The Times of India has an interesting article on how layoffs from several global companies is likely to benefit India as these companies look to fulfill the work with lower cost resources. Embedded in the article is an interesting point about the nature of jobs being shifted to India. It is fairly well known that relatively low-skilled jobs (from a Western point of view) such as Call Centers have been moving to India. What may be less well known, but that has been documented by author Thomas Friedman, among others, is that countries like India are not racing us for the bottom jobs, but for the top jobs.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Intel India has an employee strength of close to 3,000 with nearly 90% in R&D and related activity, while the rest are associated with sales and marketing. An internal mail sent out to employees on Wednesday said the restructuring plan may not affect India as compared to its other global sites. Intel may become a smaller company globally, but Indian operations will be pursued.

Intel India president Franklin Jones, in a communication to all employees, said: “India is a key market for us as it is considered a growing economy. When all IT companies are positioning their strategy with India in focus, we cannot look the other way.”

The interesting part is that 90% of all Intel jobs in India are in Research & Development - hardly a low-skill job. The fact is India has many talented people with advanced degrees, at a fraction of the cost of Western resources.  This is also true in the Finance arena. Companies began by moving transactional business, such as accounts payable and general accounting, to low wage countries.  As they gain more comfort with the off-shoring model, they are looking to move high-skill functions, such as business analysis, to India.  Companies like Agilent have already proven the concept.  Other companies are in hot pursuit to secure these resources.