IBM plans India jobs bonanza, say Indian officials

According to government officials, Big Blue has scheduled in a huge rise in its Indian workforce, doubling the number of jobs located in Calcutta to about 4,000.

IBM currently has several thousand staff working in India, with 1,800 in Calcutta, chiefly working in the software development field. According to the Wall Street Journal, government officials said that IBM advised them of the planned expansion.

Unlike other recent rumours that suggested that IBM would be shedding jobs in the US in favour of Indian workers, the latest development will be purely an expansion of the existing workforce. Big Blue isn't just confining its expansion plans to Asia - the company also intends to add an extra 5,000 staff to its workforce in the US.

CSC is also keen to see its workforce in India expanded, with a planned tripling of staff in the country to 5,000.

The logic behind the expansion isn't hard to see - an average computer programmer in India will cost considerably less in wages than a US-based worker. And it's such economic incentives that are making Big Blue's shareholders edgy. Next month will see a vote by shareholders on whether or not to undertake a study into the company's performance-led pay policies, to see if they encourage execs to cut costs by opting for offshore outsourcing.

It's not just shareholders who've got the jitters. Staring down the barrel of a presidential election, US politicians are trying to harness for their own ends the strong feelings created by the Indian jobs boom.

Both George Bush and his rival John Kerry have been whipping up a firestorm of anti-offshoring feeling to get voters on their side. Kerry levelled heavy criticism at short-sighted CEOs sending jobs abroad and added he would "tear every page from the tax code'' to stop it happening, while Bush said he was "concerned" about the issue, but rejected an isolationist stance.

However, that didn't stop the passing last week of a bill to block federal government contracts being given to overseas companies.