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Businesses Government The Almighty Buck United States Politics Technology

India Tech Giant Warns Trump's 'Radical Shift' to Hurt Industry (bloomberg.com) 295

The vice chairman at Tech Mahindra, one of India's largest technology services companies warned that U.S. President Donald Trump's visa policies will damage the industry as his company reported weak earnings and his stock fell the most in almost two years. From a report: Tech Mahindra said net income was 5.9 billion rupees ($91 million) in the fourth quarter, compared with the average analyst estimate of 7.8 billion, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The U.S. is tightening the criteria for visa programs that Tech Mahindra and other outsourcing companies use to bring skilled foreign workers into the country. Trump and other politicians have criticized the programs for hurting American workers and allowing companies to use cheaper employees from abroad. Tech services companies, including Cognizant Technology Solutions, have been cutting positions in India. Some workers have blamed Trump for prompting the job losses and exacerbating problems in the industry.
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India Tech Giant Warns Trump's 'Radical Shift' to Hurt Industry

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  • by HanzoSpam ( 713251 ) on Monday May 29, 2017 @03:06PM (#54506665)

    Good riddance!

    • by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Monday May 29, 2017 @03:29PM (#54506821) Journal

      [sig] Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.

      The lying meme plutocrats use to get even plutoier.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29, 2017 @03:08PM (#54506675)

    American companies with incompetent contractors any longer?

  • Good (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29, 2017 @03:08PM (#54506677)

    Employment by foreign workers is a privilege, not an entitlement.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Not an entitlement, a violation of citizens.

  • Yaay!!! Go Trump! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by JustNiz ( 692889 ) on Monday May 29, 2017 @03:10PM (#54506691)

    Finally, a president that actually demonstrates care about US workers, and also actually follows through on at least some of their campaign promises.

    • by CAOgdin ( 984672 )

      You're making the assumption that he acts because of what's "Good for the Country," instead of trying to drive wages down across the board so his 1% friends can make MORE money...which they'll make sure he gets some of, too. It's just that this blatant importing of inferior talent is undermining the very businesses of those plutocrats. Methinks you give him credit for something he doesn't even understand!

      • Got it. So you're anti-immigrant then as immigrants reduce the value of labor. (More supply of labor leads to a lower price for labor.)
      • methinks you have an agenda to push and are trying to turn a positive into a negative because of that agenda
    • As in Betsy DeVos destroying education.

    • Seriously does anyone believe anything Trump says? Some of what he says is basically nonsense. For example, he promised to bring back coal mining jobs. So how does he plan to do that? While people would like to blame environmental regulations on the downtrend in coal, the most obvious reasons have nothing to do with regulations. Gas and oil are cheaper than coal as coal is much more labor intensive to obtain. Also fewer and fewer industries are using coal and currently the coal supply far exceeds demand. Th
      • by JustNiz ( 692889 ) on Monday May 29, 2017 @08:21PM (#54507983)

        >> Seriously does anyone believe anything Trump says?

        He said he was going to end H1B abuse. Given giant outsourcing companies like Tech Mahindra are sounding the alarm bells and directly blaming Trump after taking about a 33% hit on their net profits I can't see how you could make any rational argument that he's actually NOT following through on what he said he would.

        Also WTF does coal have to do with this? but I'll respond since you bought it up. here's a direct quote from HIllary Clinton during the March 13 CNN Town Hall:
        "....we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, right?"

        BTW congratulations on choosing a clearly appropriate user name.

      • by Mashiki ( 184564 )

        Yeah that's not true at all. Extracting coal is cheap, very cheap. It's the regulations that have caused coal mining to become expensive and push people out of that work. Let me give you an example. Under the Obama administration, they tightened regulations so much that coal mines in Canada were being shut down because markets dried up. Now under Trump without those regulations, those mines are now re-opening and that's on top of the fact that they have provincial and federal government anti-coal stanc

        • > Coal is still a profitable industry, as long as regulations don't drive the cost through the roof.

          It was profitable to the mine owners. To the health of the public, and to the health of the workers, the cost was very high. We're seeing the effects of poor environmental and miner safety regulation in China, just as we used to see it in the USA. And because coal is a limited fossil fuel, slowing its consumption is actually preserving its availability for the next few generations. While US coal reserves a

  • by ilsaloving ( 1534307 ) on Monday May 29, 2017 @03:13PM (#54506713)

    I despise Trump with a passion, but I can't argue with this one.

