explained Robert
Weissbourd, president of Chicago based RW Ventures.
Weissbourd is not suggesting you drop out of school. Far from it. "Get as
much education as you can," says Weissbourd, who consults to think tanks,
local governments and businesses.
"We are in an economy where we change jobs numerous times," Weissbourd
said. "Learning to learn is the skill that is critical. Be able to read,
write and learn new things."
Weissbourd is bullish on Chicago's prospects because our local economy is
diverse and not dependent on any one industry -- plus we have a strong
knowledge economy, the sixth-largest in the nation according to McKinsey &
Co. We're not the kingpin of IT or biotech just yet, but many of our local
industries are technology intensive.
"Chicago is one of only three truly global cities in the country,"
Weissbourd said. "We have an enormous concentration of financial services,
legal services and management functions. We're a headquarters city. Those
are knowledge functions. They involve the knowledge economy."
To succeed, Chicago must attract and retain talent.
Observers such as Carnegie Mellon University Professor Richard Florida
suggest urban leaders invest in cultural amenities to attract the emerging
creative class. Weissbourd disagrees: "Some cities think if they're fun
places, they'll attract educated people. Research shows that flat out is
not right."
Is Chicago at a disadvantage over sunnier climes? Weissbourd doesn't think
so. "Educated people go places that are rainy, snowy and cold," he said.
They may not love the climate but people go where there are concentrations
of high-paying, knowledge-intensive jobs. Chicago can't control the weather
but we can work to keep the knowledge occupations here.
Weissbourd praises the move that brought Boeing here in 2001 but cautions
not to focus solely on risky industry sectors such as aerospace or even
biotech.
He encourages thinking across industry and going after the segment of
better paying knowledge-based functions like the global headquarters jobs.
Should we invest in nanotech, biotech, software development and mobile
wireless technology?
Weissbourd thinks those definitions are too broad. Ten years from now,
biotech could include a dozen industries and hundreds of occupations.
"Chicago has a huge amount going for it," Weissbourd said. "We need to
focus on gaining those high-paid knowledge economy jobs across all our
diverse economic sectors."
IITA board grows
The Illinois Information Technology Association added to its board.
New members include: Navteq technology vice president Aaron Crane;
University of Chicago entrepreneurship director Linda Darragh; SmithBucklin
CIO John Fischer; Alterian CFO Joe Fuller; Tellabs CIO Jean Holley; Oracle
vice president Lou Meshulam; SimDesk director Bruce Montgomery; SSI
Embedded Systems CEO Michelle Morda; City of Chicago CIO Chris O'Brien;
Authentify CEO Peter Tapling, and Illinois CIO Exchange CEO Bill Waas.
9. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=190481&cat=Business
New study debunks America's outsourcing fears
Washington | December 14, 2005 8:15:05 AM IST
A new study attempts to debunk the myths that India or China beats the US
in producing qualified engineers and that the American economy is facing a
decline as it loses jobs to emerging economies.
The study has been conducted by North Carolina-based Duke University and
authored by entrepreneur-turned-professor Vivek Wadhwa and his students.
The report, "Framing the Engineering Outsourcing Debate: Placing the US on
a Level Playing Field with China and India", comes amid rising public
opposition to increased outsourcing of progressively complex and high-tech
jobs by blue-chip and other companies to countries like India.
Wadhwa claims this is a self-fulfilling prophecy that will drive students
away from engineering if they feel their future is insecure.
The Duke University study takes one aspect of the debate, the production of
qualified engineers, to examine if the US is falling behind.
"Our study has determined that one of the most cited statistics is simply
wrong. The US isn't producing 70,000 engineers a year versus 350,000 from
India and 600,000 from China. We're actually graduating more engineers than
India, and the Chinese numbers aren't quite what they seem.
"America is far ahead by almost any measure, and we're a long way from
losing our edge," asserted Wadhwa in an interview with IANS.
Wadhwa, who recently became executive-in-residence in the Master of
Engineering Management programme at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering,
says he could not answer one of the first questions his students asked him
- what courses would lead to the best job prospects, and what jobs were
"outsourcing-proof"?
Apart from a shortage of data from China and even India, Wadhwa said, his
study found the definition of what an "engineer" is differed from country
to country.
India's National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM),
the leading body dealing with high-tech issues, provided detailed data for
India.
The study shows that when US numbers were compared with NASSCOM data, the
US was graduating 222,335 engineers vs 215,000 from India. The closest
comparable number reported by China is 644,106 but it includes additional
majors.
