India is, and has been for years, the Third World answer to our First World economy and has fulfilled all of our outsourcing “needs.” It is especially known for its call-centers, which as an American you encounter when you call, well, just about anywhere. Currently, India accounts for 60 percent of international back-office services.
Although, recently, there is a new twist in the world of outsourcing. According to the New York Times, Indian firms such as Tata Consultancy Service and Infosys, India’s second largest software services outsourcing firm, have set up shops in places like Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, and the Czech Republic. Another Indian IT services firm, Wipro, is contemplating opening up centers in places like Idaho, Virginia, and Georgia, U.S. “states which are less developed,” claims the firm’s chairman. Well, isn’t this ironic? The New York Times article goes on to say that an American company will outsource Indians to “supply it with Mexican engineers working 150 miles south of the United States border.”
Isn’t globalization efficient?
—Neha Inamdar