Journal of Information Technology (2008) 23, 215–227

& 2008 JIT Palgrave Macmillan. All rights reserved 0268-3962/08

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Debates and Perspectives

An analysis of India’s future attractiveness

as an offshore destination for IT and
IT-enabled services
Kailash Joshi, Srikanth Mudigonda
College of Business Administration, University of Missouri, St. Louis, MO, USA

Correspondence:
K Joshi, College of Business Administration, University of Missouri, One University Blvd., CCB 215, St. Louis, MO 63121,
USA.
Tel: þ 1 314 516 6123;
Fax: þ 1 314 516 6827;
E-mail: joshi@umsl.edu

Abstract
Offshoring of services will shape the economic landscape for the coming decades, and
present opportunities and challenges for individuals, organizations, and countries. Many
countries are jostling in the global services marketplace to take advantage of the emerging
opportunities. The success of an organization’s offshoring initiative depends critically on
the selection of a right destination; a wrong choice may result in a failure and impose
significant costs. This paper presents a framework to assess the attractiveness of a target
country, which identifies various motivating, inhibiting, and facilitating factors that may
influence its attractiveness. The framework is used to analyze the future attractiveness of
India, a topic that continues to be debated. The relative attractiveness of other potential
competitors for offshoring of services is also discussed. Contrary to other analysts’
opinions, we conclude that India is likely to sustain its leading position for a long time in the
services sector, and that it is likely to emerge as a global hub for the delivery of services,
analogous to China’s role in the manufacturing sector.
Journal of Information Technology (2008) 23, 215–227. doi:10.1057/jit.2008.13
Keywords: outsourcing; offshoring; country attractiveness; India; IT; ITES

Introduction Many countries are jostling in the global services

he information age has been identified as the third marketplace to take advantage of emerging opportunities.

