View Full Version : India - the knowledge nation
Pessimistic
4 Dec 2001, 08:52
After sneering at labours 'Knowledge Nation' plan the libs are now saying employ Indian labour offshore for IT work. How would you feel about that if you were unemployed ?
Given the 'bendy fruit' state of the dollar I would have thought IT people here would be able to compete for the work indians are doing in third markets.
They certainly kept it quiet till after the election.
At the uni where I work there are heaps of Indian IT students (we have fun during cricket season) People like the Maze would be surpised at how fast they can get a visa to work here after their course.
Originally posted by NYMets
At the uni where I work there are heaps of Indian IT students (we have fun during cricket season) People like the Maze would be surpised at how fast they can get a visa to work here after their course.
The Maze??
its all well for them to get a visa but where are they finding those jobs??
im currently working in the IT industry and its dried up at the moment!! not even worth looking elsewhere!!
I know. I was a'maze'd as well.....but I 've been visiting the Dept a few times when foriegn students came in presenting visa applications co-signed by Sydney companies which the uni had to co-sign or something. didn't pay much attention but will ask if you want & see if they're allowed to tell me. Don't want to get anyone in trouble. I'm good at minding my own biz but knowing the unemployment in the local industry it caught my attention that's all. :confused:
Originally posted by NYMets
I know. I was a'maze'd as well.....but I 've been visiting the Dept a few times when foriegn students came in presenting visa applications co-signed by Sydney companies which the uni had to co-sign or something. didn't pay much attention but will ask if you want & see if they're allowed to tell me. Don't want to get anyone in trouble. I'm good at minding my own biz but knowing the unemployment in the local industry it caught my attention that's all. :confused:
A lot of Indians study here and the head to the US for work as well.
Pessimistic
6 Dec 2001, 07:20
Actually the government reccomendation was for firms to send work directly to companies based in india.
No we are used to all the manufacturing jobs being exported but the knowledge ones as well ?
Richmondfan#1
6 Dec 2001, 20:39
Speaking of India, I, just today, discovered Dilmah was from Sri Lanka not India.
Originally posted by iceman
its all well for them to get a visa but where are they finding those jobs??
im currently working in the IT industry and its dried up at the moment!! not even worth looking elsewhere!!
Tell me about it! Finished my degree earlier on this year and coupled with my 8 years experience in IT, was going to go marching out of the NAB to some greener fields. However, when I started looking, the cupboard was bare!
And in the last 3 weeks, we have laid off about 45 staff (out of a workforce of about 200) - now the marketplace is flooded with skilled people with nowhere to go!
There are still some people who I work with who don't have degrees and got into IT in the pre Y2K hysteria. They are very nervous now!
There currently is very little investment from big business into IT which really shows no sign of improvement until the nervousness created by September 11 dissipates. The terrorist activities on this date didn't help the economy any, but wasn't responsible for the downturn - this is something that had been degenerating for 6 months prior.
What caused this downturn? The overall world economy is strong - domestically probably on the back of a strong housing industry - with interest rates low and growth steady without reaching the frenetic levels of the late 80's.
Maybe, collectively, businesses are taking a breather after pouring huge money into the Y2K effort and getting apparently very little in return. Maybe business don't believe that engineering computer solutions can provide the glorious returns promised by many. eBusiness is still a buzz word but now there is the realisation that it won't instantly be transformed into a huge money making cash cow.
Maybe there is the realisation that in order to see a return, there still has to be significant effort put into actually building up the infrastructure and then the income streams have to be nurtured and developed. This will happen, but probably over the course of a decade rather than a night. (Remember how long it took before ATM's were completely accepted by society!)
The outsourcing of work to India really has only limited value. What has been done in the past has been shown to be relatively cheap but of very poor quality, requiring much more expensive maintenance work to be done.
The kind of work that is sent offshore to India is straight coding work. Much of the analysis/design work is still done in the domiciled state though.
The National outsources very little of it's operations and also has drastically reduced it's reliance on contract/consulting staff. This has reduced from about a 50/50 split 2 years ago down to probably 90/10 in favour of permanent staff.
Longboysfan
12 Dec 2001, 22:36
Same here in the states.