Unscathed by the Americans

Even as reports erupt about US states voicing their concerns against

outsourcing, the industry is shrugging off the protest as a minor aberration and

is focusing on business as usual. It is learnt that Nasscom and CII may come

into the picture to do the rescue act. They are planning to hold talks with

their US counterparts to try and solve the issue.

As per industry sources, Nasscom is doing its bit by making contact with

legislators and constitution makers and making them understand the core issue.

It has also appointed a public affairs and PR firm, Hill & Knowlton for a

Global Awareness Program both in the US and Europe. It is associating itself

with an apex industry body, ITAA, for addressing the people and to get across

the message that outsourcing does not mean exporting jobs.

vMoksha’s Chairman and a CII member, Pawan Kumar suggested that a campaign

should be held to create awareness among the people concerned about the

outsourcing issue. "A US-India business forum would be an ideal platform to

address the issue. Awareness can be created among the concerned people assuring

them that there will be no loss of jobs, if they outsource their work to

India," he added.

"These things cannot be taken seriously, they are expected to be rise on

and off. This is something like the outsourcing of manufacturing to the Asian

countries and will die down in the long run," said Avinash Vashistha,

managing director, of neoIT in India. The company is a leading outsourcing

agent.

The industry in general feels that the US is too huge a market not to

outsource the work outside and India is the first choice for various reasons.

"Three to four percent of the US population is working in the BPO

sector," announced TS Hariharan, VP-Quality 24/7 Customer-a leading call

center in India with a healthy line up of European clients and US. "The US

government contribution to the total outsourcing of the country is roughly one

percent," according to Hariharan.

Sumanth Cidambi who heads the finance and administration in the Infosys BPO

arm, Progeon, agrees with Hariharan, saying, "The government sector

outsources a very small percentage of work to India. This will not affect the

business to India in any way."

Further more the legislation would have very little impact on private

companies in the US, even if the proposed bill were passed. Economics for the

private companies plays against not outsourcing the job. The cost advantage that

India offers is immense, "almost one third," the industry had

reckoned. The cost advantage played a major role during the tough times of the

recent downturn. Competitiveness and reducing the workload also plays a crucial

role for companies to outsource.

"From a business perspective, there is a need for large corporations to

reduce costs and be more competitive in their businesses. Outsourcing,

particularly to India, provides them a huge opportunity to do this and over a

longer period of time, these short term irritants will not have any impact on

the outsourcing business to India," commented N Krishnakumar, vice-chairman

and president (Europe) MindTree.

"From a practical point of view, this (New Jersey) bill may not have too

much of immediate impact since it has to be passed by the State Assembly and

signed by the Governor before it becomes a law," encourages Krishnakumar.

"The key reasons behind all these Bills appear to be more politically

motivated since in the current context, there are issues in the US economy and

these are being propagated by interested lobbies which want to divert the

attention from key issues in the US economy," he adds.

However some feel that this would impact the growth rate by slowing it.

"These noises will slower the growth rate. For a year or so, there will be

a kind of wait and watch policy, but outsourcing will continue," affirmed

Vashistha.

Ranjeet Rayen (Cyber India Online Ltd)