美国国家公共电台 NPR India's Tech Firms Face Fundamental Shift From IT To More Advanced Tech

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

India, the back office for so much information technology, is changing. India's IT talent has maintained computer systems and databases for decades, but new technologies are overtaking the old business model. Here's NPR's Julie McCarthy.

JULIE MCCARTHY, BYLINE¹: Madeshwaran Subramani is the human face of IT disruption. He recalls being summoned recently to the HR office of his employer at 11 in the morning. By noon, the 29-year-old software engineer was out of a job. He worked for Cognizant Technology, a U.S.-based firm with offices in India.

MADESHWARAN SUBRAMANI: They give only two options.

MCCARTHY: Leave immediately, and take four months' pay. Or stay for two more months, and leave with two months' salary. Subramani, who's got a mortgage and a child, says he was given one hour to choose. He'd been with Cognizant since graduating from college.

SUBRAMANI: Nearly eight year experience associate. Within an hour, everything is over. I chose immediately give ID card to them and came home from office.

MCCARTHY: Employment for IT talent once seemed boundless². For 20 years, India's lucrative³ business model revolved⁴ around the idea that you can move work to low-cost locations such as India. But cheap, outsourced labor⁵ that performs routine tasks is being eclipsed, says Peter Bendor-Samuel. The CEO of the Dallas-based research consulting firm Everest says demand now is for disruptive technologies.

PETER BENDOR-SAMUEL: Things like artificial intelligence, cloud, big data analytics, RPA - robotic process automation.

MCCARTHY: Technologies that require highly advanced skills. And to be competitive, India's IT firms will have to either replace or reskill their workers.

BENDOR-SAMUEL: But I think a significant proportion, perhaps as much as half, will struggle with their training.

MCCARTHY: Bendor-Samuel says that 20,000 employees in India's 4-million-strong tech sector⁶ already lost their jobs this year and says that will accelerate to hundreds of thousands of layoffs⁷ over the next few years.

BENDOR-SAMUEL: And these companies don't only face the issue of retraining people. They face a fundamentally different change in their business model, how they make money. And it's going to cause them a lot of pain.

MCCARTHY: Phil Fersht, CEO of the research and analysis firm HfS in Cambridge, England, says India's tech industry isn't the only one affected⁸.

PHIL FERSHT: This is a global problem where there's less need for routine transactional employees. And unfortunately for India, their IT industry is caught up in this inflection point, in this shift.

MCCARTHY: Indian IT giants including Infosys deny layoffs are occurring and say dismissals are nothing more than the result of annual performance reviews. But Fersht says the industry is being disingenuous⁹.

FERSHT: Because there are layoffs happening. We know about them. There is no sugarcoating this. But what's happening is that the leading Indian IT services firms want to maintain their very, very healthy profit margins¹⁰. And to do this, they want to reduce their reliance on labor.

MCCARTHY: Labor that has come to symbolize¹¹ India's rise, says K. Lakshmikanth, co-founder of Head Hunters India.

K LAKSHMIKANTH: Without the IT industry, we would not have built such a huge middle class in India.

MCCARTHY: Peter Bendor-Samuel says in this new transition, India's IT firms are not likely to replicate¹² the phenomenal success they have had as the world's back office.

BENDOR-SAMUEL: They are relentless¹³ competitors, but they're moving from a world where they had the wind behind them to where they have the wind against them. And that's a very different world.

MCCARTHY: In fact, Bendor-Samuel says as currently constituted, Indian IT companies are in long-term decline. Julie McCarthy, NPR News, New Delhi.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 boundless   

adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的

参考例句：

• The boundless woods were sleeping in the deep repose of nature.无边无际的森林在大自然静寂的怀抱中酣睡着。
• His gratitude and devotion to the Party was boundless.他对党无限感激、无限忠诚。

3 lucrative   

adj.赚钱的，可获利的

参考例句：

• He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline.他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
• It was not a lucrative profession.那是一个没有多少油水的职业。

4 revolved   

v.（使）旋转( revolve的过去式和过去分词 )；细想

参考例句：

• The fan revolved slowly. 电扇缓慢地转动着。
• The wheel revolved on its centre. 轮子绕中心转动。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

6 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

7 layoffs   

临时解雇( layoff的名词复数 )； 停工，停止活动

参考例句：

• Textile companies announced 2000 fresh layoffs last week. 各纺织公司上周宣布再次裁员两千人。
• Stock prices broke when the firm suddenly announced layoffs. 当公司突然宣布裁员时，股票价格便大跌

8 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

9 disingenuous   

adj.不诚恳的，虚伪的

参考例句：

• It is disingenuous of him to flatter me.他对我阿谀奉承，是居心叵测。
• His brother Shura with staring disingenuous eyes was plotting to master the world.他那长着一对狡诈眼睛的哥哥瑞拉，处心积虑图谋征服整个世界。

10 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

11 symbolize   

vt.作为...的象征，用符号代表

参考例句：

• Easter eggs symbolize the renewal of life.复活蛋象征新生。
• Dolphins symbolize the breath of life.海豚象征着生命的气息。

12 replicate   

v.折叠，复制，模写；n.同样的样品；adj.转折的

参考例句：

• The DNA of chromatin must replicate before cell division.染色质DNA在细胞分裂之前必须复制。
• It is also easy to replicate,as the next subsection explains.就像下一个小节详细说明的那样，它还可以被轻易的复制。

13 relentless   

adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的

参考例句：

• The traffic noise is relentless.交通车辆的噪音一刻也不停止。
• Their training has to be relentless.他们的训练必须是无情的。