US President Barack Obama's just concluded visit has helped in breaking myths and stereotyping of India as "stealing jobs", apex IT industry body Nasscom said. The biggest takeaway of Obama's visit was that it would aid "changing perspectives" about India stealing jobs or being a call centre country.
"It is also a learning for us of what we need to do ahead and how we need to work with partnering with companies", Nasscom president Som Mittal said.
Seeking to assuage fears among Americans, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during Obama's visit this weak had said that India was not in the business of stealing jobs from the US and outsourcing was raising productivity in America.
Mittal said Obama's visit was not just about signing deals, but about around 200 CEOs of companies interacting with business, expressing themselves and talking about what they did and how they saw India as a market and as a destination.
It also helped making India visible globally. "Obama has done a great job for our industry". He positioned India as a market, as a place that has emerged. "I think word would have gone out to everyone", he said.
"It is now to be seen in weeks, months to follow how all this is getting translated into real action, into real attitude change on both sides", he said. He said though Nasscom as a trade body did not have a direct interaction with the US President, its members were well represented in the CEO forum.
On whether the visit had allayed fears of the Indian IT industry, he said, "I think yes, there is more work to do. There is much better realisation, that we are adding value". There was also a message that the sterotypes and myths have to be broken and that it was a "two-way traffic". India needed to open and they were opening up and vice versa.
To a question whether the industry sought to ensure a more inclusive policy going forward, Mittal said that an indication had been made through the President and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement.
"I think, it was part of government discussion. Both are committed to protectionism not being way forward and open markets will lead the way." He said the Prime Minister's statement that India was not stealing jobs sent out a message.
So did comments of some companies like Boeing and GE that were winning export deals and creating jobs back in the US because their design work was done here, cutting down on the time cycle. "India as a market and India as a place to leverage global talent is well established", he said. "But we have to ensure that our perspective goes down to grassroot as well", he said.
