One of Asia's largest IT companies is opening an office in Bloomington, adding 150 jobs to its presence in the metro, where the firm already has 1,000 employees. Tata Consultancy Services, the Mumbai-based firm with 243,000 employees and $8.2 billion in worldwide revenue, says it will install 300 workers in the 8300 Tower at the Normandale Lake Office Park – half of them new, half of them relocated from other offices in the metro. (As of 2007, the company already employed 1,000 people in the Twin Cities.) Company officials say the spot is attractive because it's close to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, and Bloomington is a nice place to live. The state of Minnesota has agreed to make Tata a $500,000 loan, half of which will be forgiven if the firm creates the promised 150 jobs, and if the jobs pay an average wage of $27 per hour. Tata Consultancy Services is a branch of the Tata Group, a proud, 144-year-old Indian industrial conglomerate. The business started when a 30-year-old trader named Jamsetji Tata bought a bankrupt oil mill in Bombay in 1869, started milling cotton there, and went on to help pioneer the industrialization of India. The group now comprises more than 90 companies in textiles, manufacturing, automobiles, consumer products, business services, steel and chemicals. Tata Consultancy Services was founded to help the group's steel business in 1968. It set up its first office in the U.S. in 1979 and today has 18 offices across the country.

The governor weighed in with a statement. "We are very excited and deeply grateful that Tata Consultancy Services has decided to expand its operations in Minnesota," Gov. Mark Dayton said. "The company will become a very important employer in Bloomington, and we look forward to assisting its continued success and growth in Minnesota." Minnesota officials have courted executives in the Tata Group for years, even inviting them to open a steel mill in northern Minnesota. Gov. Tim Pawlenty made the pitch in 2007 when he visited the country. This coming spring, another large Indian conglomerate, the Essar Group, plans to open a $1.6 billion steel mill complex 20 miles northeast of Grand Rapids. The project could add as many as 500 permanent jobs.