When IBM Corp. recently announced its plan to invest $6 billion in India over the next three years, it further strengthened India's hand in the consulting world's high stakes global game, and at the same time stoked the growing talent competition with India's home-grown global contenders: Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies and Wipro Technologies.
While IBM says it does not currently break out what percentage of its current 43,000 Indian employees are classified as services professionals, if the tech giant's Indian workforce mirrors the reported composition of its global workforce – close to 60 percent, or 26,000, of IBM's Indian employees could today be classified as services professionals.
Such a number would give IBM the early lead among global consulting firms seeking to leverage the market's low cost talent. For its part, IBM archrival Accenture said it expects to have about 27,000 Indian employees by the end of 2007, a 55 percent jump from its current 17,500 employees. And meanwhile, Electronic Data Systems Corp. expects to end 2006 with 20,000 Indian employees — up from only 3,000 at the start of the year. In the wake of these expansions and others, India's outsourcing industry is expected to grow from a $22 billion industry to a $60 billion industry by 2010, according to a report published by the McKinsey Global Institute and Nasscom (India's software industry association).
Certainly, India's consulting invaders are good news for Indian employees. Besides growing career opportunities, Indian wages have continued to sprout upward as the competition for local talent heats up. According to the McKinsey/Nasscom report, Indian entry-level wages have increased 13 percent annually from 2000 to 2004, while mid-level wages have over the same period increased 30 percent annually.
Continued wage increases may be somewhat distasteful for India's cost-minded newcomers, however few doubt it's now Tata, Infosys and Wipro who are feeling the heat.
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