Forbes Column 08: The Next Indo-China War

Here’s my new Forbes Column: The Next Indo-China War. I look forward to your comments and perspective on the issues discussed in it.

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Catching Up On Readings: Media Mania

If you have missed these posts from my recent writings, today may be a good time to catch up on some reading:

First, in the blogosphere, online media, old and new media, advertising – big changes have taken place. Here is a set of posts from the Deal Radar series that might help you make sense of these developments where I discuss companies that have driven some of the biggest changes: Techcrunch, GigaOm, Federated Media, Glam Media, Adify, Travel Ad Network, and Seeking Alpha. >>>

Obama and Outsourcing

I love listening to Obama. After a long time, a real orator is dominating the political coverage on television, and it’s an absolute treat.

But, one thing he keeps saying that I find confusing is that he will stop US jobs from going abroad.

How exactly is he going to do that? What policy would enable him to achieve this objective?

Any guesses?

EE Times on Indian R&D Centers

EE Times reports on India’s status as an off-shore R&D destination: >>>

India’s Technology Enabled Service: Surrogate Motherhood

Read this piece on today’s NY Times: India Nurtures Business of Surrogate Motherhood. >>>

Forbes Column 08: How to Save the World’s Back Office

Please read my new Forbes column, How to Save the World’s Back Office. In it, I discuss Gram IT, a rural BPO project promoted by Satyam. There is also a video segment that you can watch here.

I would love to see more projects like this come about, get funded, and scaled in the commercial domain in India. I see rural / small town BPO as a very interesting opportunity for the next phase of India’s evolution as the world’s back-office.

Entrepreneurs in India: TAKE THIS ON. >>>

Does SaaS Threaten Indian Outsourcing?

Here’s an issue for readers to weigh in on: Does SaaS Threaten Indian Outsourcing? >>>

Deal Radar 2008: InsideView’s Clever Maneuvering

InsideView — headquartered in San Bruno, California, USA and operations in Cincinnati, Ohio and Hyderabad, India—was founded in 2005 by Umberto Milletti and Richard Horn. The company has been featured here before and you can read my interview with Umberto here. >>>

India’s Labor Arbitrage Strategy

It has been an interesting few days of being on the receiving end of tremendous hate mail due to my widely syndicated and (looks like) read and discussed Death of Indian Outsourcing article. >>>

Forbes Column 08: The Coming Death of Indian Outsourcing

My most recent Forbes Column, The Coming Death of Indian Outsourcing, discusses companies like ADP and their “nearshoring” moves.

Indian IT Industry: The Next 8 Years

Forbes has some scary statistics on the salary hike rate in India. The 2007 rate is 15.1%, up from 14.4% the previous year. 2008 forecast: 15.2%. This is the fifth consecutive year of salary growth above 10%.

Good lord!

Is Death of Indian Outsourcing all that far out? >>>

Patni and the H1-B Wage Fraud

Here’s a scary piece from Business Week: Are H-1B Workers Getting Bilked? addressing the issue:
Overseas outsourcing companies are accused of underpaying foreigners on work visas—and hurting U.S. wages.

Is there anyone among our readers who have direct experience with this? I thought this kind of under-wage body-shopping had ceased in the early nineties …

Death of Indian Outsourcing

“Are you kidding? No way!”

In 2008, the IT and IT enabled services (ITES/BPO) industries are supposed to be the major drivers of India’s economic growth. According to Nasscom, the two industries combined will employ 4 million people and account for 7% of GDP and 33% of foreign exchange inflow. The death of this industry is far from anyone’s mind.

Let me tell you a story. >>>

Accenture Should Roll-Up Indian Services Companies

Is Accenture (ACN) still in the body-shop business model? Yep. Why ruin a good thing when it’s working, some would ask. And India continues to be a strong leverage point for Accenture’s outsourcing activities, with a new consulting center opened in the last quarter. This was also reflected in the 40% increase in staff being strongest in India and the Philippines (41% increase YoY Q1). >>>

Infosys In Light of Recession Fears

The general feeling of the West has been that the rise of the rupee would slow down the immense growth of business being funneled into India. The reality is that growth continues to boom in India, barely slowed by currency exchange rates. The short term looks alright for Infosys (Nasdaq: INFY).

Infosys’ Q3 revenues posted at $1.084 billion, a YoY increase of 32% compared to the same quarter in 2007 and a 6% increase versus the previous quarter. Net profit is expected to post at $299 million, up 7% from Q1 and 20% higher YoY. The boost in revenue was attributed to the 47 new clients that were added in Q3. Guidance forward into Q4 expects Infosys to earn between $1.136 and $1.142 billion in revenue and between $4.17 and $4.18 billion for the fiscal year in total. Liquid cash balance exceeded $2 billion.

The stock, however, is getting hit because of the CEO’s comment that deals are taking longer to close. >>>