Buffaloed by Hillary

Date: Monday, March 10, 2003 9:55 AM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is giving welcoming parties and the red
carpet treatment for the Indian owned bodyshop TATA and it's CEO
Subramaniam Ramadorai. A spokeswoman even gushed about how Hillary
introduced TATA to Buffalo. It appears that Hillary is willing to
overlook the fact that TATA only hires young Indian men in order to
replace American workers.

TATA's violations of our fair employment laws don't seem to be a
problem for Hillary Clinton. Why isn't NOW protesting this prostitution
of our labor laws?

TATA just announced that they designed a computerized unemployment
claims system for New Mexico. The reporter who wrote this article
didn't seem to understand the irony - a company that gets rich off
replacing American workers with the cheap young blood of indentured
workers on H-1B and L-1 visas, is now developing the unemployment
systems that the Americans will file their claims with.

Ramadorai must be very amused that Americans are allowing this
destruction of their nation to occur.

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20030308/1046850.asp

Software firm from India to open Buffalo office

By FRED O. WILLIAMS
News Business Reporter
3/8/2003

Tata Consultancy Services, an Indian technology giant, plans to open

an office in Buffalo to recruit clients and workers in Western New
York.
TCS will hold an opening ceremony on Monday, representatives said,
drawing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton from Washington, D.C., and
Subramaniam Ramadorai, the company's chief executive, from Mumbai,
India. The event will be at the Hyatt in downtown Buffalo.

Asia's largest technology services company and its biggest software
exporter, TCS uses professionals in the U.S. and India to develop
software for corporations and governments. Its 50 offices around the
U.S. and Canada have about 5,000 employees.

"Their model is offshore - onshore," spokeswoman Leanne Scott Brown
said, combining the work of developers in the U.S. and abroad.

The idea for the Buffalo office, located in downtown's Liberty
Building, grew out of a tour of upstate cities that Clinton arranged
for TCS officials and other executives last summer, a spokeswoman said.

"She introduced the company to Buffalo," Clinton spokeswoman Jennifer
Hanley said.

TCS is looking to expand its base of government and banking clients
with its Buffalo location, Brown said. It usually forms relationships
with local universities and recruits technology graduates.

Economic development officials said Tata's presence will sharpen
Buffalo's technology skill set and help modernize its industrial base.

"This is certainly a very recognizable company," said Thomas Kucharski,
president of Buffalo Niagara Enterprise. "It can only help us remake
the image of the area."

But critics say TCS usually outsources projects to its development
centers in India, leaving a negative impact on the local economy.

"Their proposals are generally that the work is taken outside the
U.S.," said Jim Boldt, chief executive of Computer Task Group in
Buffalo, a competitor of TCS. "They come in and displace U.S. workers."

He compared the shift of high-tech work offshore to the hollowing out
of the steel industry by imports. TCS benefits from low labor costs for
Indian engineers and software writers, he said.

CTG has about 350 workers in Western New York, but only about 2 percent
of its client base here, Boldt said. It sometimes competes with TCS on
bids for technology projects.

TCS recently announced the delivery of a computerized unemployment
claims system for New Mexico, an example of its focus on government
projects. The system, which uses Web and phone connections to process
claims, won a prize for best solutions at a government technology
conference. After beating several U.S. consulting firms to win the
project, TCS used 25 consultants in New Mexico and 80 in India to build
the system, the company said.

In Buffalo, TCS has an advance group of about 10 people opening the
Liberty Building office, Brown said. Regional employment might grow to
employ as many as 200 people, she said, as projects for clients ramp
up.

TCS clients include major financial institutions such as Citibank, Bank
of America and Bank of New York, Brown said. TCS has had talks with
HSBC Bank, which will attend the opening announcement, she said.

HSBC spokeswoman Kathleen Rizzo Young said the London-based financial
company doesn't plan to outsource software development. TCS
representatives met with bank officials last year during an
introductory visit to Buffalo to gather information about the area.

"They were interested in real estate . . . I think they assumed we
owned the building," Young said, referring to the HSBC Tower.

HSBC said last year it had shifted some administrative tasks to its
operations in India, where labor costs are lower. The bank doesn't use
offshore contractors for technology services, Rizzo Young said.

Headquartered in Mumbai, formerly called Bombay, TCS has annual sales
of $880 million and 20,140 global employees. Its North American
operations, headquartered in New York City, generate more than 65
percent of total sales. TCS is part of India's Tata Group, whose 80
companies include chemical and auto component suppliers, cell phone
systems, steel makers, power plants and financial services.

Like other service contractors such as Wipro and Keane, TCS doesn't
need an office in Western New York to pursue clients here, said Brian
A. Griffin, executive director of the trade group Infotech Niagara. The
fact that it's opening one here is a healthy sign, he said.

"I look at it as a positive, that companies look at our area as an
opportunity to do business," he said.

e-mail: fwilliams@buffnews.com

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