    The visa program has served no purpose other than to cause North American wages for tech workers to stagnate because companies could simply bring someone over for cheap. There have been more than plenty of stories of companies inventing positions that exactly matched the resumes of offshore works *just* so they couldn't be filled by local people.

    There has *never* been a shortage of qualified talent in the west. At least, there hadn't been. There may well be so now, since the shenanigans North American companies have been playing have driven candidates right out of the field.

  • Thank you Trump! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Good riddance you underpaid cockroaches! Stop stealing jobs that you can't do without tons of hand holding!

  • by Chris Katko ( 2923353 ) on Monday May 29, 2017 @03:16PM (#54506723)

    ...Slashdotters don't know what to hate more. Cheap IT outsourcing of entire departments through abuse of the VISA program, or, Trump.

  • Woo-hoo! Go Trump! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Monday May 29, 2017 @03:17PM (#54506733)
    A study after the dot com bust predicated that the IT industry will have a shortage of 1M skilled workers in 2030 from baby boomers retiring and foreign workers going home. Nature is taking care of the baby boomers. Trump is getting rid of foreign workers. Now is a good time to be in IT.
  • by TimothyHollins ( 4720957 ) on Monday May 29, 2017 @03:17PM (#54506739)

    Some workers have blamed Trump for prompting the job losses and exacerbating problems in the industry.

    How exactly can Trump be responsible for the job losses from outsourcing to India? Does he own a DeLorean? As far as I know he has had nothing at all to do with the instigation of H1Bs, though I'm sure he has used them on occasion.

    Is this a case of "let's blame Trump for the bad weather"?

    • Basically, these people will never admit that they're wrong and their views are cockeyed.

      The most they'll ever do is devolve into autistic screeching if you try to force a real answer out of them.

  • by CAOgdin ( 984672 ) on Monday May 29, 2017 @03:24PM (#54506785)

    Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! ...

    Sorry, I just couldn't help myself. They can't interview customers, they can't write a report, they're incompetent at writing a spec, and they lack basic programming skills. But they're CHEAP! (And, I've never seen a client who found them less expensive on an overall-project-wide effort. Only bean counters love 'em.)

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday May 29, 2017 @03:25PM (#54506791)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • [Mumbai Accent] Hello, this is Bob from Microsoft. We have detected that you are infecticated with a computer virus. We would like to enter your system and fix this for you. We just need access and a credit card...

    • The headline is incorrect. This Indian VP dude is afraid it will hurt HIS industry, not THE industry.

      He's speaking to his investors. To him and to them, his industry IS the industry. Why would he be talking about some other industry, of interest only to other people elsewhere in the world?

  • he's made some pronouncements, but so far just words. Talk to me when some legislation is being voted on. Or hell when he's rescinded Obama's 2014 executive order allowing H1-B spouses to work in the country. I noticed a _lot_ more female tech workers after that... And it got through while the economy was (and is) still crap. So far Trump is all populist talk and Goldman Sachs action.
  • ORLY? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SeaFox ( 739806 ) on Monday May 29, 2017 @03:29PM (#54506823)

    Tech services companies, including Cognizant Technology Solutions, have been cutting positions in India. Some workers have blamed Trump for prompting the job losses and exacerbating problems in the industry.

    I'm sure they regret voting for him in the last election now.
    Oh wait...

    Why would these people assume a foreign president has their best interests at heart again? If they want to get angry about unemployment, it should be at the people actually responsible for their corner of the world.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Why would these people assume a foreign president has their best interests at heart again?

      Because western leaders have been choosing foreigners and big international financiers and rootless cosmopolitan elites over their own countrymen for a long time.

    • Why would these people assume a foreign president has their best interests at heart again?

      Why would you think they would assume anything of the sort. You have a VP of an Indian company, talking to his investors and other people in the Indian IT industry, warning them that Trump's changes may negatively impact their industry. There's no indication of any assumption that Trump should be watching out for them, just a warning that Trump's actions may damage them.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29, 2017 @03:43PM (#54506897)

    I've had the misfortune of having these utterly inept assclowns come and mess up our codebase. Their leaders talk a good game, but their coders write garbage and have cost us money.

    Our greedy, short-sighted managers then brought them in to take over maintenance of a bunch of old applications, having learnt absolutely nothing.