Looking strictly at four-year degrees and without considering accreditation
or quality, the US graduated 137,437 engineers vs 112,000 from India. China
reported 351,537 under a broader category. All of these numbers include
information technology and related majors.
"Most interestingly, when you compared just the number of engineers
(excluding electrical), the US graduates 52,500 per year vs 17,000 from
India," Wadhwa pointed out.
"In fact, I believe that India needs to graduate more engineers -- it
doesn't have enough four-year graduates for its own long-term needs based
on how the economy is growing.
"And our study shows that the threat to the US is overblown," Wadhwa
contended.
Interestingly, just this week, NASSCOM, along with the consulting firm
McKinsey and Co, released a study showing India's IT industry will face a
shortfall of around 500,000 skilled workers by 2010.
"The message that engineering graduates are going to be competing with one
million from India and China creates a sense of fear, uncertainty and
doubt," Wadhwa said about the US.
"The fact is that despite larger numbers, only a tiny fraction of Indian
and Chinese graduates are equipped to compete globally. And most will be
gobbled up by their rapidly expanding economies," Wadhwa maintained.
The study comes amid a raging outsourcing debate.
In Washington, the attempt to protect American workers from what has been
portrayed as an onslaught of low-paid, high-tech skilled workers from India
is being met by a push for legislation that would take away tax breaks to
companies off-shoring tasks, as well as forcing American employers to give
equal wages to the H1-B visa workers in this country so as to take away any
incentive to import workers.
Not just that, outsourcing has intensified the education debate in this
country and highlighted the poor performance of schoolchildren in math and
science, leading to a push for reforming the education system to protect
American competitiveness in the future.
10. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1144564,00.html?cnn=yes
Thursday, Dec. 29, 2005
Is Outsourcing the Next Terror Target?
Its a possibility that's staring India in the face after a terror attack
in Bangalore, the center of the country's thriving outsourcing industry
By ARAVIND ADIGA
Late on the evening of December 28, a gunman walked into a hall of the
Indian Institute of Science, a prestigious academic institution in
Bangalore,and opened fire with a Chinese-made AK-56 rifle at the delegates
attending a conference. A retired Mathematics professor was killed; four
others were injured. The gunman scaled a wall and fled. (Four unexploded
grenades were also discovered on the Institute's campus.)
No arrests have been made, and the police have named no suspects yet, but
suspicion is increasingly zeroing in on the Islamist terror outfits that
have been waging a mounting campaign of terror against India. The
Lashkar-e-Toiba, a jihadist group that aims to drive India out of Kashmir,
is a prime suspect, but Bangladesh-based terror outfits are also considered
potential culprits. India's security experts have been warning for months
that it was only a matter of time before terrorists attacked Bangalore in a
bid to weaken the country's booming technology sector. In March this year,
Indian authorities announced that plans seized from militants belonging to
a Lashkar-e-Toiba cell in New Delhi showed that the terrorists had planned
to strike at software companies in Bangalore.
If the jihadist groups are indeed behind the attack, then they have picked
their target well. The Indian Institute of Science is one of India's most
important scientific institutions, and its presence in Bangalore is a key
reason that the city became India's technology powerhouse. That's why the
psychological impact of the attack is immense -- analogous to the impact
that an attack on MIT would have in the United States. Jaswant Singh, a
former finance minister of India and a member of the BJP, India's major
opposition party, said that the attack could seriously hurt "the internal,
international, and economic standing of the country." Terrorism experts
warn that Bangalore remains an attractive target for any terror group
looking to hit India. "Attacking Bangalore would be a logical step for the
jihadis at a time when India is becoming an economic power," says Anil
Bhat, a New Delhi-based terrorism expert.
There was no relief for the nervous citizens of the city. On the night of
December 29, a letter faxed to media outlets in Bangalore claimed that a
five-star hotel would be hit by bombs on New Year's eve, and the house of a
major state politician would be attacked by suicide bombers. On December
30, the city had to endure five hoax bomb-threats, including one that was
made to an IBM office.
The attack is likely to shift attention within India to the question of how
well prepared the country's outsourcing centers are for terror strikes. In
a press statement released immediately after the terror attack, NASSCOM,
the trade body for India's technology sector, stated that the country's
outsourcing companies already have many security measures in place;
however, it said that the incident "highlights the need to review and
upgrade these." -- with reporting by Habib Beary in Bangalore
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