T industrial revolution, following the agricultural and

manufacturing revolutions of the previous centuries
(Blinder, 2006). A unique characteristic of the information
age is the movement of service-sector jobs from developed
economies to offshore locations that are cheaper. In this
new economy, the offshoring of services presents opportu-
nities and challenges for individuals, organizations, and
countries that are trying to gain or retain competitive-
ness. Offshoring and outsourcing have moved to the top
of CEO agenda in most large enterprises. In a survey
of 500 senior executives at multinational firms, 57% of
respondents reported that they view offshoring and out-
sourcing as critical forces shaping the global economy (The
Economist, 2005). The volume of services offshored is
expected to increase manifold in the future. For example, in
the case of information technology (IT) services, offshoring
is expected to grow six-fold between 2004 and 2010
(Marriott, 2006).
Among them, India has emerged as a leader in providing
offshore services to the industrialized, developed countries
on the basis of its relatively low-cost, well-trained, English-
speaking workforce (MGI, 2005a). India leads in the total
volume of services offshored, whether through in-house
offshore development centers (ODCs), or through out-
sourcing to India-based vendors (Kearney, 2004a, b). India
is also a leader in the range of services provided. It is
among the top locations for different sectors ranging from
IT services (e.g., application development, infrastructure
management) to IT-enabled services (ITES). Offshored
ITES can be classified into business process outsourcing
(BPO) and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO). BPO
activities focus on lower-skill clerical work in areas such as
accounting, HR, and customer relationship management.
KPO activities involve higher-skill work such as analysis,
design, and research for legal, engineering, architectural,
financial, healthcare, and other fields (NASSCOM, 2006).
 India as an offshore destination for services
216
However, there have been doubts expressed about India’s
sustainability as the top destination for offshored services
(Herber, 2005). Some consultants (e.g., Marriott, 2006) have
even predicted that India’s market share could erode as
much as 45% by 2007 (Siddiqui, 2005; Silicon India, 2005).
The reasons mentioned include the rise of competitors such
as China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Hungary, and
Poland; the rising wages of Indian employees in the sectors
involved in offshored work; a high turnover of employees in
the IT/ITES sector; a shortage of qualified labor pool in
India; and poor infrastructure. Indian vendors have also
identified the likely shortage of IT personnel by 2010 and
infrastructural issues as possible bottlenecks and have
urged the government to address these problems (KPMG,
2004). In contrast to the pessimistic outlook of the above-
mentioned reports, some other analysts have opined that
India is likely to remain the most attractive location over
the next 20 years (Schaffhauser, 2006). Thus, there is a need
for a better understanding of India’s future role in the
offshoring of services.
The issue of selection of a target country for offshoring
services is critical for the success of an organization’s
offshoring initiative. It involves a considerable investment
of resources and effort in entering a new country. However, if
the country selected turns out to be a wrong choice for the
delivery of the needed services, or, if it loses its competitive
advantage in a short period, the organization may incur
substantial additional costs in sourcing its services from a
different location. Therefore, the selection of a country for
offshoring is very important, whether the firm decides to
invest in the establishment of an offshore development center
(ODC) or, to rely on vendors with offshore facilities in that
country. Setting up an ODC is likely to involve substantial
investment in facilities and development of human resources.
When the offshore country is no longer competitive, shifting
the ODC can prove to be very expensive, and often not
infeasible. For example, former attractive locations such as
Ireland and Israel continue to host most ODCs, despite their
rising costs.
Even if the firm employs vendors with offshore facilities,
significant upfront costs may be involved in establishing
communication patterns, cultural compatibility, process
coordination, and an ongoing relationship with the target
vendor(s). This implies that changing an offshore vendor
could also be expensive. Furthermore, if changing a vendor
also involves going to a different offshore country, it can
substantially add to the costs of the transition. Therefore,
an important factor to consider in the selection of a target
country would be the availability of alternative vendors
within the same country.
The analysis presented above highlights the critical
importance of choosing the right country for offshoring
services and identifies substantial costs and opportunity
losses that may be incurred in case of a wrong decision. The
preferred location for a company should depend on its own
context and geographic location. The objective of this paper
is to develop a framework for evaluating the attractiveness
of a country for offshoring. We use this framework to assess
India’s future attractiveness as a destination for the
offshoring of services.
In the next section, we present the above-mentioned
framework. Following this, we present an evaluation of
K Joshi and S Mudigonda
India and its future role in the offshoring of services on the
basis of the factors identified in the framework. Next, we
briefly discuss the context of other competing countries
before concluding with an analysis of India’s competitive
position in the next decade.
A framework for the selection of a target country
for offshoring
The selection of a country for offshoring involves a
consideration of several factors. To help analyze the myriad
issues that are involved in a systematic way, we propose a
framework for evaluating a country’s attractiveness for
offshore work. It includes some of the factors identified
in the prior literature. Palvia (2004) identified political
ideology, information and communication technology
(ICT) infrastructure, government regulations, workforce
characteristics, judicial/legal system, and language and
culture as determinants of a country’s attractiveness as an
offshoring destination. Other factors considered in prior
research and consultant reports include (a) geopolitical,
social, economic risks, global delivery model risks, and
vendor-specific business case risks (Marriott, 2006); (b)
country-specific factors such as labor market, government
policies, supplier base, and barriers within companies
(MGI, 2005a); (c) drivers of FDI such as liberalization and
privatization; and (d) transportation and communication
costs (Farrell, 2004). Most of these factors have been
remapped into our framework.
The framework is based on three key factors: primary
motivators, inhibitors, and facilitating conditions (Figure 1).
We have adopted an analogy of the forces that affect the
motion of an automobile in describing the framework. This
framework is similar to Lewin’s Force-Field Analysis
(Lewin, 1951) that explains the direction of change in a
system based on an analysis of the various driving and
restraining forces affecting the system. In our framework,
motivating factors act as an accelerator, pushing towards
offshoring, while inhibiting factors act as brakes that
prevent the forward motion. If the motivating factors can
overcome the resistance imposed by the inhibiting factors,
the role of facilitating conditions becomes important. The
facilitating conditions help smoothen the offshoring
transactions, once a decision to offshore has been made,
whether through an in-house ODC or through vendors with
offshore facilities.
Essentially, primary factors are the fundamental drivers
of offshoring work to other countries. In response to
competitive pressures and to build a globally integrated
enterprise (Palmisano, 2006), organizations will be on a
lookout for locations that can help them gain a competitive
advantage in the delivery of specific services. The advan-
tages that an offshore location may provide include cost
savings, access to a talented pool of workers, deployment of
a greater amount of service resources, and faster develop-
ment of new products and services. Some organizations
may proactively seek these advantages as early adopters of
the offshoring trend, while others may react to competitors’
actions and a changing marketplace.
However, the adoption of offshoring is discouraged by
inhibiting factors that act as deterrents. These factors are
responsible for a slow take-off of offshoring, despite some
 India as an offshore destination for services
Primary
motivating
factors Choice of
an off
shoring
(Accelerator) destination
country
Figure 1 A framework for evaluating the attractiveness of a country for offshoring.
of the advantages that it may offer. Some of these inhibiting
factors include a potential risk of disruption, an instability
in the target country, emerging geopolitical issues, a
volatility in foreign currency exchange rates and the
resulting risk of a loss of cost advantage, a possible decline
in service levels, a loss of control, a loss of intellectual
property, and political, employee, and customer backlash.
The facilitating conditions support convenient initial
entry, smooth transition, and efficient, trouble-free delivery
of services from the offshore location. Among competing
countries with similar cost advantages and risk profiles, it is
the facilitating conditions that act as the most important
discriminator in the choice of a target country. While the
motivating factors help define opportunities available in
lower-cost countries and inhibiting factors narrow the
choices that are feasible, it is the facilitating factors that
play a crucial role in facilitating a smooth, trouble-free
entry and the subsequent delivery of services. We have
identified vendor landscape, supporting ecosystem, and
business environment as primary facilitating conditions.
Customers should proactively anticipate and assess
these factors in selecting a target country. In the next sec-
tion, we discuss India’s current and likely future attractive-
ness on the basis of factors identified in the framework
presented in Figure 1.
Analysis of India’s attractiveness
We have identified specific criteria for each factor
introduced in the framework presented in Figure 1 to help
assess the attractiveness of a country. These criteria are
listed in Table 1, which also summarizes our assessment of
India’s current and likely future attractiveness in 2015. A
detailed analysis based on these criteria is presented below.
Primary motivating factors
Essentially, these factors are the drivers of an organization’s
decision to choose an offshore destination for services.
They relate primarily to the value proposition offered by an
offshore site in terms of the cost of resources when
considered along with the quality and intellectual content of
the services provided. The depth and sustainability of this
value proposition are also important issues that are
reflected in the amount of the human resource base, its
quality, and adaptability to provide the needed services.
K Joshi and S Mudigonda
217
Inhibiting
Factors
(Brake)
Facilitating factors
(Smooth Steering)
(Brake)
Some key issues reflecting the value proposition of India
are discussed next.
Cost advantage
Establishing the delivery of offshore services through an
ODC or a vendor with offshore facilities involves many
costs, ranging from an initial one-time setup to ongoing
operational costs of salaries, travel, communication, tax
and regulatory compliance, and infrastructure. Currently,
India is highly competitive with respect to this factor.
Salaries for staff with matching skills and experience are
among the lowest in the world, along with the highest
supply of suitable graduates (see Figure 2). The rising
salaries of Indian employees may be a cause of concern with
respect to cost savings. We believe that rising costs are a
result of (a) the progression of Indian vendors to higher
value-added services; (b) a sudden spurt in the growth of
existing, and entry of a large number of new, multinational
vendors; and (c) existing constraints in the educational
infrastructure. We expect, however, that the influence of
some of these factors would be mitigated in the near future.
This issue is addressed in the next subsection: Human
resource advantage.
India’s per capita income is the lowest among its likely
competitors. This factor, taken together with the salary
levels in the IT sector in India, results in a high degree of
attractiveness of the jobs in the IT sector (see Figure 3).
This attractiveness is likely to grow further in the coming
years, because the salaries in the IT/ITES sector are growing
faster than the per capita income. With India’s inflexible
labor laws and a weak physical infrastructure, it is unlikely
to succeed in manufacturing as dramatically as China,
leaving most of its skilled workforce available for employ-
ment in the service sector.
India’s costs of initial setup and regulatory compliance
are very competitive. These costs are likely to remain in
check as service providers move increasingly to tier-two,
-three, and -four cities in India. Several IT industry-
oriented initiatives of the central and state governments in
India aim to develop infrastructural facilities, lower taxes,
and create special economic zones to encourage the indus-
try. This is facilitating the launch of new ventures and rapid
growth of existing companies in the IT/ITES sector.
A separate ministry for IT has also been created with a
mandate to create and implement policies to develop ICT
 India as an offshore destination for services K Joshi and S Mudigonda
218

