Indian IT professionals upset with Obama

[OhioChick]

5 May 2009, 2010 hrs IST, IANS

BANGALORE: Indian IT professionals on Tuesday slammed President Barack Obama's move to end tax incentives for US companies that ship jobs to countries like India, saying it will neither benefit the US nor its corporate sector.

"Obama's latest move was expected, but unwelcome at a time when Bangalore's IT and BPO sectors are already reeling under the global economic meltdown," said Padma Nair, 26, an IT-professional working for a Bangalore-based American company.

"Obama's new policy is not going to benefit anyone, neither the outsourcing companies nor the country the job is outsourced to. The cost saved in outsourcing is higher than that saved by tax exemption," Nair told media.

Expressing a similar view, Shankar Banerjee, 25, a quality analyst working for another American IT company, said if Obama's proposal is pushed through, it will hit business coming India's way and many Indians would lose their jobs.

"IT and BPO companies in India have already suffered due to the slowdown. A lot of people have lost jobs. Obama's latest move will cause more problems," added Banerjee.

The comments came after President Obama said Monday that the current US tax system gave US-based multinationals that shipped jobs to places like India an unfair advantage over other domestic rivals and wanted corrective steps.

"It's a tax code that says you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York," Obama said, explaining why he intended to close tax loopholes and crackdown on overseas tax havens.

"I want to see our companies remain the most competitive in the world. But the way to make sure that happens is not to reward our companies for moving jobs off our shores or transferring profits to overseas tax havens."

According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the US accounts for about 60 percent of India's software services export revenue. Bangalore-based firms account for one-third of this.

A recent study by the association, conducted along with McKinsey, shows the Indian software and outsourcing industry employs some two million people, earning total revenues worth $52 billion, of which nearly $48 billion comes from exports.

American IT companies that have set up offices in Bangalore include Accenture, Microsoft, Amazon, AOL, Cisco, Dell, IBM and Intel.

An estimated 600,000 people are employed in Bangalore's software and outsourcing sectors. And industry professionals say many could lose their jobs following Obama's latest move.

UNITES-Professionals India, a trade union for IT enabled services sector, predicts 50,000 employees in India will be handed the pink slip over the next few months. Bangalore, hailed as India's Silicon Valley, could be the worst affected.

Concurred Sumana Prasad, 32, an IT employee working for an Indian company: "The slowdown has already hit Bangalore's IT and BPO companies. Obama's latest step will affect more people."

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Indian-IT-professionals-upset-with-Obama/articleshow/4487269.cms

Cry me a fucking river... :nopity:

[aquart]

1. Too damn bad.

They weren't crying over the jobs WE lost. Crowing. Not crying.

[HughBeaumont]

2. Can I get a "Tough steam-baked SHIT" from the crowd?

We're not here to lift your economy at the price of our own, idiots. In case you weren't aware, American citizens need to earn a living to keep this economy alive . . . one which has helped your asses out SUBSTANTIALLY these past 15 years against OUR wishes and at the price of many, MANY of our technological and medical workers, I might add.

[Jim Sagle]

33. Tough steam-baked SHIT!!!!!!!!

[belpejic]

3. Tough luck.

Where's my job?

[CountAllVotes]

4. sounds like a good plan

After spending 6+ hours on the phone to India yesterday trying to get HELP with my computer that is under warranty I am so damn pissed off and exhausted after trying to deal with these people I could scream!!!

I did scream in fact - every profanity known to man and woman!

Finally I got to "Level 2" and got a real American in Texas! We were able to solve the problem easy enough once I found someone that knew wtf they were doing!

Good on ya' Obama!!!

:dem: :kick:

[ixion]

5. the IT world have been watching jobs go to India for nearly a decade

They can take a flying f**k at the moon, for all I care.

[Hello_Kitty]

6. I love how entitled other countries feel

To jobs, consumers, and now tax dollars from the U.S.

[YOY]

7. "Obama's latest step will affect more people."

There and here. You see the jobs were here in the first fucking place.

Start your own industry.

[Froward69]

8. About a month ago

I told an Indian debt collector... That it used to be, I could go across town and get a job as a debt collector. (when times were tough) now I cannot as He has my extra Job... and India was a long commute for someone struggling with bills in the first place.
I then asked How he was enjoying my job?