    These people prey on Anglo-Saxon MBA culture to always go for the cheapest option, no matter what. The Western disease of MBA penny-pinching false economy, coupled with their own greed and complete ineptitude is a cancer.

    Tech Mahindra should kindly do the needful, and STFU.

  • "The industry is changing and I'll probably get fired. I must spread FUD!"

  • by HangingChad ( 677530 ) on Monday May 29, 2017 @04:10PM (#54507037) Homepage

    That any country would act like they have a right to the US labor market? I don't think much of Trump but I agree with this move. When companies start replacing staff with H1-B visa holders, that's when it's gone too far.

    It's our country and, if we decide you can't come here, that's too damn bad. What really gripes me is the suggestion that anyone outside the US thinks they have a right to come here and work. Let me say this in all sincerity...fuck you.

    • Theoretically, I could totally seeing Indian companies making these claims on coming into the UK. After all, the UK is the one that "colonized" an already existing country and forced them into being a vassal state for over 100 years. They have zero claim to any inherent jobs in the US. The only "ethnic group" that has any claims to inherent US resources like jobs, money, land, etc would be the Native Americans; and we all have seen how well that has gone.
    • by Tailhook ( 98486 )

      What kind of arrogance is this?

      It's the kind of arrogance Trump spoke of routinely while campaigning. Our elites have their heads so far up foreign asses that other nations feel entitled to receiving every deference for their concerns, and they can't help but publicly melt down if those concerns ever meet any resistance. Not since Reagan pushed back on Japan (limiting motorcycle imports and establishing content requirements in auto manufacturing) has there been any resistance to the destruction of the US industrial base or the displace

    • by CanadianMacFan ( 1900244 ) on Monday May 29, 2017 @06:15PM (#54507509)

      Funny, the US goes around talking like that about access to other countries markets all the time. It goes around demanding other countries have to have the same intellectual property laws and have them the same way. Other countries must allow access to American genetically modified food. But I guess it's not arrogance when the US does it, right?

  • Tech Mahindra SUCKS! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gabrieltss ( 64078 ) on Monday May 29, 2017 @04:32PM (#54507127)

    We have to use them as our first choice for contractors at work. EVERY SINGLE one they have sent us - we sent back within two weeks because they didn't know the technology, don't know how to code their way out of a paper bag. Can't write code that even compiles! Their people are just cr@p! THAT is why they are losing money! I bet NO ONE wants their resources because they suck! I can get Americans RIGHT out of college that are FAR superior than their folks that supposedly have 5-7 years experience!
    I hope they lose enough money they go OUT OF BUSINESS!!!

    • by Chas ( 5144 )

      It's because they aren't given knowledge of a platform/technology.

      They're taught just what they need to know to pass a test and regurgitate the book on demand.

    • I hope they lose enough money they go OUT OF BUSINESS!!!

      Yeah, another few quarters of $91 million net income will drive them right into the ground.

  • by taustin ( 171655 ) on Monday May 29, 2017 @05:14PM (#54507273) Homepage Journal

    To shift revenue from foreign companies to US companies? Sounds like Trump is doing exactly what he promised to do.

    • by pjbass ( 144318 )

      Unfortunately, the people who are too blinded by their pure hatred of one extreme or the other cannot see past that hatred and see the reality of what is happening. Or they're just not willing to admit a politician is actually fulfilling campaign promises, for better or worse.

  • Outsourcing generally leads to poor quality work and a lack of standards. I have yet to work with an outsourcing company that can remotely compete with home raised talent and skills.
  • Regardless of our political leanings, I think the majority of us Americans in the technology industry approve of Trump in at least this one area.

  • by kuzb ( 724081 ) on Monday May 29, 2017 @08:19PM (#54507979)
    ...you'll find it in the dictionary in between shit and syphilis. It's high time countries started forcing companies to take care of their own instead of being allowed to bring in cheap Indian replacements. Let India solve it's own labor problems.
  • A good start, but it's time to make them feel the same pain that they inflicted on Americans.

  • I am not an economist and most of my "education" in economics consists of news magazines and the EconTalk podcast.

    But whenever I talk to someone online or in person who has an economics background, we often get around to the topic of whether economics has a zero-sum component to it and nearly all of them say it does not.

    I can always think of lots of examples in the short run where it is zero sum -- a firm has a finite revenue in a given period, thus profit is a finite value, and how that profit is distribut

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