Table 1 Evaluation of India as a destination for offshoring/ITES outsourcing

Criteria for evaluation Current Prospects

strength/weakness for 2015
Primary motivating factors
Cost advantage
Compensation costs ++++ ++++
Setup costs ++++ ++++
Tax and regulatory costs +++ +++
Travel and communication ++ +++
Human resource advantage (quality, quantity, and adaptability)
Management quality +++ ++++
Business process experience and skills +++ ++++
Net workforce availability (access, mobility, and competition) +++++ +++++
Education quality and competence levels ++++ ++++
Language and culture
English ++++ ++++
Other languages + ++
Attrition rates +++ +++
Exposure to the Western education and business practices, adaptability ++++ +++++
Overall primary advantage (cost, quality, and availability) +++++ +++++

Inhibiting factors and risks

Political stability ++++ ++++
Foreign policy issues +++ ++++
Stability of currency ++++ ++++
Protection of intellectual property, data +++ ++++
Anti-US/Western sentiment, safety of foreign nationals and assets ++++ ++++
Susceptibility to disruptions ++ +++
Regional stability ++ ++

Facilitating factors
Vendor landscape
Vendor options, capability, and dynamism +++++ +++++
Vendor process quality ++++ ++++
Data protection and security risk +++ ++++
Vendor human resource development ++++ ++++
Supporting ecosystem
Training institutes (for private individuals seeking specific skill-sets) +++++ +++++
Quality certification infrastructure for CMM, ISO, and other benchmarks +++++ +++++
Influential associations and trade bodies +++++ +++++
Government/country environment
Business and economic environment ++ +++
Quality of infrastructure
Overall + ++
Communication and travel ++ ++++
Links to Western markets +++ ++++
Legal protection ++ ++
Time zone/distance +++ +++
Domestic market attractiveness +++ ++++
ICT adoption (relevant areas) ++ ++++
Key: + Weak, ++ below average, +++ average, ++++ good, +++++ excellent.

infrastructure in India. Communication and travel costs to
India and within India are also falling significantly due to
deregulation and privatization in the telecommunication
and airline sectors. For example, data communication costs
have declined 80% in the last 4 years. Lower communica-
tion costs and better connectivity are likely to contribute to
the growth of offshoring business.
A recent cause of concern about India’s cost-competi-
tiveness has been the rise in the value of India’s rupee. This
has occurred due to a rapid increase in foreign investments,
a sluggish liberalization of imports by the Indian govern-
ment, and a temporary change in the government’s
foreign exchange policy to better control inflation. How-
ever, most analysts agree that the Indian government is
 India as an offshore destination for services K Joshi and S Mudigonda
219

Starting Salary and Net Availability - IT/ITES

(Net Availability based on access, mobility)
(Issues not considered: language, alternate opportunities)
Yearly Availability -1000s-
2000

1800
India
1600

1400

1200

1000

800
China
Russia
600
Philippines
400
Poland Indonesia 200
Malaysia
Vietnam
0
$20,000 $15,000 $10,000 $5,000 $0
Starting salary
Figure 2 Availability of IT/ITES employees and cost of services (NeoIT, 2005; MGI, 2005b, c, d).

