Indian Outsourcing

Stories

19 Stories

August 2008
- US Slowdown Hits India's IT Sector Hard
  
  Wall Street Journal | Aug 20, 08 10:00 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The credit crunch that has shifted the US economy into neutral has slowed the growth of India’s tech sector, which once boasted growth rates of 40% in the overall strong economy, the Wall Street Journal reports. The slowdown comes as the sector faces increasing competition from abroad and rising labor costs at home, and a weak dollar eating into profit margins. More »
- The Win-Win Economics of Medical Tourism
  
  Economist | Aug 15, 08 2:28 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The spread of “medical tourism”—uninsured and underinsured patients seeking cheap health care in Southeast Asia or Latin America—has fueled fears that developing nations will divert resources from state health systems caring for their own citizens. But, the Economist argues, “if governments make the best of the boom, then medical tourism should improve the health of rich and poor alike.” More »
May 2008
- India's IT Hub Challenging Politics as Usual
  
  Reuters | May 20, 08 3:01 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - For years, Bangalore—India’s answer to Silicon Valley—has endured traffic jams, power blackouts and a chaotic airport that businesses blame on politicians who’ve ignored the city’s IT elites to court rural voters. Now, Reuters reports, an updated constituency map giving urban voters more clout has hope high for change after state elections end Thursday. More »
April 2008
- Indian Phone Banks Tackle US Debt Collection
  
  New York Times | Apr 24, 08 2:20 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - As individuals' debt grows in a tough economy, US debt-collection agencies are expanding into India, where collectors work more cheaply—and are often better, the New York Times reports. Indian collectors are “very polite, very respectful, and they don’t raise their voice,” says one CEO. And a big payout in India can be a quarter of the salary American collectors expect. More »
- Booming India Sees 'Brain Gain'
  
  Guardian (UK) | Apr 20, 08 5:04 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - India's educated are no longer rushing to the West for big bucks and a better lifestyle, the Guardian reports. More university grads are refusing to emigrate and many expats are returning home—a trend experts are dubbing "brain gain." One Indian, formerly in London, said he would "read about what was happening in India and I'd ask myself: What am I doing here? It was an obvious choice to return." More »
March 2008
- India: Solution to US Health Crisis
  
  Chicago Tribune | Mar 28, 08 2:32 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - India is a top destination for uninsured Americans needing major surgery, the Chicago Tribune reports, with prices up to 85% lower than US rates. Last year, India welcomed 150,000 medical tourists, the Chicago Tribune reports—and now, HMOs want a piece of those savings. “Employers may soon follow in the footsteps of individuals,” a recent American Medical Association report concluded. More »
February 2008
- Repairs Begin on Cut Net Cable
  
  Reuters | Feb 5, 08 6:18 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - Repairs have begun on a segment of undersea Internet cable reported severed off the coast of the United Arab Emirates last Friday, Reuters reports. FLAG, an Indian telecom, said that one of their ships had reached the cable, the most recently disrupted of three main lines to undermine access across the Middle East and South Asia. Another repair ship is expected to reach one of the other two cables today. More »
- Mideast Web Woes Persist as 3rd Cable Is Cut
  
  CNN | Feb 1, 08 1:18 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - A third cable carrying Internet traffic to the Mideast was cut today off the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, and web and phone service remained disrupted in large areas of the Mideast and India because of breaks in two cables in the Mediterranean Wednesday. The cables severed earlier carried as much as three-quarters of the traffic between Europe and the Mideast, so their loss was more serious, CNN reports. More »
December 2007
- Pregnancies Outsourced to India
  
  Associated Press | Dec 31, 07 6:54 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - A town in India, where more than 50 women are currently pregnant with the children of Western couples, has hatched a booming industry in commercial surrogacy, dubbed "wombs for rent." The women in Anand have been impregnated with the sperm and eggs of US, British and other couples unable to conceive—and are paid more than many of them earn in 15 years. They live together and are monitored at the clinic during their pregnancies, which have produced 40 babies to date. More »
November 2007
- Yes, Virginia, There's a Call Center for That
  
