State awards grants for jobs in Wake, Charlotte

The U.S. subsidiary of an Indian company has won a state grant worth $5.07 million to create 513 jobs in Wake County — one of two business expansions announced by North Carolina officials.

HCL America, which provides technology consulting and other services, received the enticement from a panel that oversees one of North Carolina’s most lucrative incentives programs. In exchange, the company, a division of India's HCL Technologies, is supposed to create the positions over five years and pay average wages of about $47,000 a year.

HCL America considered sites in Texas and Arizona before choosing North Carolina, where it already has 33 employees.

"North Carolina was a natural choice for HCL, given the state's skilled work force, strong educational network and its proximity to our U.S. customer base," Shami Khorana, president of HCL America, said in a prepared statement.

Separately, Time Warner Entertainment, a majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Cable, will expand its operations in Charlotte after the state awarded it a grant worth as much as $3.18 million. The company plans to add 200 jobs during the next four years with average annual salaries of $70,375.

With this expansion and a separate one Time Warner Entertainment agreed to in 2004, the company's operations in Mecklenburg County could exceed 1,000 people.

"These are the kinds of job we want in North Carolina,” Gov. Mike Easley said in a statement. “With the weak national economy, we are even more aggressive in our efforts to make sure North Carolina workers have every opportunity for the good jobs that are available."