Attractiveness of the IT Profession (Annual IT Salary / Per Capita GDP)

Attractiveness index

25.00
20.00
Fresh
15.00
Team Lead
10.00
Manager
5.00
0.00
a

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nd

a
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di

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si

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na

ga
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la
ne

ay

us
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pi

an
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Po

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ilip

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Country
Figure 3 Relative attractiveness of IT profession. Salary data from NeoIT (2005); GDP data from Economist Country Briefings http://www.economist.com/countries/.

likely to maintain the stability of its currency in view of be granted in 2008–2009, based on a lead-time of 4 years.
similar actions by China and other competitors. These India’s supply of non-technical graduates is also rising
actions should help maintain the relative competitive gradually from a base of approximately 2.5 million in 2004.
position of India. India is also slowly gearing up its facilities for school and
college education. At present, it is estimated that less
than 15% of the relevant population age group (19–22)
Human resource advantage attends college (based on Educational Statistics 2003–2004,
One of the main reasons for India’s attractiveness as a Ministry of Higher Education, Government of India).
destination for offshore services is the availability of a large India also has a well-established network of elite colleges
workforce that is well-educated, skilled, readily adaptable, and universities that is capable of producing top-quality
experienced in Western business practices and technolo- graduates in technology and management for leadership
gies, and having a high of level of fluency in English that roles in the industry. The educational infrastructure of
few of its low-cost competitors can match. Employment in India is improving along with an increasing participation of
the IT/ITES sector (including software and services) the private sector and planned changes in the government
reached about one million in 2005 (NASSCOM, 2006). policies with respect to the establishment of private
From 2000 to 2004, the number of 4-year engineering universities and participation of foreign universities in
degree seats in India increased from 215,000 to 439,000. India. Notably, the Georgia Institute of Technology has
Additionally, in 2004, the number of seats in 3-year signed an MoU and acquired land to establish a large
diploma programs in engineering was 265,000, and in campus in India (Silicon India, 2007). In addition to a
Master of Computer Applications it was 54,000 (AICTE, growing influx of university-trained graduates, India has a
2006). Thus, over 750,000 technical degrees are expected to large base of experienced professionals, many of whom are
 India as an offshore destination for services
220
educated in the West and/or have worked in Western
countries. This has permitted many new companies to enter
India and hire thousands of trained, experienced profes-
sionals in a very short duration. For example, IBM increased
its staff strength from 9000 in 2003 to 43,000 in the middle of
2005 (Alterio, 2006) and Accenture went from almost nil to
about 20,000 employees in India in just 3 years. Other
companies have also been entering India with plans to hire
thousands of employees each, over the next 2 years. The
sudden arrival of new companies into the Indian IT/ITES
sector has resulted in high attrition rates of employees of
existing organizations in the IT/ITES sector, and in a rapid
rise in the salaries of mid-level professionals (15–20% per
year). However, the salaries for entry-level graduates have
risen between 10% and 12% (Thibodeau, 2006). The salary
rise and attrition rates of mid-level professionals are likely to
stabilize after 2009, when nearly all technology companies
would have already entered India, and could rely on fresh
graduates for local expansion. It should also be noted that
most experienced IT professionals who command high
salaries in India, between $20,000 and $25,000, have years
of experience working with Western clients on state-of-the-
art technologies and managing large projects. Their salaries
are not comparable with those of the professionals in
competing countries who may not have the same back-
ground. Yet, Indian salaries for mid-level professionals are
lower than those of their counterparts in Eastern Europe,
Mexico, Brazil, and China (NeoIT, 2005). While the salaries of
some top-level technical staff may reach close to those of their
Western counterparts, salaries of a vast number of entry-level
and mid-level employees are likely to remain competitive.
Indian vendors are moving up the value chain and
providing more sophisticated services to their Western
clients. This permits them to remain competitive and gain
offshoring market share, despite their rising costs. This
progression to the higher-level services is likely to continue
and also keep India competitive in the future. In addition to
providing high-end services, Indian vendors are also
diversifying into non-English-speaking markets, such as
German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Korean, Mandar-
in, and Japanese. They are hiring foreign professionals for
positions in India with the requisite language and profes-
sional skills to launch services in new languages (Srivastava,
2006). The availability of Indian graduates who are trained
in foreign languages is also increasing (Singh, 2005).
India will emerge as the country with the largest
population in the world. However, much before that, it
will emerge as the country with the largest labor pool in the
world due to its low median age, which was only 23 in 2000,
compared to 30 in China, 36 in the US, 38 in Europe, and 41
in Japan. In a report, the Boston Consulting Group has
predicted that by 2020, India would have a surplus
workforce of 47 million, relative to shortages of 10 million
in China, 17 million in the USA, and 9 million in Japan
(Sharma, 2006). Therefore, as educational opportunities
increase, India is unlikely to face an acute shortage of
human resources that other countries may face.
Overall primary advantage
Given its large population base and an increasing supply of
technically trained graduates, India is likely to provide the
K Joshi and S Mudigonda
best value proposition for offshoring of IT and other
services for a long time. Although there may be small
periods of mismatch between the demand and supply of
trained graduates, the mismatch is unlikely to persist due to
high supply elasticity of trained graduates, which
would result from an increased participation of the private
sector in education. As the industry expands to tier-two,
-three, and -four cities, a much greater proportion of
population would be able to participate in the offshore
services industry. Thus, India is likely to remain a
competitive destination, with a low risk of saturation
