Wipro has acquired Citi Technology Services, the India-based provider of IT services to Citigroup, for $127 million in cash.
With the addition of Citi Technology’s 1,650 coolies, Wipro’s total coolie count will rise to 99,202 (it may have already reached 100,000 taking into account the coolie cattle trains arriving from the campuses).
Under the deal, Wipro will also provide technology infrastructure and application development and maintenance services to Citi and its units for six years through its cooliepower a.k.a. manpower. Wipro claims the outsourcing deal is valued at $500 million in service revenues over the term of the contract.
The deal is to close by March 2009.
Besides technology infrastructure services, Citi Technology (offices in Mumbai & Chennai) is also said to have developed expertise in application development and maintenance capabilities in cards, capital markets and corporate banking.
Wipro Buys 1,650 Citi Coolies for $127m added by SearchIndia.com on
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You Write: “Wipro Buys 1,650 Citi Coolies for $127m”
We say: All these people works hard to keep their life going, please tell us what you have acheived by calling them “Coolies”? Is is makes u happy? Very goood. Keep the good habits….
SearchIndia.com Responds:
These coolies are eviscerating our (American) middle class.
Still, “these coolies” are 5 grades ahead of H1 visa coolies that come to the States and master the art of faking an American accent & yankee-ing their names.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We see. Yes, we always did.
what did you see?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write above: what did you see?
Ghajini & Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood). 😉
just sayyyyyyyy itttttt.
How does this coolie analogy work? Just curious!
Coolies, to my knowledge, are the guys who carry your bags for you at the railway station. So what part of IT outsourcing fits into the coolie analogy?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write above: How does this coolie analogy work? Just curious!
The word Coolie is used in this context to denote low-wage labor.
2. You write: So what part of IT outsourcing fits into the coolie analogy?
There would not be any IT outsourcing or Infosys, Wipro, TCS et al were it not for the Coolie Wages as in low wages paid to Indian workers (compared to American workers).
3. It also reflects our extreme displeasure over this pernicious phenomenon of outsourcing, which is eviscerating the U.S. middle class & turning our country into yet another Third World nation.
How would Indians react if Bangladeshis were to get the best paying jobs in India (on site like the H1B/L1 crowd in the U.S.) and in Bangladesh itself (offshoring). Knowing our countrymen, we can safely say that India would be aflame with bandhs/hartals/strikes in every corner of the country. Forget Bangladeshis, even our own Biharis are treated with contempt in Maharashtra & Delhi these days.
Just because a few hundred Jet Airways Air-hostesses/cabin crew were fired a few weeks back, there was such a hullabaloo in India and led ultimately to their reinstatement.
Think of the tens of thousands of well paying IT jobs lost in our country to the Coolies of the East. We are with Lou Dobbs on this contentious issue of outsourcing.
For the IT Indian
I am sorry but I am of the belief that when there is no other job available, a coolie’s job is an honourable way of making a living. There is no shame in it. I dont hurt anyone else in doing so. There is no way I am going to feel guilty for an American who has lost his job, who would have been paid 4-5 times what I am being paid for the same job. This makes my country a third world nation, then so be it, because I dont see any other options to grow up.It’s either this or nothing. There is no other industry in India that can absorb so many people! Besides, the coolie’s pay in India seems to significantly higher than most other jobs here.
For the Indian-American
Another point, consider a world without outsourcing, what is the next logical step in the move to “reclaim American Jobs”, tougher immigration laws to start with, and eventually reservation of jobs for Americans. It has already started happening all over the world, the gulf countries which is like a haven for so many Indians have silently but firmly started the process of sending back expats starting from the lower rungs of the working hierarchy.You would be singing a very different tune when they tighten the noose around jobs for expats abroad. Your very example of “Indian intolerance when H1-visa foreigners take over Indian jobs” is exactly what will happen next once outsourcing is abolished. When the going gets tough, the tough get going! This time outsourcing, next up immigration, lets just hope that doesnt happen when you guys are still there!
For the American
If you are an American on the other hand, I completely understand your sentiments, but reversing a trend that signifies the free market model that america so strongly believes in, is just not going to be easy. But hey! What better “time for change in america” than during this recession!
As for the Bangladeshi’s taking over Indian jobs. Yeah, Indians would be intolerant towards that (More so than Americans are with Indians, because Indians are more desperate than Americans). We are all a bunch of hypocrites who only look for the upliftment of our own group.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
(Let’s first clear up one semantic confusion in your above comment – In the U.S., Indian-American and American mean the same because both are citizens. Given the context and content of the paragraph when you say Indian-American what you probably mean is the H1B/L1 Visa crowd and not the Permanent Residents i.e. Green Card holders who are in between the H1B/L1 or the Indian-American citizens.
Generally speaking, Indian-Americans and Green Card holders tend to behave in a similar fashion here presumably because of the length of the stay here and the fact that they both are here for good).
1. You write above: There is no way I am going to feel guilty for an American who has lost his job
Of course…why would you even give a flying f*** for us (by us we mean Americans like us and the Green Card holders).
