This statement by the presidential candidate created a hue and cry in the BPO industry in India and also managed to grab the headlines of our daily newspapers. The reason for that is the amount BPOs contribute to the economy and to the society is considerable. Lakhs of jobs have been created in India thanks to the BPO industry. For FY07, the total IT industry (including domestic segment and hardware) was $48 billion. Of this, the total revenue from software and services (exports) was $31.3 billion and ITeS-BPO revenue was $9.5 billion for FY07. Nasscom said, out of the estimated $31 billion from IT services, $23.1 billion came from exports, with the domestic market contributing the balance.



US continues to remain the biggest market for India's software industry with a share of 61 percent, exports to Europe, have grown more than 55 percent since 2004, and the UK now accounts for 18 percent of India's

software services while continental Europe for 12 percent.

Given all this at stake it was expected that the statements made the presidential candidate would grab headlines in our daily newspapers.

From the American point of view

These are some alarming numbers:

8,00,000 American white collar jobs believed to have been lost to outsourcing in India and elsewhere e between 2000 and 2006.

14.1 million Americans currently holding jobs considered to be at the risk of being outsourced.

57 % of Americans with income over $ 100,000 actively supported free trade in 1999 that was when white collar jobs were not moved abroad number fell to 28 % in 2004 after outsourcing became common customers indicated in 2004 that theFrom $ 5 billion dollars spent in 2000 the amount spent by US firms on offshore services from third party outsources rose to $ 78 billion in 2006.

66% of US workers feel outsourcing is harmful to the economy.

24% of American would stop doing business with an American firm that outsourced their support staff.

44% of the amount of market for software and back office services outsourcing is currently controlled by Indian firms.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment in the US is down to 5.2%, and is expected to decline further.

The Indian outsourcing business grew out of a more basic industry providing Indian computer programming and code-writing expertise to American hardware and software giants. When Indian firms entered the outsourcing business serving firms, a business then dominated by the likes of IBM and EDS, much lower labour costs held the key to its rapid revenue growth: over 50 per cent a year in 1994-2001.

The time difference also gave India a selling-point. Thanks to, say, the ten-hour time gap between America and India,

American clients could offer 24-hour service by switching to Indian workers during the American night.

A simple case study in this regard can be seen through the offshore outsourcing of Guardian:

Offshore outsourcing has proved a money-saver at Guardian, letting it cut $13.5 million out of the annual software-development budget by sending 40% of that work overseas. Guardian outsources to India through Patni Computer Systems Ltd. of Mumbai.

In an election year the speeches that the presidential candidate makes have to be taken with a pinch of salt. One must also remember that those comments were not made while he was addressing the strong Immigrant Indian population.

On the brighter side:

The availability of jobs requiring low and mid-level skills in the US may be slowing down, but the opportunities to make money are not. After so much hue and cry over outsourcing for the

past few months, this same is benefiting America. Outsourcing is not only limited to big companies like GE but has opened the door for smaller companies and virtually anyone can outsource their job via Internet these days. For instance, a person from Florida who lost his job due to outsourcing started a business in web programming and internet marketing and outsourced the whole of his job to Delhi, where he gets everything done in almost $100 per month for the worth of $5,000 per month. He earns twice what his job used to pay him.