or an extraordinary wage rise. The fast rise in salaries
currently observed is mainly limited to professionals who
are the in middle- and top-level positions and are able to
provide a value that is comparable to their counterparts
from developed nations. Overall, our analysis suggests
that India’s cost-competitiveness is likely to be sustained
for a long time.
Inhibiting factors
Inhibiting factors represent risks and difficulties that act to
restrain an organization from choosing a country as its
offshore destination. India’s growing participation in the
delivery of offshore services indicates that clients consider
risks and difficulties associated with India to be manage-
able. Our analysis suggests that India’s rating on this issue
is likely to improve further in the coming years.
India is a stable, secular democracy with independent
judiciary, free press, and an established history of peaceful
transition of governments at the central and state levels.
India’s relations with the major developed countries that
offshore services are stable and improving (Europa, 2004;
MOFA, 2006; Pan, 2006). India is also improving its
relations with China in an ongoing dialog to resolve mutual
differences amicably. India is also engaged in a dialog with
Pakistan to resolve pending disputes; however, Pakistan’s
instability remains a cause for concern (Kapur, 2005).
India has strengthened its intellectual property rights
regime and enforcement in line with WTO agreements;
several amendments have been made to the Indian Patent
Act under Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights, which has increased the confidence of multinational
companies having their knowledge-intensive operations in
India (World Bank, 2005). This represents an advantage for
India over China. Besides, intellectual property rights, India
also presents a generally safe and secure environment for
western personnel and data. According to a recent Pew
Global Attitudes Survey, India ranks highest among the 16
nations surveyed in their attitudes towards the US and US
citizens (Pew, 2005). This reflects a positive sentiment that
the Indians have towards the West. On the other hand, US
consumers also rated India, along with Canada and Ireland,
among the top three most trusted countries for offshoring
their personal data, out of the 47 countries surveyed by the
Ponemon Institute (White and Case, 2006). These mutually
positive sentiments and attitudes of trust help foster a
favorable climate for offshoring of services to India.
Although there may be random cases of data theft due to
individual greed, there is no systemic motivation to harm
Western interests in India. To reduce the risk to customers’
data and to increase the security of their operations, Indian
 India as an offshore destination for services
vendors have also taken initiatives to establish industry-
wide security standards and a centralized employee data-
base to better screen and track employees.
As a developing country with a weak infrastructure,
India is susceptible to short disruptions due to natural
causes or law and order disturbances. Most Indian vendors
have established multiple sites within India to provide
uninterrupted services. Some have also established overseas
facilities to provide additional diversification of risk to
their clients.
Another likely inhibiting factor is the distance and time
zone difference. India is distant from its major clients.
However, its geographic separation from its clients has not
adversely affected the growth of India’s offshoring business.
India has also successfully turned the time zone difference
into an advantage for certain IT and R&D projects that
can now be developed around the clock by a globally
distributed team working in the two time zones.
Facilitating factors
Once a firm decides to offshore IT or other services, it
needs to select locations and vendors, and establish
streamlined, uninterrupted delivery of services. To assist
in a smooth transition to the offshore location, the presence
of suitable vendors, a supporting ecosystem, and a
conducive business environment are essential.
Vendor landscape
This factor identifies the critical role of vendor competence,
numbers, and diversity in establishing the delivery of
offshore services. Vendors help define the reliability, trust,
technical sophistication, quality of delivery, and security of
data and intellectual property. In this respect, one of India’s
greatest strengths is its enterprising and technically
competent vendor base. Of the nearly 2000 software
exporters, in 2004 as many as 250 vendors were CMM-
certified, which represents the highest number of vendors
with quality certifications from any country (see Table 2).
Some Indian vendors are even helping their Western
customers in achieving quality software development
processes and CMM certification.
Large Indian vendors have accumulated substantial
project implementation experience, expertise in vertical
industry segments, development process maturity, world-
wide marketing presence, strategically located global
development centers (e.g., in China, Eastern Europe, and
South America), and an extensive recruitment and training
infrastructure for the development of their human
resources. This has permitted them to achieve, and
Table 2 Country rankings based on CMM ratings (2002)
Country Number of SEI CMM organizations
Level 4 Level 5
India 28 (38 in 2004) 46 (89 in 2004)
China 0 2
Russia 0 1
Sources: NASSCOM, www.nasscom.org, and SEI CMM at
Carnegie Mellon University.
K Joshi and S Mudigonda
221
successfully manage, growth rates of 30–50% per annum
over the last decade. For some large firms this has meant
the hiring of 25,000–30,000 IT personnel per annum. Indian
vendors have acted on data protection and security risks
and have established controls on par with international
levels (Vijayan, 2004; Basu, 2005; Germain, 2006). Most
large vendors are now proceeding to set up operations in
different cities in order to provide uninterrupted service to
customers despite the occurrence of any city-specific
disruptions. Some vendors are also setting up back-up
facilities and operations in other countries to provide
continuity in services in the event of any breakdown
(Vijayan, 2004). The presence of a large, globally compe-
titive, and technically competent vendor community in
India also permits flexibility in the use of offshore resources
and facilitates the setting up ODCs. As evident from
Table 3, out of top 50 best-managed global outsourcing
vendors, India has the largest number of global outsourcing
vendors, after the US. Furthermore, 11 of the US and
European vendors have a significant base of their opera-
tions in India.
Supporting ecosystem
This factor focuses on issues that go beyond the formal
educational infrastructure. Most young IT graduates have
only academic knowledge of programming and other IT
fundamentals. However, to be useful to the IT/ITES sector,
they need to be proficient in proprietary vendor tools and
technologies. India has a highly developed infrastructure
for providing training in such technologies through a large
