Indian Outsourcers Fight Back Against Presidential Candidates

1. CHICAGO: India Inc., which is facing the heat from U.S. Presidential candidates who blamed 'shipping jobs' to China and India for rising U.S. unemployment, has launched a counter-offensive here telling Americans that the industry is creating new work opportunities for them and "gifting" thousands of jobs to Americans and not "stealing" them.

A full-page advertisement in the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday, by industry body FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry), gives an elaborate account of how the legendary Tata Group, along with several others like Ranbaxy, Mahindra USA, Bharat Forge, ITC Kitchens of India and HCL America have created thousands of jobs in America by investing in different sectors of the US economy. According to FICCI, Indian corporate investments in the U.S. were over $10.25 billion in 2007.

2. Watch a video here from India Reuters on India Inc.'s ad.

3. The Chicago Sun-Times and more than 70 sister newspaper titles throughout the metro area have entered into an agreement to outsource most of its print and online ad production. The outsourcing agreement with Elgin-based Affinity Express Inc. is expected to reduce operating costs by $3 million a year at The Sun-Times News Group. Affinity, with production offices in India and the Philippines, was chosen because of its “extensive infrastructure and expertise in the field of advertising production for news companies,” including the Charlotte Observer and the Columbus, Ohio Dispatch.

Comment: Wouldn't it have been ironic if the production of the FICCI's full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune had been outsourced to India?

It's possible the only way that the U.S. newspaper industry can remain profitable and survive in the future is with increased outsourcing to India? In other words, although some ad production might be outsourced to India, those outsourcing efficiencies and cost savings might end up helping to save thousands and thousands of U.S. newspaper jobs.

Comments

[Eric Balkan:]

Reminds me of Hillary Clinton's going to Buffalo NY a couple of years ago to congratulate Tata on opening a new outsourcing office -- because they would have to hire local people to staff it. But nobody told Hillary that Tata only hires Indian nationals.
First the ads, then the layout, then the circulation office, then the editing, then when the actual printing goes electronic.... I guess the reporters are safe, though I imagine the investors are trying to figure out a way to replace them with H-1Bs.

2008 Feb 25 12:01 PM

[User 155746:]

Every industry that uses lower cost options helps Americans - whether they realize it or not. If health insurers use India-based outsourcers, health insurance premiums for Americans go down. If hospitals use syringes manufactured in China, healthcare costs go down.
If General Motors uses IT staff in India, their cars become more competitive globally and their workers retain jobs.

Indians and Chinese are now a growing market for American companies. For example, India is the only market where GM car sales are growing.

If you want to analyze why the economy is in bad shape - look at the bosses who earn 100s of millions of dollars every year, look at Alan Greenspan who printed so much money that every dollar got devalued. Look at Bush who started a pointless war that killed thousands of people and led to so much wealth destruction. Stop the war and spend the money on improving American lives.

2008 Feb 25 03:29 PM

[aks:]

It is extremely disappointing to see the world's biggest economy and biggest proponent of capitalism and free market, talking against imports of service (from India) and goods (from China). With companies like HP, Coco Cola which earn billions from all over world, how can US talk, with a straight face, against small companies in developing world exporting to US.

2008 Mar 01 12:36 AM

[User 160013:]

Lookup History...Any protectionist regime will fall from glory.Liberalization and globalization are the way to go...

2008 Mar 04 11:30 AM

[abr:]

It seems we always get detoured from the real issues that effect outsourcing as User 155746 mentioned. It's such an emotional issue because we do want to have our own citizens living well as a first priority. And, outsourcing our military resources is absurd.
But we have entered international trade (NAFTA) and each of us has benefited. We should be holding our politicians accountable for allowing corporations to run our domestic policies. We have the money to educate our children, to house our homeless, to have universal health care, but neither the President nor Congress is setting the agenda. If we provide a great education for ALL our children, they may lead us into a more productive country.
Let's get ourselves in order. We have enough wealth to share with others and reduce poverty around the world. Greed is our downfall.

2008 Mar 06 10:39 AM

[sa:]

Our economic development has been based on free trade in which we have sold hundreds of billions of dollars of goods including airplanes, computers, and Cokes to the developing world. Now that the dollar has declined once again exports will lead our economy out of this slump. First, it would be unethical to continue to push developing countries to open markets while at the same time erecting barriers to free trade. Second, large companies that outsource gain competitive advantage against there European and Japanese competitors therefore bringing greater prosperity to the US.

2008 Mar 24 03:44 PM