Anti-BPO sentiments need to be tackled through a sustained campaing

New Delhi, May 18 (UNI) Positive spin-offs in the bi-lateral relations should be explained to the common man in the US and they should understand that business process outsourcing (BPO) is not a stand-alone game, said industry chamber PHDCCI.

''People-to-people contacts in the US to counter the campaign that many jobs are lost in that country due to business process outsourcing (BPO) to India must be launched'', said President PHDCCI Mr Sanjay Bhatia.

It is an important segment of growing economic relations and should not be used as a political issue to gain electoral dividends, he said.

Reacting to the explanation sought by two members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee from a few Indian IT firms regarding the H1-B visas, the PHDCCI Chief said there seems to be an information gap among the common man in the US about outsourcing and strategic positioning of India in the segment.

''First and foremost, most of the outsourcing work in India has been done from platforms provided by the US companies. That includes windows software, computers, servers, satellites and a host of accessories that are required for the outsourcing digitalisation and networking,'' said Mr Bhatia.

All modern digital products of US companies like Hewlett Packard, Compaq, Motorola etc are marketed in India widely and are almost household names. Indian BPOs are perhaps one of the largest buyers of these equipment, he added.

Stating that Indo- US economic and political relationship is at an all time high, the PHDCCI Chief said a large number of US private equity and pension funds are focussing on India like never before since the return on investment from India is higher as compared to the developed countries and even some of the emerging economies.

''In the emerging new bilateral architecture, both countries, the largest two democracies in the world, stand to gain,'' said Mr Bhatia.

Financial flows from Indian students to the tune of 10 to 12 billion dollars are flowing into the US. US stands to benefit from the large orders to Boeing placed by the Indian national and private air carriers with many such business contracts being in the pipeline between Indian and the US energy, manufacturing etc. These contracts will support millions of jobs creation in the US.

According to PHDCCI many studies undertaken in the US by established and independent agencies, reveal outsourcing leads to cost cutting and the US businesses stand to gain at least 15 to 20 per cent through outsourcing.

UNI