The Hindu : No outsourcing barriers here: U.K. Minister

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 04, 2004

Business

Business

No outsourcing barriers here: U.K. Minister

By Anand Parthasarathy

MUMBAI, FEB. 3. "We are for a free, transparent and open market — and we practice what we preach,'' the British Minister for Energy and e-Commerce, Stephen Timms, told the Indian software and services community, adding that the Government would not put up barriers on who works for it and where. He was giving the inaugural address at the annual forum of the National Association of Software and Service Companies that began here today — and as an attention grabber, for an audience with recent news of U.S.-planned curbs still rankling, it was a statement that could hardly be bettered.

He pointed to Indian information technology players such as Mastek and the Tatas which were working with consortiums to provide key solutions to government undertakings like the UK National Health Service (NHS). "Inextricably linked in the past, we are also partners for the future,'' he added, making a strong pitch for Indian IT companies to invest in Britain, which boasted the lowest levels of corporate taxation in Europe.

When the other featured speaker at the inaugural session, Dan Griswold, Associate Director at the Centre for Trade Policy Studies of the Washington-based think tank, the Cato Institute, got his turn at the podium, he reassured the 500 plus audience of IT leaders that in the U.S., "rhetoric is often worse than the eventual legislation'' in an election year. He said of moves in the U.S. Congress and Senate to ban Government outsourcing to India: "It's a huge mistake for us to go down that path.'' The total quantum of outsourced work was less than three percent of the U.S. IT industry's turnover, he added.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, in his opening remarks pointed out that the proactive IT policy of the State had seen no less than 34 private IT Parks come up within the space of one year — divided between Mumbai and Pune. The Government on its part had set up a second IT Park in Nagpur in December 2003 — and it was already half full. And when it came to national awards in the e-governance arena, Mr. Shinde quipped that Maharashtra with four in the bag last year was one up on States like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. In a statement earlier in the day the Nasscom said the Indian software and services industry was likely to end the fiscal 2003-04 by registering revenues of $12 billion (Rs. 55,510 crores) up 28 percent from last year.

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