Shell takes 'refugee' flight out to India

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br /><img src="/photo/646212.cms" alt="/photo/646212.cms" border="0" />LONDON: Troubled oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is to cut one-third of its IT jobs in the US, UK and The Netherlands and ship them out east to India.<br /><br />The announcement, of the loss of a maximum of just about 3,000 jobs across three Western countries, has so far provoked little comment from trade unions.<br /><br />The Indian IT operation and Shell''s newly beefed-up hub in Malaysia are expected to amount to roughly one-third of the companys 9,000 IT jobs globally.<script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br /><img src="/photo/646213.cms" alt="/photo/646213.cms" border="0" /><br />It comes after several weeks of relentless pressure and scrutiny of the world''s third largest oil company, which has just been forced publicly and humiliatingly to admit it massively overstated its proven reserves of crude oil.<br /><br />The company has admitted, in an internal but independent report that sent shockwaves round the world, that its top brass knowingly hid oil and gas shortfalls over a three-year period.But on Wednesday, a Shell spokesman told TNN it was totally inaccurate to link the reserves issue with the transfer of jobs to a competitive location like India.<br /><br />Some Industry analysts said the cutbacks in western IT staff looked anything but coincidental. Commentators suggested Shell''s self-styled transfer of 1,900 to 2,800 jobs risked re-branding the corporate passage to India into almost a refugee flight. <br /><br /><formid=367815><br /><br /></formid=367815></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br />Shell''s Indian IT odyssey comes years, and certainly months after nearly all the world''s biggest companies arrived at the Indian option. Indian expertise will be used to rationalise IT applications and standardise infrastructure across the company''s 145-country network.<br /><br />Agreements have already been signed with Wipro and IBM. The company downplayed the significance of the jobs flight, insisting it was just a fraction of its 118,000-strong global workforce.<br /><br />Shell is thought to be belatedly keen to explore the 24-7 savings option of an IT resource in India. It now claims it discussed the issue of IT efficiency and off-shoring with its investors long before the reserves crisis broke. <br /><br />Shell, which boasts it values its 75-year presence in India, says it has been planning the eastward expansion for some time.<br /><br /><formid=367815></formid=367815></div> </div>