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Indian firms to advise UK Home office: The Times of India
New Delhi, Sept 25: Amidst severe criticism from Britons, the India Business Group, representing some 100 Indian IT firms in the UK, has been invited to attend the next IT sector panel meeting in London on Friday. The IBG is to advise the Home Office on skill shortages across the sector.
New Delhi, Sept 25: Amidst severe criticism from Britons, the India Business Group, representing some 100 Indian IT firms in the UK, has been invited to attend the next IT sector panel meeting in London on Friday. The IBG is to advise the Home Office on skill shortages across the sector.
The inclusion of senior Indian executives and professionals in the panel has incensed the UK-based professional trade organisation, the Professional Contractors' Group. The PCG has accused the IBG of having a vested interest in wanting more people to come over on visas and take the market offshore.
"We are surprised that a group representing Indian business interests, which has scant knowledge of the current state of the UK jobs market, should have a voice on a UK advisory panel to the Home Office," Ian Durrant, PCG External Affairs Director told timesofindia.com from London on Wednesday.
"There are currently at least 50,000 resident IT professionals looking for work and so we do not believe a case can be made for putting any skills back on the shortage list," Durrant said. According to him the inclusion of the IBG was a response to concerns at the Home Office that the panel was not employer-focused enough. The PCG, instead prefers to see the Confederation of British Industry or the Institute of Directors included.
What the PCG feels is that there is definitely no need to reinstate IT onto the skills shortage list. Since there will always be new skills in shortage, the focus should be on retraining existing staff.
The PCG was set-up in 1999 to represent the interests of all knowledge-based workers. The group is now the fastest growing professional organisation ever in the UK with over 10,000 members signing up in the first year.
However, IBG official, when contacted told timesofindia.com that the group's membership to the Panel is directly a result of Work Permits (UK) itself feeling that the panel thus far was unbalanced as it did not have representation from its clients whoa are the users of work permits, i.e., Indian IT companies, among others.
"WPUK's motto is to "serve business needs", and if it does not hear from business what these needs are, then it is unable to arrive at any complete conclusions regarding operation of the WP schemes," the official said. "It also needs to be remembered that these Indian IT companies are, in fact, registered British entities and have as much right to the Panel as any one else. Since they did not have any industry association so far, but did meet regularly under the umbrella of the IBG, WPUK agreed that the IBG could represent them on the Panel," the IBG official informed.
The official alleged that the "PCG has been pursuing a single-point agenda with WPUK thru the Panel, i.e., to stop Indian companies from pursuing their business model, which involves regularly bringing in their employees from overseas on short-term work permits under the intra-company transfer scheme to undertake specific tasks in order to serve their clients' needs and execute the contracts that they win.
"It is obvious why the PCG is unhappy that the Panel/WPUK may also now have the opportunity to hear from these companies what their needs are," the official added.
The IBG is an informal group created at the initiative of the Indian High Commission in 1999. It brings together senior executives and professionals of Indian companies in the UK, as also leading consultants and solicitors from British firms who advise clients on doing business in India and the UK. Through quarterly interactive meetings held at India House and chaired by the Deputy High Commissioner, business-related developments are discussed, as also problems, ideas and suggestions on how to improve trade, investment and business links between India and the UK.
Figures from the UK Home Office stated that almost 23,000 IT work permits were granted to foreign workers in the 12 months to April 2003, only 4,750 fewer than in the previous year.
The rise occurred despite IT skills being removed from the shortage list in August last year.
Analysts in UK have been warning that Western European and North American IT services vendors must change their operations if they are to successfully fight off the growing threat from IT projects being outsourced offshore.
They have been suggesting that vendors need to change their domestic resource mix to meet the criteria of interacting face to face more often, allowing competition based on business value instead of price and establishing requirements for innovation and quality.
The inclusion of senior Indian executives and professionals in the panel has incensed the UK-based professional trade organisation, the Professional Contractors' Group. The PCG has accused the IBG of having a vested interest in wanting more people to come over on visas and take the market offshore.
"We are surprised that a group representing Indian business interests, which has scant knowledge of the current state of the UK jobs market, should have a voice on a UK advisory panel to the Home Office," Ian Durrant, PCG External Affairs Director told timesofindia.com from London on Wednesday.
"There are currently at least 50,000 resident IT professionals looking for work and so we do not believe a case can be made for putting any skills back on the shortage list," Durrant said. According to him the inclusion of the IBG was a response to concerns at the Home Office that the panel was not employer-focused enough. The PCG, instead prefers to see the Confederation of British Industry or the Institute of Directors included.
What the PCG feels is that there is definitely no need to reinstate IT onto the skills shortage list. Since there will always be new skills in shortage, the focus should be on retraining existing staff.
The PCG was set-up in 1999 to represent the interests of all knowledge-based workers. The group is now the fastest growing professional organisation ever in the UK with over 10,000 members signing up in the first year.
However, IBG official, when contacted told timesofindia.com that the group's membership to the Panel is directly a result of Work Permits (UK) itself feeling that the panel thus far was unbalanced as it did not have representation from its clients whoa are the users of work permits, i.e., Indian IT companies, among others.
"WPUK's motto is to "serve business needs", and if it does not hear from business what these needs are, then it is unable to arrive at any complete conclusions regarding operation of the WP schemes," the official said. "It also needs to be remembered that these Indian IT companies are, in fact, registered British entities and have as much right to the Panel as any one else. Since they did not have any industry association so far, but did meet regularly under the umbrella of the IBG, WPUK agreed that the IBG could represent them on the Panel," the IBG official informed.
The official alleged that the "PCG has been pursuing a single-point agenda with WPUK thru the Panel, i.e., to stop Indian companies from pursuing their business model, which involves regularly bringing in their employees from overseas on short-term work permits under the intra-company transfer scheme to undertake specific tasks in order to serve their clients' needs and execute the contracts that they win.
"It is obvious why the PCG is unhappy that the Panel/WPUK may also now have the opportunity to hear from these companies what their needs are," the official added.
The IBG is an informal group created at the initiative of the Indian High Commission in 1999. It brings together senior executives and professionals of Indian companies in the UK, as also leading consultants and solicitors from British firms who advise clients on doing business in India and the UK. Through quarterly interactive meetings held at India House and chaired by the Deputy High Commissioner, business-related developments are discussed, as also problems, ideas and suggestions on how to improve trade, investment and business links between India and the UK.
Figures from the UK Home Office stated that almost 23,000 IT work permits were granted to foreign workers in the 12 months to April 2003, only 4,750 fewer than in the previous year.
The rise occurred despite IT skills being removed from the shortage list in August last year.
Analysts in UK have been warning that Western European and North American IT services vendors must change their operations if they are to successfully fight off the growing threat from IT projects being outsourced offshore.
They have been suggesting that vendors need to change their domestic resource mix to meet the criteria of interacting face to face more often, allowing competition based on business value instead of price and establishing requirements for innovation and quality.