network of private-sector training institutes that operate
throughout the country from plush institutional settings to
private apartments (Dalmia, 2006). Training in new and
established proprietary technologies from leading IT
vendors (e.g., SAP, Oracle, Siebel, Microsoft) is readily
available in India, and the market responds rapidly to
emerging shortages in hot skills. Such training is available
at low rates and individuals are willing to invest their own
funds to obtain it (based on personal interviews by one of
the authors during his trips to India in 2004 and 2005).
Indian training vendors are also playing a leading role
in the training sectors of China and South-East Asia.
Additionally, large Indian software firms have sub-
stantial in-house training facilities, as noted earlier. This
large training infrastructure will ensure that individuals
Table 3 Best-managed global outsourcing vendors by country
Country Vendors with a primary
base in the country
India 17
US 21
Canada 1
China 1
Russia 3
Philippines 2
Mexico 1
Israel 1
UK 1
Source: http://www.sourcingmag.com/content/c060712a.asp.
 India as an offshore destination for services
222
possessing the latest in-demand skills would continue to be
available in to the IT/ITES sector in India in large numbers.
Besides training in proprietary technologies, India has a
well-established network of consultants and facilities that
provide training, assessment, consulting, and certification
in software process quality management (e.g., for CMM,
ISO, BS certifications). In India, it is easier to find the
necessary help to improve processes and obtain certifica-
tion when compared to other locations. This has helped
Indian vendors achieve the highest number of CMM
certifications globally. With a large number of additional
vendors seeking software process certifications, India
would maintain its lead in the adoption of software process
quality standards.
To alleviate the predicted future shortages in human
resources (Menon, 2006), large Indian corporations have
begun establishing institutes for short-term, specialized
training, and for college-level education (Economic Times,
2006; Thomas, 2006). Finishing schools are also being
established to provide focused training in deficient skills to
existing graduates in areas such as English and commu-
nication to make them employable in the IT/ITES sector
(The Hindu, 2007).
India has a well-organized association of IT and ITES
vendors, called NASSCOM, which is able to influence and
guide government policies and actions. It represents Indian
vendors in various international forums and interacts with
overseas industry associations and government agencies. It
assists Indian vendors in organizing their efforts for
meeting emerging challenges such as data protection,
security, a centralized repository for supporting employee
background verification, skill testing for IT and ITES
candidates, forecasting the demand for services, and
identifying future trends. It also works actively with Indian
educational institutions to help update their curricula and
programs to meet emerging industry needs in IT and ITES
sectors. It is expected to play a strong leadership role in the
future growth of the IT/ITES sector in India.
Government/country environment
India has a well-established, enterprising private sector
with links to Western markets, which has been thriving
since India’s economic liberalization in 1991. Indian
companies conduct their business in English and closely
follow Western business practices. Thus, beyond any initial
delays in setting up a new operation, it is easy to operate in
India. While the overall physical infrastructure is weak, the
segments that are important for the delivery of remote
services, for example, telecommunications and air travel,
are no longer bottlenecks, and, are rapidly improving
(Nollen, 2004: 33). Penetration of ICTs is also rapidly
advancing in India, particularly in the urban areas where
the IT/ITES centers are located. This often provides a
growing market for the clients’ own products and services,
and acts as a magnet for business interactions. India follows
Western legal practices that are derived from British
common law. Independent Indian courts help enforce
contracts. Yet, low-value commercial disputes may get
bogged down in extraordinary delays in the lower Indian
courts. Most overseas clients bypass this potential bottle-
neck by specifying binding arbitration in Singapore or
K Joshi and S Mudigonda
London in their vendor contracts. Thus, it appears that
many of the bottlenecks traditionally identified with India
are being overcome or circumvented, which would
encourage future expansion of the IT/ITES sector.
India’s physical infrastructure remains weak and needs
massive investments for achieving improvements. Given
the shortage of funds and bureaucratic delays, its outward
physical infrastructure is being upgraded only slowly. It
may not improve enough to match Western or Chinese
standards for several decades. However, companies in India
have learned to cope with these circumstances and, when
needed, make their own arrangements for power, local
transport, and other infrastructural services. In the critical
areas of voice and data communication, and travel needs of
the services sector, the infrastructure is not a significant
bottleneck and is steadily improving with the participation
of the private sector.
Traditionally, the ruling Congress and other socialist
parties in India have focused on gaining votes through
subsidies and social welfare schemes, at the cost of
infrastructural investments. After the opposition party –
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – came into power in 1999, it
emphasized infrastructural development. However, the
BJP was viewed as favoring urban development at the
expense of rural voters and it lost national elections in
2004. Upon its return to power, the Congress party has re-
emphasized subsidies and social welfare schemes for the
rural population.
In India, even planned and budgeted infrastructural
projects are inordinately held back due to bureaucratic
delays in approvals, political interference in land acquisi-
tion and allotment, and a lack of political commitment,
besides a paucity of funds. However, now there are some
factors that are beginning to favor the development of
infrastructure in India. First, most political parties have
recognized the beneficial impact of previous infrastructural
initiatives, and, even the Congress party is willing to
increase the funding for infrastructure. Second, the high
levels of growth in the Indian economy are rapidly
increasing the revenues of the Indian government and its
ability to invest in infrastructural development. Third,
India is slowly allowing partnerships between the private
and the public sectors in developing infrastructure such as
roads, power, and airports and in the creation of special
economic zones. These partnerships have resulted in a
reduced role of the government and are expected to
accelerate the development of infrastructure in India.
However, despite these improvements, it is unlikely that
India’s infrastructure would match that of China or other