You are fighting only for your self-interest. And as Americans, it’s our goal to lobby against this outsourcing monster that’s had a devastating impact in the U.S. American families are struggling and paying a heavy price because of the outsourcing nonsense. Yes, of course why would you feel in the least bit guilty for these hapless souls.
Over the last 10-15 years, you have no idea how this country (U.S.) has been steadily going downhill due to the loss of well-paying jobs in manufacturing & service sectors to countries like India, China & Mexico.
2. Regarding your second point For the Indian-American, you are actually referring to the H1B/L1 Visa crowd.
Yes, we strongly support cutting the H1B/L1 visas and packing these coolies back to India. As you said earlier, There is no way I am going to feel guilty for an American who has lost his job. Ditto with us, we don’t give a flying f*** what happens to these indentured laborers.
In any case, fraud is so rampant with the H1B Visas. Many young Indians working here in gas stations, grocery stores, motels, convenience stores et al most likely came on H1B Visas for IT jobs that probably were never even there in the first place.
Every country’s first obligation is to its citizens not to worship on the altar of meaningless shibboleths like free trade or the latest fancy like the world is flat (Nandan Nilekani’s contribution to the world via Tom Friedman??).
Hopefully, Obama administration will follow through on his campaign promise of getting rid of the tax breaks for outsourcers.
To use your words, we hope they tighten the noose around Indian expats & ship them off to their hovels.
3. Regarding your third point, we strongly believe in and support the credo America for Americans, first and foremost.
If there are any leftovers on our plate, we can then share them with the rest of the homeless, hungry, impoverished masses.
It’s time people stopped taking literally Emma Lazarus’ words on the pedestal at the bottom of Statue of Liberty:
Maybe, we should start petitioning for the removal of the above words from the pedestal. Sends a wrong signal to the rest of the world that there’s an El Dorado out here.
As we said earlier, America for Americans, first and foremost.
You guys said:
…which is eviscerating the U.S. middle class & turning [b]our country[/b] into yet another Third World nation….
..Think of the tens of thousands of well paying IT jobs lost in [b]our country[/b] to the Coolies of the East.
P.S.
Could you clarify your reference to “our country” here.
Are you talking about America or India. Either way, my previous post has parts directed to both the “Conscientious Indian American worrying for his mother land” and the “Angry American pissed with the loss of jobs”
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write above: Could you clarify your reference to “our country” here. Are you talking about America or India.
In this context, obviously the U.S. because it’s not a Third World nation yet (although at the current rate, it won’t be long before we join you all).
Occasionally, we use Our Country to refer to India as well because like most hyphenated first generation Americans, we have strong ties to both the former homeland and the present homeland.
Ah kk, indiablogs.searchindia.com misled me to think the site was being run by Indians, staying abroad maybe, but Indians none the less (meaning an Indian first (atleast when it came to national identity)).
Well, If you are an American first, it is pretty obvious ,who you are going to be rooting for. There isnt really much to argue about, with respect to the outsourcing debate. You did say the Indians in India will raise hell if we lost Indian jobs to people abroad. Way to bring the Indian idealogy to the USA!
Btw, Do you think it is fair that your parents (or grandparents) were accepted into USA and eventually made citizens but now you want to discourage this very idea that allows you to stay there in the first place?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write above: You did say the Indians in India will raise hell if we lost Indian jobs to people abroad. Way to bring the Indian idealogy to the USA!
The last time the people of this country (i.e. U.S.) protested in any big way was in the late 1960s over the Vietnam war.
Since then, Americans (Including Indian-Americans & Green Card holders) have withdrawn from public participation, preferring the cozy embrace of consumer toys like bigger toys, bigger breasts (in Las Vegas & Los Angeles, we have seen vans advertising breast augmentation), bigger TVs, bigger home theaters.
Bowling Alone & other books document the decreased participation of Americans in civic affairs.
Public life here is nothing like the noisy melee it’s in India.
2. As for the question in your last paragraph, would you feed the beggar who comes knocking at your door before all the members in your family have finished their dinner? No, no, please don’t bother to respond because this is really a rhetorical question.
SI, very radical opinions you have got there – guess I have to laud you for expressing them so openly.. but if I (a GC holder) think hard, it appears that I also give a flying f8ck about H1B labourers (although I was one, a few years back), Indian IT workers and for that matter, the americans.. All I care about is me!
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write above: but if I (a GC holder) think hard, it appears that I also give a flying f8ck about H1B labourers (although I was one, a few years back), Indian IT workers and for that matter, the americans.. All I care about is me!
We are all no different: you, gshankar or us. We are all looking out for our self-interest (As gshankar said on Dec 26: There is no way I am going to feel guilty for an American who has lost his job).
At the end of the day, if your self-interest is more on the side of America (as it will be eventually), your vote will be for the stars & stripes rather than the tri-color.
In gshankar’s case, the attachment to India and the expectation that Indians everywhere or that a site with a name like SearchIndia.com will only echo the Indian party line (and see the world through the Indian prism) makes it a little hard for him/her to easily reconcile to our views.