Sunday, June 2, 2013

Indian offshoring at an inflexion point, yet again?

I try and periodically catch up on trends in offshoring. A few interesting trends in Indian offshoring seem to be shaping up pointing to an inflexion point (or maybe not)
  • Anticipating yet another debate on US immigration overhaul debate with a bated breath: Read between the lines: while analysts, political pundits and others debate the outcome, it will probably be close to status quo. H1 work visas are too sacred and lucrative a cash cow for the US IT business and government to do a fundamental tinkering on
  • Senior Indian offshoring Executive, Phanish Murthy ousted, yet again for sexual misconduct: Jury is out on whether he is being framed (again?) or just happened to follow the footsteps of former American President Clinton
  • Cognizant overtakes Wipro and Infosys to take the title of second largest Indian offshoring firm (whatever that means to most of us). Bragging rights aside, it makes industry watchers reflect on how dynamic (and precarious) even the mega Indian offshoring firms are. Read between the lines: while TCS, Cognizant, Infosys, Wipro battle for title of “largest,” other global giants – IBM, Accenture, HP et al –are growing really really big in offshoring.
  • Infosys brings back cofounder and Godfather of Indian offshoring, Mr. Narayana Murthy. Read between the lines: It may seem similar to what Steve Jobs did at Apple where there was little hope of a turnaround. By bringing back Mr Murthy, is Infosys admitting it is really in dire straits and that there is a bankruptcy of next generation leadership? (Indian media seems to be lukewarm to the idea. Ref Economic Times Why Narayana Murthy's comeback will set Infosys back)
Where all does all this leave the clients of offshoring firms? Status quo for now? And what about the masses of young Indian techies and wannabe techies in Engineering schools? Economist magazine recently had an interesting briefing on "India’s demographic challenge" summarizing "will soon have fifth of the world’s orking age population. It urgently needs to provide them with better jobs". Does the same apply to Indian offshoring segment too?

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