India now exporting jobs to US

NEW DELHI: IT professionals in the US may soon stop complaining about their jobs being 'Bangalored' as current trend shows that India has also started exporting jobs to the US to meet the demand generated by widespread growth in the technology space.

With the global technology trade expanding further, countries like India and China are no longer just the recipients of foreign investments and outsourced jobs, they are now exporting jobs to the US as well by opening R&D and manufacturing facilities there, a new study shows.

In a reversal of trends, Indian and Chinese companies are now exporting jobs to America by expanding their presence on US soil -- hence proving that the global tech trade can create opportunities for all nations involved, global IT research major Forrester said in a report.

As India's Tata Group and Infosys and China's Lenovo and Haier start expanding abroad, they are creating new investment projects and are hiring sales and service staff worldwide including the US, Forrester Research's Navi Radjou said.

According to the data compiled by IBM-Plant Location International, India moved to the seventh position in the league of FDI origin countries in terms of the number of projects in 2005, from its 10th position in the previous year with as many as 218 projects.

While the US was the biggest recipient of Chinese FDI in 2005, the United Kingdom received the highest number of FDI projects from India. The US was the fourth biggest FDI recipient from India in 2005 with a total of 17 projects, as against 45 received by the UK.

In contrast, the US and the UK each received 11 FDI projects from China. India also received 7 Chinese projects, while China received 24 Indian FDI projects.

The latest FDI trends show that the US investors are continuing to fuel the rise of India and China as major supply bases for technology R&D and manufacturing, Forrester said.

At the same time, the US is also becoming a magnet for foreign investments targeted at industries like financial services, consumer goods and pharma -- which are heavily dependent on IT and boast of huge, sophisticated markets and high-end talent, the report added.

Radjou said that the latest data proves growing synergies between the US, India and China as against the underlying sentiments that the US is losing its global competitiveness.

India is emerging as the 'Innovator' with its limited domestic market but a highly qualified and service-focused technical talent pool that attracts huge R&D investments.

On the other hand, China would play the role of "transformer" using its cost-effective industrial labour and vast consumer market to establish itself as the world's biggest destination for manufacturing related investments.

According to the FDI data from IBM-PLI, India continued to top the chart of destination countries for R&D projects with as many as 205 projects, while China topped the league of manufacturing projects with 565 projects in 2005.