Alright, everybody back in the pile!
Posted on 02/07/2005 9:05:14 AM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, was alarmed as he stared at the computer screen in the research and development center in Bangalore, India. The scientists and technicians were typing in orders and directions to ensure that the power plant they were controlling was operating correctly, efficiently and safely.
Bingaman wasn't concerned that the technicians would type incorrect orders into the computer. He knew that wouldn't happen. What concerned him was that the plant the engineers in Bangalore were operating via computer was in the state of Indiana, and that such high-tech jobs that the U.S. once thought it owned were being outsourced to India.
In fact, during a recent, nine-day fact-finding trip to India, Bingaman learned what many Americans don't know and might not want to hear: That it isn't just low-tech, call center types of jobs that are being outsourced to India and other countries, and that the U.S. might be losing its high-tech competitive edge.
"People who think that the outsourcing of work to India involves just low-end jobs are very confused," Bingaman says. "There is a lot of world-class research going on there in the areas of biotech and information technologies. It surprised me to see the investments that companies are making in India and of the cutting-edge work they are doing there."
Bingaman saw the Indiana power plant being operated from General Electric's John F. Welch Technology Center in Bangalore, GE's first and largest multidisciplinary research and development center outside of the U.S. The facility employs more than 1,600 scientists who work on things like electromagnetic analytics, composite material design, molecular modeling, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and computational fluid dynamics.
Later in the trip, Bingaman visited Intel Corp.'s Intel India Design Center in Bangalore, a 200,000-square-foot research and development facility that employs 900 and includes the most Intel divisions outside of the U.S. Since its inception in 1999, the Design Center has grown quickly because of India's information technology and engineering talent pool, the facility's Web site says.
Bingaman doesn't begrudge India the facilities and the high-tech work; he just wishes that Americans will realize that they are now competing with the rest of the world, even for high-tech research and development jobs that were once considered America's exclusive domain, and that the nation must work harder to maintain its competitive edge.
To do that, the U.S. must improve its educational system and must invest in a more coordinated way in high-tech research and development, Bingaman says. So, Bingaman says he will reintroduce in Congress a bill that will authorize the U.S. Department of Commerce to spend more than $1 billion in the next five years in loans and grants for the construction of 20 new, world-class science parks.
"The benefits of science parks are clear. In Albuquerque, the six-year-old Sandia Science and Technology Park is now home to 19 entities that employ a combined total of nearly 1,000," Bingaman says. "These high-wage jobs wouldn't exist in our state without the science park, and I believe that this is just the beginning.
"The bill also would provide tax incentives for businesses looking to locate in science parks, including accelerated capital depreciation, a tax credit for employees trained at local universities and vocational institutions, and a tax credit for companies that invest in universities and laboratories performing research."
Bingman says Americans have no idea how much competition there is in the world for high-tech jobs. He found out while visiting the Infosys Technologies LTD facility in Bangalore. The company had wanted to hire software engineers and other information technology specialists in 2004. The company's advertisements generated 1.2 million applications in India. It tested 300,000 of those people, interviewed 30,000 of them and wound up hiring 10,000.
"I think there needs to be a wakeup call as to what is going on," Bingaman says.
Good Lord Almighty, what the heck kind of national security is THAT????
ping
What mercantalists and socialists always neglect to point out, is that when labor is done cheaper, more capital is available for new US enterprises, creating jobs. Hence the fact that we have a 5.2% unemployment rate despite 25 years of screaming that "they took our jobs!"
One world government & a new world order a'comin' down the track....
Clicky clack Clicky clack...
Considering that the most common phrase heard around my place regarding the work we are getting from offshore is "We finally got the code from India to compile", he probably should be a little worried.
What concerns me is that Jeff Bingaman is a senator from my state.
It's clearly unacceptably risky.
As is all of the financial information going to India.
Outsourcing is going to happen, and operating costs are going to be a significant factor; however, whoever is doing the cost/benefit equations is, to my eye, leaving out risk factors that need to be fully explicated and accounted for. For financial records, this includes significant legal responsibility for all consumer customer records under Gramm-Leach-Bliley.
Wake Up America!!! Good job, Senator.
This has nothing to do with ANWR or teachers unions or much of anything you mentioned. It is about labor costs. Labor costs and nothing else. They are a whole lot cheaper in India because it is poorer.
Same lame mantra that is always regurgitated by apologists for global corporatism. Such philosophical babbling is irrelevant when national security is jeopardized.
Bingaman supported all tax increases and regulatory burdens which these companies have to comply with. He must have wanted these results.
Well at least Bingaman isn't groveling for the illegal immigrant vote, either.
That may just mean one or more of the following..
1. Your company does not have right processes in place to manage outsourcing and the communication for that.
2. you have chosen the wrong partner for outsourcing
3. Neither side had much experience in this before going into it.
I have been in this business for 5 years now. The company we outsource to have done a great job. No point in berating them. Can they do as well as we do.. you bet!
We have great communication and we never have compilation problems inspite of large teams there and here working on the same code. Its a question of putting right processes in place.
See post #12
If you abolished every tax and every regulation the American wage scale would still be higher because we have a higher standard of living. And that and that alone is the issue.
No where in the article does it say this guy can turn off our power plants.
So what is it that you don't understand when the article states that they control the operation of the plant?
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