Business | Technology
India will remain at top of the IT and business outsourcing industry
Experts predict the nation will remain top dog for two decades
- By James Lamont, Financial Times
- Published: 00:00 December 5, 2009
Mumbai: India will remain a dominant force in IT and business process outsourcing for two decades, while China will struggle to match its success, says an authoritative study on the fast-growing industry by the Warwick Business School in the UK.
IT outsourcing companies such as Infosys, Wipro, Genpact and Tata Consultancy Services helped power the Indian economy to 9 per cent economic growth before the global financial crisis struck last year.
Some of their top executives fear growing competition from China and are making investments in outsourcing capabilities there.
Last week, Wipro opened a global delivery centre in Chengdu, in addition to a facility in Shanghai. The centre will offer services for manufacturing, banking, financial services and insurance industries. It will have expertise in English, Chinese and Japanese.
Genpact operates business process service centres in the Chinese cities of Changchun, Dalian and Shanghai.
But a report by WBS, commissioned by Cognizant, the global consulting and technology group, predicted that the rise of China's less mature industry was far from assured.
"China will emerge as an alternative, though it will struggle to achieve scale in western European and North American markets," the report said.
Ilan Oshri, one of the report's authors and associate fellow at WBS and the London School of Economics Outsourcing Unit, said India would maintain its lead for at least 15 years as its top companies had established a global footprint.
"India is not a powerhouse because it is cheap but because it is smart. That's not the same with China," Oshri said. "We don't see Chinese vendors emerging to be powerhouses."
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