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General
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Written by Daniel
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Friday, 27 February 2009 13:03 |
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Obama's IT Protectionism Rattles Indian IT Industry
Posted by Bob Evans, Feb 27, 2009 08:25 AM
PC World President Obama's plan to penalize U.S. companies that use outsourcers from India and other countries will hurt the U.S. economy, the Indian economy, and the global economy, according to officials from the Indian technology industry. While it's not exactly a shocker to hear India's $63 billion IT and BPO market express such reactions, they underscore the central issue of just how damaging such a policy would be.
In a recent post I noted that Obama's core argument is his belief that the U.S. has some proprietary claim on what he calls "our jobs" and that his proposed policy will somehow "restore a sense of fairness and balance" to our tax code by raising taxes on companies that, as he put it in language from another age, "ship our jobs overseas."
That kind of populist tub-thumping might play well to certain segments of the organized-labor movement but out in the real world it would have a terrible impact on the ability of American companies to compete in the global marketplace. And it would also have an equally damaging effect on Indian IT services companies whose operations have become central to American competitiveness.
In a roundup of reactions from various tech-related organizations in India, the Hindustan Times offered these impressions from leading IT industry association Nasscom; from Infosys; and from another industry group: [InformationWeek....] [Comments...] |
