India's Outsourcing Woes

A call center in India.  New U.S. policies against outsourcing jobs overseas will hurt India's IT sector the most. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgrobinson/382439150/">David Robinson (flickr)</a>
A call center in India. New U.S. policies against outsourcing jobs overseas will hurt India's IT sector the most. Photo: David Robinson (flickr)

In spite of the global recession's painful effects on most of the world's economies, India has managed to stay stable. The country even expects its economy to grow by 5 percent this year. However, this prediction came before President Obama announced that his administration would be cutting tax breaks and refusing bailout money for companies outsourcing jobs overseas.

Rising unemployment in the U.S. has renewed the political and economic debate over shipping jobs abroad. More than 1,000 U.S. firms that have outsourced jobs abroad are being criticized for taking jobs away from Americans. Countries like India — which gets more than 60 percent of its outsourcing work from U.S. businesses — will likely be hit the hardest by the Obama administration’s protectionist approach to reviving the U.S. economy.

President Obama also announced a hiring ban on foreign workers for companies receiving federal bailout money. Of the 65,000 H1-B work visas that the U.S. issues annually, 21,667 have been for Indian citizens who mostly join the information technology industry. These non-immigrant visas are granted to educated and skilled foreign workers.

But the U.S. is not alone in adopting policies against outsourcing jobs and limiting foreign workers. In Persian Gulf countries like the United Arab Emirates, millions of Indians who are employed in the construction and banking industries have been laid off and forced to return home. In the United Kingdom — where Indians are one of the most prevalent immigrant groups — the government has announced plans to potentially limit foreign workers to sectors of the economy that have documented labor shortages.

New policies against hiring foreign workers in the U.S. may have a long-term impact that policymakers are not anticipating, according to a study by Duke and Harvard researchers. With increased job opportunities in places like India and China, more than 100,000 foreign workers could leave the U.S. for jobs in their home countries. The study found that many Indian professionals in Silicon Valley have already left, and predicts many more will leave to start businesses in India.

This is bad news for the long-term economic recovery of the U.S. because nearly half of Silicon Valley start-ups, including Google, were started by immigrants, the lead Harvard researcher tells BusinessWeek. This long-term “brain drain” will mean that “when we start recovering ... the people we need are going to be in India and China,” according to the researcher, Vivek Wadhwa.

The U.S. has historically welcomed immigrants and their innovative ideas. A reversal of policy could prove to be very harmful — hurting economic growth and limiting the expansion of key industries.

Comments

in Nigeria

Much of the website is

Much of the website is already taken up with the great matter of the day-the credit crunch,economic crisis ,..Here's this article describing a dark aspect of the crisis.
Yet if we take an overarching look at all these all the groans ,moans and comments, what do we see?
Its actually an observation from an earlier crisis- the French Revolution:They have learnt nothing and forgoten nothing(said of the French aristocrat emigres in London)
This article talks of past events showing the folly of exclusion and yet what are the prospects?
The French arisrocrats went on with their misbehavior and profligacy, even after restoration, till abolished eventually. Those in Europe who thought the Revolution was for France only were shocked by the Napoleonic wars.
We could go on to list other lesson from the Revolution and past crisis, as the articlealso tries to draw lessons from the past-and THERE LIES THE RUB: MEN LEARN NOTHING FROM HISTORY.
Perhaps there is another significance to the name Mercy Corps. Perhaps we simply have to deal with unreasonable, foolish man in mercy to avoid other ,terrible options.

in india

education Industry

Hello , i want to ask that according to your premises what is the effect of recession on US , if all the us industries are driven by india or china immigrants then US economy will definately follow congo economy in the next six months according to above facts in the article ,may jesus save them

Its an irony that some us students cant get there graduation degree during recession because us may demand more immigrants from third countries with there c++ skills for there economy to fight recession .

bye harvard and duke .

any more comments will benefit or US please start outsourcing>

We should further tax

We should further tax companies that use non-American workers. Tax them so much that they decide they would rather be an American "patriot", decide to give up their Amwerican Citizenship, or go out of bussissness. I personally do not find outsoucing American ingenuity to other coountries good. Micorosoft for instance, would be nothing without America. Nothing.
It most likely wouldn't even exsist if Gates was born in India. It was only from the blood of American soldiers that he even had the "right" to the free thought required for making headway in IT. Nothing against India, but I am an American first and I do not believe India has better employees than America. Furthermore, I feel Americans are better equipped to handle most IT problems as we have been in the forefront of technology since birth. I doubt many employed IT indians were playing with a commodore vic 20 when they were 5 years old. I guess real life experience isn't really applicable in today's job market. As a matter of fact, I bet you could submit Bill Gate's resume and he would be overlooked for an Indian.

in India

Hipocracy of Progressive Americans

Now a days interest of the governments and common people are totally divergent in all countries.
Obama echoed the interest of American people. But we need to see what how he grows and act acocrding to the ineterest of common american people. Words of politicians cannot be trusted , they should only be measured by their deeds not their words.

Unfortunately, there is no OBAMA in India. India still has George Bush.
Indian people do not have the will to challenge the INDO-American nuclear deal , which is just a cash hand over to American corporates. India has many sources of cheap energy, and have strong relation ship with Middle east countries to get carbon fuel. Close proximity and very cordial relationship with Iran to get cheap natural gas.

A great pool scientific community and growing economy to reserach and develop on alternate energy . Long coast for energy from marine waves, good tropical sky for energy from Sun. many rivers and proximity with countries like nepal for energy from water falls.
Still the George Bush in india want to hand over 3 lakh Crores of Indian currency to American corporates for oiut dated and dangerous nuclear energy.

the evil of Bush for non americans and good deeds of OBAMA for americans. is n't hipocracy!!!!

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