NEW DELHI, 31 January 2006 — Computer maker Dell Inc. said yesterday it planned to add 5,000 jobs in India over the next two years, bringing its work force in the country to 15,000.
Dell is also looking to set up a manufacturing center in India, a move that could help boost the sale of Dell computers here, President and CEO Kevin Rollins told reporters after a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Round Rock, Texas-based company will hire 700 to 1,000 workers for a new call center in Gurgaon, a satellite town of the capital, New Delhi, Rollins said. The new call center, the company’s fourth in India, will open in April, he said.
The other new hires will staff call centers in the cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad in southern India and Mohali in the northern state of Punjab. Also this year, the company plans to double the staff at its product testing center in Bangalore, which currently employs 300 engineers, Rollins said.
During his previous visit to India in April last year, Rollins had said Dell would make India a hub for its software development and back-office work.
Currently, the company has three call centers in India, a product testing center for corporate customers and a global software development center. Some 10,000 people are employed at these facilities.
Scores of Western companies have been cutting costs by shifting software development, engineering design and routine office functions to countries such as India, where English-speaking workers are plentiful and wages are low.
But Rollins said his company’s expansion plans were not limited to tapping the talent, but also benefit from the growing demand for desktop computers and notebooks.
