Representative Joseph Crowley, who is leading a Congressional delegation to India, said on Tuesday that the United States and India must work together to ensure that the benefits of outsourcing flow to both countries. He cited the example of India-based Tata Group, which has set up an office in New York to explore the possibilities of investing in the United States.
"I am not talking about investments in the capital market, but investments in American people," Crowley said.
That kind of action by Indian companies could help forestall efforts to regulate outsourcing. Asked about potential legislative measures to guard against jobs moving overseas, Crowley said he would oppose any such efforts.
The 19-member delegation is in India to get a first-hand look at the country's high-technology industry, which has gained the attention of software and hardware makers elsewhere both for its skilled work force and for the lower costs of doing business in India. But as United States-based businesses have started recruiting in India and other countries such as China, US technology workers have become fearful about losing their jobs.
America Online, for instance, has drawn criticism for looking into hiring software programmers in Bangalore, India, after having just laid off 450 developers in California. IBM, too, is under fire because of reports that it plans to ship several thousand programming jobs overseas. EarthLink announced Tuesday that it will lay off 1,300 employees and outsource the work to domestic and overseas companies. Other tech heavyweights, including Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Google and Yahoo, have plans to hire employees in India.
"The US has lost a lot of high-paying manufacturing jobs to China that are never going to come back," Crowley said.
According to one study, information technology vendors plan to boost the offshore component of their businesses from 5 percent last year to 23 percent in 2007.
Some members of the Congressional delegation said they want to see jobs flowing the other way as well.
"Jobs have been lost as a result of outsourcing. But we have to develop strategies whereby jobs will not be lost and there is a win-win strategy," said Representative Barbara Lee. "For instance, many Indian companies can invest in our communities to create jobs in America. This is a viable strategy."
Researchers and others have pointed out that the US economy gains not only from lower employment costs but also from the growth of overseas economies. That point was not lost on a representative of India's National Association of Software & Services Companies, or Nasscom, which sponsored the New Delhi visit.
"Just like India is a source for labour for the US, it is also becoming an important market for the US India is the second-largest market for US technology products," said Jerry Rao, vice chairman of Nasscom.
To help carry that message to US lawmakers, Nasscom plans to hold its next board meeting -- in March -- in the United States.
The group from Congress plans to travel from the Indian capital to Mumbai and Hyderabad to attend meetings hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry.
Talkback
Indian companies will never invest in foreign workers, they have no history of doing so. Look at the large number of Indian tech firms who have offices globally they only employ Indians. India is basically an economic sponge soaking up vast quantities of foreign money without putting anything back.
On that basis I seriously doubt they will ever do it, even under duress.
there are not many indian companies that operate globally like the FORTUNE 500 american firms or japenese firms. india is toddler in global MNCs compared to america.
why rip india for not employing foreigners? i worked in an small company in boston and it was owned by an indian, it had chinese,russians, americans, indians... don't just blame india blindly. there maybe cases where you might see more indians in a particular, it could be because no white man wants to work for an indian owned firm. why that can't be the reason? or maybe they may not find any takers for jobs from local population for some reason. until you know the reason don't just blame any race or country blindly.
seriously how many americans are willing to work for indian companies for the salary that is low from what they are used to earning.
if so many american techies are without jobs we should see people lining up for jobs even at lower rates in america. i don't see that trend. i live in america, and i don't see many americans willing to come down on their salary expectations. evey damn programmer wants a six figure salary here. wake up to the changed realities.
I think Justin is jealous of India's success
India has more talented and unemployed workforce than jobs so ,lay off
Indians are always the first to stage a demonstration when the work odds do not fall in their favour, like the Indian doctors in Uk did recently, but it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a foreigner to get a job in an Indian company, or in India for that matter.
Yes, i Know for one thing that they have overqualified persons, but until they start to be culturally inclusive, Indians will continue to be bright quite allright, but not attuned to what is required to live and work in a world that is getting increasingly multi-cultural, and alas will remain myopic in social reasoning and behaviours.