Friday, March 28, 2008
AT&T Finds It Hard to Hire Local Talent
The head of the top U.S. phone company AT&T Inc (T.N) said on Wednesday it was having trouble finding enough skilled workers to fill all the 5,000 customer service jobs it promised to return to the United States from India.
"We're having trouble finding the numbers that we need with the skills that are required to do these jobs," AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson told a business group in San Antonio, where the company's headquarters is located.
So far, only around 1,400 jobs have been returned to the United States of 5,000, a target it set in 2006, the company said, adding that it maintains the target.
Stephenson said he is especially distressed that in some U.S. communities and among certain groups, the high school dropout rate is as high as 50 percent.
"If I had a business that half the product we turned out was defective or you couldn't put into the marketplace, I would shut that business down," he said.
Gone are the days when AT&T and other U.S. companies had to hire locally, he said.
"We're able to do new product engineering in Bangalore as easily as we're able to do it in Austin, Texas," he said, referring to the Indian city where many international companies have "outsourced" technical and customer support workers.
"I know you don't like hearing that, but that's the way it is," he said.
Stephenson said neither he nor most Americans liked the situation, and the solution was a stronger U.S. focus on education and keeping jobs. Business needed to help, such as AT&T's repatriation of service positions and education grants, he added.
Source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080327/tc_nm/att_workforce_dc
"We're having trouble finding the numbers that we need with the skills that are required to do these jobs," AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson told a business group in San Antonio, where the company's headquarters is located.
So far, only around 1,400 jobs have been returned to the United States of 5,000, a target it set in 2006, the company said, adding that it maintains the target.
Stephenson said he is especially distressed that in some U.S. communities and among certain groups, the high school dropout rate is as high as 50 percent.
"If I had a business that half the product we turned out was defective or you couldn't put into the marketplace, I would shut that business down," he said.
Gone are the days when AT&T and other U.S. companies had to hire locally, he said.
"We're able to do new product engineering in Bangalore as easily as we're able to do it in Austin, Texas," he said, referring to the Indian city where many international companies have "outsourced" technical and customer support workers.
"I know you don't like hearing that, but that's the way it is," he said.
Stephenson said neither he nor most Americans liked the situation, and the solution was a stronger U.S. focus on education and keeping jobs. Business needed to help, such as AT&T's repatriation of service positions and education grants, he added.
Source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080327/tc_nm/att_workforce_dc
Monday, March 17, 2008
The Stock Market Meltdown and US Economic Worries
Recently, the Indian stock markets (BSE/NSE) have declined over 6000 points from somewhere around 21000 to about 14000 over the past couple of months. The primary reason for the meltdown was attributed to the US mortgage security crises, and sub-prime crises. Though it may be true to certain extent, the primary reason for the decline is that the stocks are inflated to a large extent and a correction is overdue.
Similar correction may be expected from the India realty that had shot several times over the past few years.
Related article:
http://anandsoft.blogspot.com/search?q=bse
Similar correction may be expected from the India realty that had shot several times over the past few years.
Related article:
http://anandsoft.blogspot.com/search?q=bse
Saturday, March 15, 2008
E-mail Spammer Pleads Guilty
USA - A man, described as one of the world's top e-mail spammers pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, and failure to file a tax return.
Robert Alan Soloway, 29, was dubbed "the spam king" by prosecutors who said he used networks of compromised computers to send out millions upon millions of junk e-mails since 2003.
He was arrested last summer and charged in a 40-count indictment. He agreed to plead guilty to the three charges and the rest were dropped, including e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and numerous other counts of mail and wire fraud.
Prosecutors said Soloway made hundreds of thousands of dollars from his spamming business, Newport Internet Marketing Corp. When he's sentenced in June, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman will determine how much restitution he must pay.
The government already seized at least four of his bank accounts, and Soloway has agreed to take a polygraph test as to his remaining assets.
He could face up to 20 years in prison.
Robert Alan Soloway, 29, was dubbed "the spam king" by prosecutors who said he used networks of compromised computers to send out millions upon millions of junk e-mails since 2003.
He was arrested last summer and charged in a 40-count indictment. He agreed to plead guilty to the three charges and the rest were dropped, including e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and numerous other counts of mail and wire fraud.
Prosecutors said Soloway made hundreds of thousands of dollars from his spamming business, Newport Internet Marketing Corp. When he's sentenced in June, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman will determine how much restitution he must pay.
The government already seized at least four of his bank accounts, and Soloway has agreed to take a polygraph test as to his remaining assets.
He could face up to 20 years in prison.