  Der Spiegel | Nov 29, 07 3:14 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Outsourcing isn't just for tech support anymore—foreign call centers will now take care of arranging the minutiae of your day-to-day life, from hotel reservations to algebra help for the kids. New York-based Ask Sunday, with its service center in India, is just one such purveyor, Der Spiegel reports, for a mere $29 a month. More »
- Outsourcing Doesn't Stop at India Anymore
  
  PC World | Nov 7, 07 5:07 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - If you're mad about your job being outsourced to India, don't worry: it may soon be outsourced to somewhere else. A weak dollar, rising salaries in India, and a high rate of attrition there are leading US companies to look for alternatives to the subcontintent for their outsourcing needs. Still, no single clear alternative has yet emerged, reports PC World . More »
October 2007
- India Tech Consultants Snag Giant Deal
  
  BusinessWeek | Oct 18, 07 6:20 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Tata Consultancy Service has won a $1.2 billion contract with Neilsen, marking a historical record for an Indian company. TCS will provide the Dutch media powerhouse with 10 years of infrastructure and financial management, BusinessWeek reports. The deal puts the company on the global finance map, able to compete with outsourcing bigshots like IBM and Accenture. More »
July 2007
- Tech Companies Cool on Indian Outsourcing
  
  Wall Street Journal | Jul 3, 07 10:12 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - India, the destination of choice for American tech companies looking for sophisticated but cheap labor, is beginning to lose its appeal, the Wall Street Journal reports. Rising pay scales are making it too expensive to justify the complications of globalizing. Now some are outsourcing their outsourcing to slower climes like Vietnam and even Poland. More »
June 2007
- Outsourcing the lawyers; Mindcrest sends Fortune 500 companies' repetitive tasks to attorneys in India
  
  Chicago Sun-Times | Jun 6, 07
  
  A Chicago company is taking the outsourcing business to an unlikely field -- the legal profession. Mindcrest, the brainchild of two attorneys and two engineers (www.mindcrest.com), works mostly with Fortune 500 companies whose legal departments can save money and free up their staffs by sending work overseas. Ganesh Natarajan, CEO, president and one of the company's four founders, said he got the idea of outsourcing legal work when he was an attorney at Gardner Carton & Douglas, a Chicago law firm recently acquired by Philadelphia-based Drinker Biddle & Reath.
May 2007
- EU Universities Could Lose Ground to Asia
  
  Times (UK) | May 21, 07 6:21 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Top-tier European universities like Oxford, Cambridge and the Sorbonne will fall behind competitors in China and India within 10 years, the EU's education commissioner warns. The Times of London reports underfunding and outmoded curricula could cost the mossier Western schools their international reputations, and international enrollments with them. More »
- Booming India Is Starved for Power
  
  New York Times | May 21, 07 8:35 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - India's economy is growing so fast it has outstripped its electrical capacity, leaving burgeoning businesses, industries and homes to generate their own power with soot-belching diesel-powered generators for hours every day. Half of India's populace has no connection to the grid at all, and new construction often goes up without any plan for supplying electricity. More »
- Outsourcing Firms Grab Visas
  
  BusinessWeek | May 15, 07 11:51 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - H1B visas—intended to bring high-skilled foreign workers to the U.S.—may in fact helping foreign companies to train their workers, two senators argue. Data released by Republicans Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley indicate that nine Indian outsourcing firms use up 30% of the H1B visas granted each year, more than experts had realized previously. More »
April 2007
- India Short On Skilled Workers
  
  New Yorker | Apr 9, 07 10:42 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Why is India short on skilled labor when it's teeming with Ph.D.s? While the staggering growth of its tech industry seems to have put the country in the running for the world’s next superpower, James Surowiecki observes that the Bengal tiger could be made of paper. Thirty per cent of the country is still illiterate. Only 10 percent go to college. More »
November 1991
- U.S. companies finding that CASE travels well in India; surplus of skilled software professionals makes outsourcing, joint projects attractive
  
  Software Magazine | Nov 15, 91
  
  Several US software publishers have moved their application development and maintenance operations to India in an attempt to cut costs. Wages are cheaper in India, and telecommunications make possible links to US headquarters and host computers. The structured approach of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) makes the technology particularly well suited to offshore software development. Software is India's best chance to improve the country's economy, and the government is trying to lure foreign investors by providing tax breaks.