Dell to recruit 5000 more in India

NEW DELHI: Computer maker Dell plans to up its India headcount to 15,000 in the next two years from the current figure of 10,000 employees.

The company also announced the setting up of its fourth contact center in India. The Gurgaon-based center is expected to add 700-1,000 employees to its current strength.

The center would open at a temporary location in April and would then shift to a 2,50,000 sq ft location, which is scheduled to open this fall.

Dell CEO Kevin B Rollins informed that the company is also looking at setting up a manufacturing facility in India subsequent to the burgeoning domestic IT market, company's growing Indian workforce and the prevailing conducive conditions for more investments in the country.

Rollins said, “We believe that the time is right to move to the second phase of investing in India, which includes setting up new call centers, new R&D capabilities and a consideration of a manufacturing site.”

However, the company has neither selected a location nor has fixed a timeframe for setting up the manufacturing facility.

According to Rollins, Dell would consider logistics, the cooperativeness of the government and availability of an able workforce before zeroing in on a location to set up the facility.

Rollins also announced the company's plans to double the size of its India-based product development team during the next two years based on its success in supporting the company's enterprise systems -- a strategic product area for Dell.

Currently, over 300 Dell product group engineers are engaged in developing and testing enterprise products including servers and storage systems.

On the company officials meeting prime minister Manmohan Singh, Rollins said, “We also informed him about the company's product plans and what we were thinking about in terms of expansion in India not only in the services space but also as a manufacturing base and a market base.”