Rise & rise of outsourcing

NEW DELHI, MAY 5: If tracking the growth of outsourcing with statistics is what you want, consider this: a search for articles on 'outsourcing' showed only 17 results between 1980 and 1990, and none mentioned India. From 1990 to 1995, 371 articles on outsourcing were found, with only one mentioning India. Between 1995 and 1996, the number of such articles rose to 566, with five mentioning India. Ever since then, the count has just gone up, up and up. Over 1,000 articles per year on the issue is the average.

This was Dr Margaret Levi, president, American Political Science buttociation, holding forth on 'politics of outsourcing' at a lecture organised by the Centre for Policy Research recently. Dr Levi, who's also a professor at the University of Washington, cautioned that her number crunching, based on a Lexis-Nexis search, was just an indicator.

Nevertheless, numbers are fascinating. So, here's some more. From 1995 to 2000, there were 171 articles on 'outsourcing' that factored in 'India'. The figure jumped 10 times to touch 1,781 during 2000-2005.

Now, for the political angle. In the six months prior to the US Presidential election, there were 66 articles discussing 'outsourcing and India' across major newspapers. After the elections, there was a lull.

Significantly, most articles on 'outsourcing to India' were published in the US, the UK, and Australia, Dr Levi said. These are the countries which are most concerned about outsourcing to India. Also, it's the loss or transfer of high-end, high-skill jobs to India and China that is leading to maximum political outcry.

But, look at it another way, and an outsourced job is not a 'job lost'. It's only a 'job shifted', she pointed out. Now that universities in the US are including 'outsourcing' in their syllabus, we may hear a new lingo on the subject soon.