... THAT COLLECTION AGENCY HAS NOT CALLED BACK SINCE.

I agree with the original post ...

Cry me a fucking river...

[Blue_Tires]

9. fuck 'em

[barbtries]

10. this quote got me thinking:

"Obama's new policy is not going to benefit anyone, neither the outsourcing companies nor the country the job is outsourced to. The cost saved in outsourcing is higher than that saved by tax exemption," Nair told media.

could it possibly benefit the USA? i bear no ill will toward India, but as far as the "outsourcing companies" go, imo they should pay their fair share of taxes just like any. we have too many policies already that enable big corporations to screw their wage earners in order to see ever bigger profits.

shouldn't there be some benefit to the country the job is outsourced FROM??

[Triana]

13. "shouldn't there be some benefit to the country the job is outsourced FROM??"

good question, barbtries.

It could benefit the USA and will, if implemented. It will cost India some of the jobs they took from us. That's what they're whining about.

[Hello_Kitty]

17. Yeah, if it's not going to change outsourcing, then what are Indians complaining about?

Sounds like the corporations are using them to get their talking points out. Astro-turfing.

[ChromeFoundry]

25. because with them turning out...

so many on-paper only diplomas from their schools- the currently employed have to watch their backs as the new "so-called graduates" come gunning for their jobs, at a lower rate.

[nichomachus]

11. This is bullshit -- outsourcing isn't as cost-effective as people thought it was

There was a story here last week that showed this


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x444702

"Experience has built more certainty around what was once considered previously 'hidden costs,' or costs related to transition, development, selection, etc., which could easily cancel out any financial benefit of doing business offshore."

Now that time has told its tale, flaws are revealed and divorce becomes an option. One example, Delta's CEO, Richard Anderson, announced this month that the airline canceled its outsourcing to India because its customers were very vocal against foreign customer service agents. The struggling airline desperately needs happy customers so it responded to the complaints.

Often it is not simply the loss of disgruntled customers, a loss bad enough in a down economy, but loss in efficiencies and productivity as well that leads to the severing of offshore outsourcing relationships.

"We often find that outsourced agents are not trained as deeply as agents who work internally for an organization, and often lack the tools to do a thorough job for customers," says Dr. Miriam Nelson, senior vice president of Aon Consulting, a global HR/human capital firm. "We hear them rushing through calls, merely repeating the same troubleshooting steps, since they do not have that deeper understanding necessary to explain issues in a different way for the customer."

When call center work is outsourced to an offshore firm, service drops even further according to Nelson. "Offshore call centers are not only challenged by being in an outsourced position, but they also have to overcome language barriers and cultural disconnects," she explains. "When we benchmark offshore service against onshore service, offshore scores much lower."

The cost of poor service translates to hard currency losses for any corporation. One example: Aon recently observed an outsourcer in the Philippines and found the following, according to Nelson:

[Triana]

12. SO - we should worry about Indian jobs when our own people have NONE?

Is that what they expect?

[The Doctor.]

14. So, uhh..... now what are the freepers going to say?

"Damn that Obama! Takin' our jawbs from India! Makin' corprashuns hire who the gubmint wants um too! It's socialism!"

[TankLV]

31. I'll be Lou Dobbs head explodes over this...!

and that's just the IMMEDIATE side benefit!!!

[The Doctor.]

39. Oh fer TEE HEE fuck's sake!

Sorry... had a drink and what, and I nearly laughed my ass off... among other things... at yer post.

Thank Gawd I'm listening to 'Pig'.

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/p/pig/infinite_power.html

[cascadiance]

15. As an engineer who just got laid off last week, I also say "TOO DAMN BAD!"

What they want is an unsustainable system... Ultimately parasites die with the body they are infesting... Start living and developing your own economies, and don't expect others to let you destroy the needed parts of their body so that you can profit from it...

