India tries outsourcing its outsourcing

Slightly related to that last post...

From across India, thousands of recruits report to the Infosys Technologies campus here in India's deep south. Amid the manicured lawns and modern buildings, they learn the finer points of software programming.

But lately, packs of foreigners have been strolling the campus. Many are Americans, recently graduated from college. Some had been pursued by coveted employers like Google. Instead, they accepted a novel assignment from Infosys, the Indian technology giant: Fly here to learn programming from scratch, then return to the United States to work in the Indian company's back office.

Now India is outsourcing outsourcing.

One of the constants of the global economy has been companies moving tasks - and jobs - to India, where they could be done at lower cost. But rising wages for programmers here, a strengthening currency and companies' need for workers in their clients' time zones or for workers who speak languages other than English are challenging that model.

At the same time, India is facing increased competition from countries seeking to emulate its success as a back office for wealthier neighbors: China for Japan, Morocco for France and Mexico for the United States, for instance. [emphasis mine]

What's interesting is many companies in the US say they either can't find enough such talent (without government help in work visas) or can't afford to employ them in the US. So Indian companies have better managers? Just asking.

Via International Herald Tribune.