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India aims to become back office of the world
Gurgaon, Apr 30: If China is the workshop of the world, then India is becoming the global back office.
Gurgaon, Apr 30: If China is the workshop of the world, then India is becoming the global back office.
From British companies opening call centres to US banks setting up number-crunching operations, more and more firms are cutting costs by tapping India's deep pool of computer-literate, English-speaking and -- above all -- relatively cheap graduates.
The explosive growth in such information technology-enabled services, building on India's success in software and IT proper, underscores the growing embrace of globalisation by an economy that not long ago made a point of turning its back on the world.
Officials and economists go further: by honing its efficiency, Indian industry -- not just in IT services but across a broad spectrum -- now feels more confident about taking on the rest of the world instead of clamouring for tariff protection.
"They've stopped squealing now because they find they can actually compete," said Saumitra Chaudhuri, economic adviser to ratings agency Icra in New Delhi.
Chaudhuri said he had witnessed a wave of consolidation, restructuring and cost-cutting by private-sector companies since 1998 that he called unprecedented by Indian standards.
China especially no longer holds the same fear that prevailed among policymakers and industrialists just two years ago.
"Indian companies have met the enemy and suddenly realised they were not quite as weak as they thought they were," said Pronob Sen, an adviser to India's Planning Commission. "There's a perceptible improvement in confidence."
Sen traced the change in mindset to the removal of remaining quantitative restrictions on imports in 2001. "That was looked upon almost as the last bastion that was protecting us from the Huns. And when it fell, nothing happened."
T K Bhaumik at the Confederation of Indian Industry agreed.
"Indian industry has survived 50 years of strangulating controls and regulations," he said. "If an industry has faced so many controls, do you think it can't face competition? Of course it can. Indian industry knows how to survive." Bureau Report
The explosive growth in such information technology-enabled services, building on India's success in software and IT proper, underscores the growing embrace of globalisation by an economy that not long ago made a point of turning its back on the world.
Officials and economists go further: by honing its efficiency, Indian industry -- not just in IT services but across a broad spectrum -- now feels more confident about taking on the rest of the world instead of clamouring for tariff protection.
"They've stopped squealing now because they find they can actually compete," said Saumitra Chaudhuri, economic adviser to ratings agency Icra in New Delhi.
Chaudhuri said he had witnessed a wave of consolidation, restructuring and cost-cutting by private-sector companies since 1998 that he called unprecedented by Indian standards.
China especially no longer holds the same fear that prevailed among policymakers and industrialists just two years ago.
"Indian companies have met the enemy and suddenly realised they were not quite as weak as they thought they were," said Pronob Sen, an adviser to India's Planning Commission. "There's a perceptible improvement in confidence."
Sen traced the change in mindset to the removal of remaining quantitative restrictions on imports in 2001. "That was looked upon almost as the last bastion that was protecting us from the Huns. And when it fell, nothing happened."
T K Bhaumik at the Confederation of Indian Industry agreed.
"Indian industry has survived 50 years of strangulating controls and regulations," he said. "If an industry has faced so many controls, do you think it can't face competition? Of course it can. Indian industry knows how to survive." Bureau Report