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Dell To Double Staff in India to 20,000 in Three Years
Dell Inc. plans to double the number of its employees in India to 20,000 in
three years, Chairman Michael Dell said Monday, in what appeared to be moves
by the world's largest personal computer maker to beef up its presence in one
of the world's fastest growing markets.
Although most of the new hiring will be made at the company's call centers,
there will also be substantial recruitment at its product testing center and
a possible manufacturing plant.
The Round Rock, Texas-based company currently operates four call centers in
India, a product testing center for corporate customers and a global software
development center. Some 10,000 people are employed at these facilities.
"We will double our staff from the current level over the next three years,"
Dell told reporters during a visit to Bangalore, India's technology hub.
"There is a fantastic opportunity to attract talent (here)," he said.
"We will ensure a major recruitment push in engineering talents."
In Texas, however, Dell spokesman Jess Blackburn said the 10,000 new jobs is
an optimistic number that's largely dependent on the company's growth predictions.
"If our business grows as we hope it does, we'll need to add a manufacturing
facility in India to serve that region, as well as just ramping up internal
infrastructures to handle sales for a market that size," he said.
Scores of Western companies have been cutting costs by shifting software development,
engineering design and routine office functions to countries such as India,
where English-speaking workers are plentiful and wages are low.
But in this case, the company says it is not reducing its work force in the
United States or elsewhere. Rather, it's a bid to increase its share in India's
fast-growing market for computers.
Dell says it now accounts for less than 4 percent of the 4 million computers
sold annually in India. According to IDC, Dell had a 18 percent worldwide market
share last year.
The company is also looking to set up a manufacturing center in India, a move
that could help boost the sale of Dell computers here.
"We have been in discussions with a number of state governments in terms
of infrastructure and logistics. We are yet to make a decision on the location
of the plant," Dell said. He declined to give any timeframe for a decision.
James McGregor, a Beijing-based economic analyst who monitors issues in India
and China, said a manufacturing facility in India "will help Dell to be
close to its customers not just in India, but South Asia."
Dell currently lags in India largely because of taxes that result in higher
prices for Dell products. The Indian government imposes higher import taxes
on fully assembled computers than computer parts, and Dell currently ships complete
computer sets to India.
A domestic manufacturing facility would help the company avoid some taxes and
boost its presence in India, where computer sales are expected to increase to
10 million annually over the next three to five years.
Dell currently operates nine plants around the world, six of them outside the
United States.