South-East Asian countries in the near future for the
reasons noted above.
Competitor analysis
In the preceding section, we have discussed the context
of India and its competitive position; however, its rela-
tive attractiveness will also depend on the advantages
and actions of other competing nations. In this section,
we present a brief analysis of likely competitors that
are frequently mentioned in the literature. We have
identified the following clusters to analyze their relative
 India as an offshore destination for services
Table 4 A comparison of the ICT infrastructures of India and China
Factor
Telephone lines (per 1000 people)
Mobile phone subscribers (per 1000 people)
Internet users (per 1000 people)
Personal computers (per 1000 people)
Broadband subscribers (per 1000 people)
International Internet bandwidth (bits per person)
ICT expenditure (% of GDP)
Secure Internet servers (per one million people)
Source: The World Bank: 2006 Information and Communications for Development: Global Trends and Policies (World Bank, 2006).
positions: China, Eastern Europe and Russia, Southeast
Asia, Mexico and South America, Africa, and South Asia.
China is clearly the most potent competitor and
alternative to India, aiming to gain greater revenues in
the offshoring market (Qu and Brocklehurst, 2003). It has a
better-developed ICT infrastructure compared to other
developing countries (see Table 4). China is also focusing
on building a large educational infrastructure and attempt-
ing to train its graduates in English.
Despite its strong position vis-à-vis infrastructure,
several factors limit the rate of China’s rise as a significant
player in relation to India. First, China has no significant
comparative advantage over India in the IT/ITES sector.
China’s wages and per capita income are higher and
growing at a higher rate than those of India. China is also
facing a shortage of talent and significantly higher wages,
particularly at the middle levels (Kundu, 2006). China’s
under-valued currency is likely to adjust in the upward
direction, given its large foreign trade surplus and its
enormous foreign exchange reserves, thereby resulting in a
net rise of the cost of the services it offers.
Second, China’s foreign trade and economic success are
sustainable for a long time with its strengths in manufac-
turing, a sector that attracts the bulk of China’s talents and
limits the availability of quality manpower for the offshore
services sector. China’s educated workforce also has lower
geographic mobility (MGI, 2005c), thereby accentuating the
shortage of skilled manpower.
Third, both countries can produce a sufficient number of
technical and non-technical graduates in the future: mainly
through government investment in education in the case of
China, and primarily through private investment in the case
of India. However, the overall availability of graduates is
not a constraint; rather, the key issue is their suitability for
offshore services in terms of language skill, cultural fit,
adaptability to Western business practices, and opportu-
nities for learning and using the latest proprietary vendor
technologies. In this respect, India has a very significant
advantage that China cannot match for a long time. China is
placing a great emphasis on teaching English; however,
gaining fluency in oral and written communication in a
foreign language is a slow process that depends upon
having opportunities for practice. Given the size of the
current number of English speakers, China and other non-
English-speaking countries are at a disadvantage in this
K Joshi and S Mudigonda
223
India China
2000 2004 2000 2004
32 43 115 241
4 48 68 258
5 23 18 73
5 11 16 40
0.0 0.6 0.0 16.5
1 4 2 57
3.6 3.7 4.1 5.3
0.1 0.4 0.1 0.2
respect. In the longer term (8–10 years), China will have
higher income levels, stronger currency, and fewer people
with the requisite skills available for the services sector,
which would further limit China’s relative advantage and
growth as an IT/ITES offshoring destination. However,
given its geographic and cultural proximity, China is
expected to continue being in a position of advantage,
relative to India, in the Japanese and Korean markets in
the future.
Fourth, China’s vendor community is small, fragmented,
and lacks quality and experience, which implies that
generally a foreign client would need to invest in its own
ODC. This imposes significant costs and additional risks for
a potential client, something that only very large organiza-
tions or those aiming to serve the Chinese markets may be
able to bear. Some of the weaknesses noted above have been
confirmed by a Forrester study (Financial Express, 2007a),
which reported that contrary to the predictions made 2
years ago, China’s momentum in offshoring is slowing, and,
the market has not taken off as predicted, due to concerns
about limited English-language skills, high attrition rates,
a lack of experienced professionals, a weak protection
for intellectual property, and a rise in costs due to an
appreciation of its currency.
While the above-mentioned factors would limit its
potential in comparison to that of India, China is still
expected to make a significant progress in the IT/ITES
sector. China would obtain a significant market share in its
primary future role as an offshore site for R&D activities
related to manufacturing initiatives, as a secondary site for
major international vendors in their risk diversification
strategy, and as a center for serving markets in Japan,
Korea, and Taiwan (McCarthy and Hudson, 2005).
In addition to their technical competence, the East-
European nations and Russia have advantages of proximity,
closer language, and cultural compatibility with their West-
European clients, which would gain them a European
market share. However, they are likely to be constrained by
significantly higher wages and smaller manpower bases,
thereby experiencing only limited future growth. Besides
higher local wages, East-European currencies are expected
to grow stronger in the future, due to a better integration
with Western Europe. Russia presents some additional
challenges on account of its political and security risks
and language incompatibility, besides higher wages, lower
 India as an offshore destination for services
224
availability of manpower resources, and a smaller vendor
base. Russia may also experience currency gains due to
rising prices and greater exploitation of its natural
resources. Therefore, despite their gains, East-European
nations are likely to be less competitive than India.
India’s competitors from South America and North
America (Mexico) also face some challenges, despite their
proximity to the US and Canadian markets. These include
higher wages, language incompatibility, limited technical
manpower base and availability. However, some countries
such as Chile, Brazil, and Mexico are likely to make inroads
into the US market for IT and ITES in the medium term
(3–5 years). In the long term, their pace of economic
development and technical capabilities will determine the
extent of their success in this sector.
The countries of South-East Asia are expected to gain