Though some of my best friends in high tech are Indians... I don't blame them, any more than I blame Mexican undocumented workers trying to get up here for jobs when they aren't able to get a decent paying job where they live either. But ultimately I want systems where people can stay where they are and get a decent paying job/own their own business/farm, etc. That way their families can stay together too. And ultimately, people that move here for jobs should also be willing to come citizens. That is what the tradition of our "melting pot" country is here. For people of all nationalities to move here and become part of the American dream, not just be here part time to "profit" from it to the point that the dream is shattered for the rest of us. Those that move here to work should also be empowered and made responsible to vote in this country too, to make sure that all like them are represented in making sure our government serves all fairly.

We need global labor and environmental organization. Labor unions and environmental organizations that have power in all countries that are members of the U.N., or "free trade" treaties, etc. so that the "race to the bottom" strategy that lets multinational corporations to steal from the rest of us becomes a useless exercise if they have to wind up ultimately having the same costs everywhere they go. And ultimately to stop slave labor from happening anyplace, nor places where the earth gets trashed in the interest of profit, with the environmental costs "externalized" to the rest of us to hasten the deadlines we have for global warming doom.

[pleah]

16. Oh, it isn't enough that they have our jobs.

:sarcasm:

[patriotvoice]

18. Play it again, Sam.

:nopity:

[Dr.Phool]

19. Awww, Boo Fuckin' Hoo.

I want our workers to have our jobs. If there's anything left, they can have the leftovers.

[mzmolly]

20. I can understand their chagrin, but Obama is not the President of India.

Hopefully some tech jobs will find their way back to the US.

[quickesst]

21. My my......

Losing work to poor brown people just trying to make a better life for their families. Ain't it peculiar how simple geography changes things. This blue collar accused racist(someone with an opinion on immigration that doesn't fall in line with the extreme left) just can't muster the sympathy the white collar "real Americans" demand. Of course, it's easy to be "above it all" in the safety of an ivory tower, but when the threat comes too close for comfort, I'm supposed to believe there is a difference, and that the difference makes office and tech people immune from the same accusations that blue collars receive? Not on your life. I'll say it again. Whether the jobs go overseas, or the workers come to the jobs, and whether they're white collar jobs, or blue collar jobs, geography doesn't change a goddamn thing, and racism doesn't have a fucking thing to do with it. Thanks.
quickesst

[santamargarita]

22. Fuck these job stealing bastards!

:nopity:

[Skittles]

23. THEY CAN FUCK THEMSELVES

AND I HOPE THEY DO

[ChromeFoundry]

24. +1 n/t

[Azlady]

27. +2 N/T

[OhioChick]

28. +3 n/t

[bluedigger]

26. When did we give them a vote?

[HillWilliam]

29. How do the words "kiss my ass" hit ya, Bangalore?

As an IT professional, I've had job after job fly out from under me to foreign shores.

Fuck 'em with a donkey. A big, lonely one.

[TankLV]

30. FUCK 'EM!!! Cry us a river...

Now let's get back to employing AMERICANS...!!!

[Crabby Appleton]

32. Fuck 'em nt

[blue97keet]

34. I just heard Bernanke promoting H-1B on C-span (quote - "I know

how controversial this is -blah blah"), after kinda sorta almost admitting that the trade deficit (account balance as it is politely called) was the driver behind the financial meltdown. Oh yeah, and "protectionism" is the number one enemy too.:sarcasm:

No, Ben, it looks like you really have NO idea how controversial this H-1B and offshoring thing is.

P.S. He waffled on credit card regulation too.

[BobTheSubgenius]

35. I'm not sure Indians are part of this President's constituency.

Americans, however, are. Americans like jobs too, right?

[randomelement]

36. Aren't we overlooking something?

Even if Obama is successful in eliminating the tax incentives and, as a consequence, IT jobs start returning to the US, who will be able to fill those new jobs (there aren't sufficient numbers of trained Americans to handle these hi-tech jobs, remember?) :sarcasm:

[OhioChick]

37. Yeah.....the dozen or so unemployed IT workers that I know would still rather work at Home Depot.

:hi:

[undeterred]

38. He's the president of the United States, not of India.

Somebody should tell them.

[Chisox08]

40. Oh Boo fucking Hoo

It will cost jobs in India and hurt outsorcing companies. What about the damage that has been done to the American worker for the last 30 years?
The last time I checked Obama was the President of the U.S. not India.
Now its time for some sweet violin music. :nopity: