Global financial crisis hits outsourcing of mass to India

August 19th, 2009 By Arvind Padmanabhan and Fakir Balaji The global slowdown and the financial crisis have ironically whetted the appetite of India's $71 billion outsourcing industry for takeovers, as back-office arms of multinational companies, both large and small, are being acquired by them in steal deals. And much to the delight of Indian buyers, the sellers have almost always awarded multiyear, multimillion dollar contracts to get the same services from them that has insured the jobs of millions of Indian youth.

February 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - China is unlikely to overtake India in outsourcing business anytime soon and it would take not one country but a lot of small ones to knock it off the top, according to a US expert. 'China is pretty far behind India and even places like the Philippines and Eastern Europe.

March 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A downturn in worldwide economy, Satyam's fraud case and the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and supply chain and shipping cost issues in China are causing US technology companies to pull back from the two traditional outsourcing locations. Citing these three global factors, an annual survey by BDO Seidman, LLP, one of America's leading accounting and consulting organizations, Tuesday suggested several technology firms would choose US as future outsourcing location over India and China.

May 5th, 2009 BANGALORE - US President Barack Obama's announcement to end tax sops to those US firms outsourcing jobs to countries like India has come under flak from Phil Harkins, a leading US management expert and chief executive of Linkage Inc, a global firm specialising in leadership development 'What Obama is doing is just politics. It's the arrogance of the US to think creating jobs overseas will result in job losses back home.

February 15th, 2009 BANGALORE - Infosys Technologies vice-chairman Nandan M. Nilekani Monday admitted that the global economic meltdown has affected hiring in India's IT industry.

January 7th, 2009 HYDERABAD - Ten top executives of the tainted Satyam Computer Services Ltd late Thursday pledged to remain with the company and work jointly to steer the IT bellwether, reeling under shocking disclosures of financial fraud by its founder chairman B. Ramalinga Raju.

April 18th, 2009 Though the financial sector has started showing some signs of recovery from the global meltdown, the IT industry in the country will take some more time to regain the growth momentum, a top industry official said here saturday. 'The crisis started in the financial sector and recovery also seems to be happening first in that sector,' S.

January 20th, 2009 BANGALORE - Azim Premji, chairman of IT major Wipro, is optimistic about the revival of the Indian economy earlier than the world economy, saying the country remained largely insulated from the fallout of the financial meltdown and recession in developed countries. 'I am little more optimistic about the India situation.

June 17th, 2009 BANGALORE - The declining trend in demand for outsourcing IT services has been arrested and conditions for recovery are clearer, a senior official of IT bellwether Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said here Wednesday. "We feel the conditions are little clearer in the sense demand for outsourcing in terms of decline arising out of global meltdown seems to have been arrested," TCS chief financial officer S.

September 30th, 2009 NEW DELHI - More business process outsourcing (BPO) service providers in India will exit the market in coming years, as it is difficult for them to stay afloat in the current form due to the slowdown, according to a study released here Wednesday. "One-quarter of the top business process outsourcing (BPO) service providers will not exist as separate entities by 2012," said the study by IT research and advisory firm Gartner.

September 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The third party logistics (3PL) business in India is likely to reach $90 million by 2012 from $58 million now, as the model is fast catching up among the country's businessmen due to its cost advantage, an industry lobby report says. "Currently 3PL outsourcing among Indian companies is estimated at $58 million as 55 percent of them are outsourcing services like supply chain management and warehousing," the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said in a paper.

December 22nd, 2008 BANGALORE - The ailing global financial services firm Citigroup Inc is selling its India-based captive IT services subsidiary City Technology Services (CTS) to Wipro Technologies for $127 million (Rs.6.2 billion) in an all-cash deal, the IT bellwether announced here Tuesday. Of the total value for 100 percent equity, Wipro will pay $26 million in cash towards premium and $101 million for the assets of CTS in Mumbai and Chennai.

September 9th, 2009 BEIJING - The Chinese government has pledged more aid from the country's financial institutions to boost its outsourcing industry, officials said Wednesday. In a statement posted on the website of the central bank Wednesday, the government urged the banks to develop more policies and credit products tailored for the outsourcing business, especially for firms in the 20 pilot cities for the industry, including Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing and Shanghai.

February 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - An estimated 500,000 jobs were lost in India from September to December last year in areas like textiles, automobiles and information technology, and the actual numbers across the country could be higher, parliament was informed Friday. Quoting a study by the labour ministry, Corporate Affairs Minister told the Lok Sabha, the lower house, that total employment in the areas covered fell from 16.2 million in September to 15.7 million in December.

April 2nd, 2009 MUMBAI - SYSTIME , a CMS Group Company and the largest Oracle JD Edwards practice globally, has recently announced the appointment of Aloke Ghosh as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Aloke is a seasoned finance professional with a career spanning 20 years within the IT Services and manufacturing industries.