India is the
leading country for offshore outsourcing. The offshore outsourcing industry
started in India and it has been able to grow the IT and BPO export sector to
$47 billion and capture more than half the offshore outsourcing industry. That
is not to say that India does not have challenges or is the best location for
every offshore outsourcing effort, but it has an unparalleled history and size.
The Americas and
Europe are the largest customers for the Indian outsourcing industry and
account for 60 percent and 31 percent respectively of IT and BPO exports. The
largest vertical sectors are financial services (41 percent), high-tech/
telecom (20 percent), manufacturing (17 percent) and retail (8 percent).
In 2011 the IT-BPO industry currently employs 25lakh people out of which 835,000
are employed by BPO exports industry.
IT and BPO
services outsourcing first started in India in the mid 1980s. The large,
English speaking, low-cost workforce was the main attraction. The industry grew
rapidly through the 1990s aided by the dot com boom and IT upgrades to prepare
for potential Y2K bugs. The 2000s saw similar growth with work moving to India
in down cycles to help companies cut costs and in boom times to capitalize on
the readily available talent.
The 2008-2009
global recessions has had a negative impact on outsourcing growth in India, but
the sector is experiencing a turn-around in 2010. Many US and European
companies are still cautions about the speed or staying power of the 2010
economic recovery and thus are looking to maintain a low cost base in locations
such as India. We expect IT and BPO outsourcing in India to bounce back to
double digit growth rates in 2012.
India has been the preferred outsourcing destination for most IT companies in
UK and USA, mostly because of its affordable labour, English speaking workforce
and stable infrastructure.
The services sector in India
contributes as much as 52% to the GDP growth and includes BPOs, KPOs, IT
companies, ITeS etc. Due to the economical crises in America and European
nations, the Indian outsourcing industry has evolved. This is because
global IT companies are cutting down on costs and are seeking more cost
effective solutions by seeking cheap resources. These include several changes
in corporate behaviours such as staff reductions, bringing in new decision
makers, better payment management and simpler value propositions.
Of course, changes in
pricing trends see American and European companies deflating pricing for
globalization services. Large companies, especially those that work on long
term engagements such as TCS, Satyam, Wipro, etc. are not adversely affected.
In fact, Indian IT services companies will prove beneficial to recession hit countries
due to their ability to compete better. Business relations between India and
these nations will improve, as a result.
Currently, the
Indian economy is one of the largest emerging economies in the world. It is
commonly grouped with Brazil, Russia and China as part of the BRIC countries
that are having an increasingly important impact on the global economy.
The gross domestic product, measured by current exchange rates, hit $1.2
billion in 2008. However when calculated using purchasing power parity,
the economy is estimated to be about $3.4 billion, second of all top
outsourcing countries.