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Mahajan urges US IT firms to outsource from India

Pramod Mahajan, Union Minister for Information Technology, advocated an aggressive business strategy for US infotech firms to outsource from Indian IT companies to beat the US meltdown.

He was speaking at the Information Technology Association of America annual convention in Orlando on Tuesday. He is the first non-US minister to be invited to deliver the keynote address at the ITAA annual convention and was accompanied by a 12-member Confederation of Indian Industry delegation led by Ashok Soota, vice-president, II and CEO, MindTree Consulting.

Tarun Das, director general, CII; Vijay Thadani, CEO, NIIT; S Mahalingam, executive vice-president, TCS; Neeraj Nityanand, senior vice-president, Satyam; Ram Ramakrishnan, vice-president, Tata Infotech; Arjun Malhotra, chairman, TechSpan; Sunil Wadhwani, CEO, iGATE Capital; V V Chellapa, CEO-North America, Zensar; Sanjaya Sood, president, Talisma; Kumud Goel, managing director, KLG Systel; and Harish Krishnan, director - IT, CII were a part of the high-level delegation.

Mahajan said that outsourcing from India will help US IT companies overcome the US slowdown and remain competitive. He outlined 8 key reasons for US IT companies to operate in India namely:

• 100% FDI allowed
• No Joint Venture partner required
• Automatic route via Reserve Bank of India
• No approvals required
• 100% repatriation of dividends
• Availability of skilled personnel
• Competitive cost by global standards
• India was only one of twelve countries to have an IT Act

Ashok Soota, vice-president, CII, gave an overview of the environment in India for IT with a strongly supportive and facilitating ministry of information technology which was an enabler, not a hindrance.

Harris Miller, president, ITAA, gave the packed hall a feedback on ITAA's visit to India, an understanding of the excellent IT infrastructure and that US and Indian IT companies could work together to huge competitive advantage.

Mahajan also said that India is going through its second freedom struggle - the IT Revolution, which would give to India economic power and sovereignty. He forecast that the US slowdown would only last for another 3 to 4 quarters and, therefore, US and Indian IT companies should prepare together, as partners, to beat the downturn and work jointly for the business upturn thereafter.

He saw a positive future for the IT Industry because every single sector of society would need IT increasingly.

"IT has a fantastic future," he said.

The ITAA president said that "the US IT Industry would like to clone him for the US."

Participants at the ITAA Convention included delegates from CII and Japan; companies such as IBM, Mirant, DSFX, Fujitsu, EDS, SGCowen, Geneer, Oracle, PeopleSoft's, eCenter, Veridian, Digital4Sight, Mercer, eAssociates, Tivoli, KMPG, NVCA, US EXIM Bank, St. Paul and many other top US IT Corporates.

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