India hits out at US over BPO

Wednesday, 09 June 2004, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Terming it as unfortunate, India on Tuesday hit out at the backlash against business process outsourcing saying it was ironic that the country which was in the forefront of free and liberal trade was resorting to legislations to ban it. "This is unfortunate. It is ironic that countries which used to be in the forefront of free, open and liberal trade are now even passing legislations to hinder BPO," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath told US-India Business Council's 29th Annual meeting via video conferencing. Nath quoted authoritative studies to say that outsourcing was infact a win-win situation. While India gained in terms of employment, developed economies benefited in terms of profit. "If something is mutually beneficial, it would be irrational to block it. BPO is not the only emerging area for India 's strengths, there are a host of other sectors where we welcome to invest and we can focus on," he said. India 's public response to U.S. legislation to curb outsourcing has been notably tempered, a stark contrast to the heated language that often punctuates the debate over the issue in the United States . One of the few sharply worded statements to come out of India was made earlier this year by the Confederation of Indian Industry, a powerful business lobby, in response to the Senate legislation. "The passage of the federal law barring outsourcing of U.S. government contracts given by American firms to companies located in India and other countries by the U.S. Senate is unfortunate and unwarranted," the organization said in January.
Source: IANS