Describing backlash against outsourcing as "extreme demonstration of double standards by the United States," Wipro chief Azim Premji said on Monday that it "was not a passing wave and should be taken seriously".

"Backlash against outsourcing was an extreme demonstration of double standards by the US and is unforgivable," Premji said at a seminar in Mumbai.

Outsourcing and India: Complete Coverage

The backlash issue has become acute in the US as it was the election year there. Counting the benefits of outsourcing, Premji said, the financial sector in the US, which first started outsourcing has added about 125,000 new jobs in the last four years while becoming cost-competitive by reducing costs by seven per cent.

Describing globalisation as a two-way traffic, Premji said that if India is good at something it would naturally progress in it.

Under its obligations of globalisation, the Indian government has reduced import duty on software and IT imports to about five per cent from 200 per cent in the last 24 months, he added.

"There are going to be some temporary ups and downs and that is the cruelty of globalisation," he said.

Foreign software companies are "frantically and desperately" setting up global delivery centres in India, which demonstrate the success of the Indian model, Premji said, adding, these companies realised it late and would take some time to catch up.

He said Indian software companies are not low on pricing, as the development centres of foreign companies also offer solutions to customers who want a share in the solutions developments taking place in the low-cost countries at around the same rates of the Indian companies or at a slight brand premium.