SunWuKong
08-20-2004, 09:57 AM
India's outsourcing flip-flop
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - The outsourcing story has so far headed down a one-way street - with Indians and Indian firms accused of eating into jobs in the United States and the United Kingdom, and the latest estimates pegging India's offshore services growth rate at over 40%.
But as Indian information-technology (IT) firms reach global scales, a reverse trend is also evolving - Americans and others from the West are finding employment in the overseas operations of Indian firms. It is been termed "reverse outsourcing" and nobody, including presidential aspirant John Kerry, should find cause to complain about it - even if elections are looming in the US. This adds to the many out-of-work executives from the US who have moved to India in search of better opportunities.
In the latest instance, an affluent US county has invited Indian and Israeli firms to open branches, creating millions of square feet of vacant office space for such use. The Economic Development Authority of Fairfax County (Virginia), close to Washington, DC, has opened offices in Bangalore and Tel Aviv to persuade Indian and Israeli firms to set up offices in the county.
"We looked around to see where the hot technology markets are and how compatible they are with us," said Gerald L Gordon, president of the authority. "We are targeting as many as we can get. We tell them: 'You can do business here.'"
In the past, Indian outsourcing companies have set up offices in the US, but they have been largely restricted to marketing, generating new clients and establishing a countrywide network, all of which have created very few jobs, which, too, are mostly for Indians. The move by Virginia comes at a time when several Indian IT giants such as Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have resorted to hiring Western employees to deal with local populations abroad, riding profits generated on huge international business deals as well as the need to penetrate markets further.
more... (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FH20Df03.html)
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - The outsourcing story has so far headed down a one-way street - with Indians and Indian firms accused of eating into jobs in the United States and the United Kingdom, and the latest estimates pegging India's offshore services growth rate at over 40%.
But as Indian information-technology (IT) firms reach global scales, a reverse trend is also evolving - Americans and others from the West are finding employment in the overseas operations of Indian firms. It is been termed "reverse outsourcing" and nobody, including presidential aspirant John Kerry, should find cause to complain about it - even if elections are looming in the US. This adds to the many out-of-work executives from the US who have moved to India in search of better opportunities.
In the latest instance, an affluent US county has invited Indian and Israeli firms to open branches, creating millions of square feet of vacant office space for such use. The Economic Development Authority of Fairfax County (Virginia), close to Washington, DC, has opened offices in Bangalore and Tel Aviv to persuade Indian and Israeli firms to set up offices in the county.
"We looked around to see where the hot technology markets are and how compatible they are with us," said Gerald L Gordon, president of the authority. "We are targeting as many as we can get. We tell them: 'You can do business here.'"
In the past, Indian outsourcing companies have set up offices in the US, but they have been largely restricted to marketing, generating new clients and establishing a countrywide network, all of which have created very few jobs, which, too, are mostly for Indians. The move by Virginia comes at a time when several Indian IT giants such as Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have resorted to hiring Western employees to deal with local populations abroad, riding profits generated on huge international business deals as well as the need to penetrate markets further.
more... (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FH20Df03.html)