more market share. However, their gains will be limited by
factors such as language, cultural fit, and availability of
suitable technical and non-technical graduates. Although
the Philippines has significant advantages in language
compatibility, its small manpower and skill base is expected
to permit only limited expansion. Malaysia is already a
higher-wage destination with limited opportunities for
significant growth in the future. Indonesia and Vietnam
are two of the larger countries with a significant population
base. However, they lack language and cultural compat-
ibility, a suitable base of technical and non-technical
graduates, and a vendor base to effectively compete in this
sector, at least for the medium term. They are likely to
increase their participation over the long term. Some
countries in the African continent such as South Africa,
Egypt, and Nigeria have a foundation in English and are
expected to make inroads into the ITES market. However,
their growth is likely to be limited by suitable manpower
availability, political instability, and risk in the medium
term. South Africa seems to be capable of playing a
noticeable role in ITES in the medium term. However, it
faces higher labor costs, high telecommunications costs, a
shortage of trained manpower, and a high crime rate. In
South Asia, countries other than India are facing a
significantly higher political risk, which limits them from
being of any immediate interest.
We believe that the primary discriminating factor in
determining the development of a developing country’s
offshore services sector, and, its competitive position, is the
availability of suitably educated talent in the required
numbers and quality, rather than just the cost of providing
offshore services. Based on the development of IT/ITES
offshore industry in different cities in India, it appears that
the most critical factor in supporting the growth of the
industry in a city has been the availability of talent in that
city. For example, Bangalore has continued to expand,
despite severe infrastructural bottlenecks and higher
salaries compared to many other locations in India.
Locations that have attracted business demonstrate a high
availability of talent, while several other locations, with
adequate infrastructural facilities and lower costs, have
failed to attract the industry due to a paucity of talent as
indicated by the quality and number of educational and
training facilities in each region.
India’s offshore services sector has managed to grow at
30–40% per year for the last 10 years. India has a large base
K Joshi and S Mudigonda
of trained manpower available to it for its future growth as
noted earlier. However, it faces some challenges in realizing
its full potential in the near future. First, not all states are
participating fully in the offshoring sector. India needs to
expand the participation of its states to realize its full
potential. Second, to sustain the high rates of growth
achieved in the past, governments at all levels, and private
sector businesses, have to deliver the needed facilities and
services. Office space, power, and telecommunication
services are now being delivered in greater quantities by
the private sector (Ninan, 2006). Therefore, these infra-
structural facilities are unlikely to be a severe bottleneck
in the future growth. However, the government has a
significant role in the acquisition and allotment of land for
the service sector. Government action is also needed for
providing school-level education and for establishing
policies that encourage the participation of private sector
and foreign universities in higher education. The govern-
ment has a role in improving the quality of education and
making curricular enhancements to meet the IT/ITES
industry’s skill requirements. This is an area of significant
concern for the industry, which has been lobbying the
government to improve the quality and the number of
graduates (KPMG, 2004: 82). India’s future growth is likely
to depend on the ability of its government to respond to
these issues in a timely manner.
Discussion and conclusion
The framework identified in this paper provides a useful
tool for analysts and policy makers in assessing and
improving the attractiveness of a country for offshoring of
services. The analysis of India’s attractiveness provides
useful insights for other competitors as well as potential
clients. It appears that the development of a competent
talent base plays a more important role in fostering the
offshore services industry, than that played by lower costs
alone. Facilitating conditions play a critical role in the
establishment and development of an offshoring industry.
A competent local vendor base is important for the growth
of the offshoring sector. Government policies can play a
role in improving a country’s attractiveness by identifying
its weaknesses based on the important dimensions
identified in the analysis and addressing them. Some of
the primary issues identified include educational infra-
structure, telecommunication and travel connectivity, and a
supportive environment for local vendors. However, there
are some issues that may be difficult for many countries to
address, at least in the short term: language skills, the
quality of education, establishment of competent local
vendors, links to potential customers, and the risk profile of
a country.
Our analysis of India’s competitive position suggests that
for the next 8–10 years, and possibly even beyond that,
India is likely to retain its number one position in
offshoring of services. A relatively slow growth in India’s
manufacturing sector is likely to leave most of India’s
growing educated talent pool to seek employment in the
service sector. As employment opportunities and wages
rise, a much larger base of the Indian population would be
attracted by, and be able to participate in, the growth of
offshore work. This growth is expected to be facilitated by
 India as an offshore destination for services
the rising competence of its vendors, improvements in its
educational infrastructure, a significantly higher participa-
tion of women in its workforce, higher levels of mobility
and flexibility of its workforce, the English-language skills
of its educated population, a greater trust for India among
overseas clients, and improvements in telecommunication
and access to second-, third-, and fourth-tier cities.
During the next 8–10 years, India is also estimated to
have the largest surplus workforce due to its much younger
population, which would be in contrast to the shortages in
other major competing countries. Even at present, despite a
global shortage of experienced professionals, Indian firms
have reported the least difficulty in hiring suitable talent. In
a recent survey of 37,000 employers that was released by the
global recruitment firm, Manpower, only 9% of Indian
firms reported a difficulty in the hiring of suitable talent in
2007, compared to 19% in China, and 41% globally.
Bucking the global trend, India has improved its position
in manpower availability, with 9% employers reporting
difficulties in hiring during 2007, compared to 13% in 2006
(Financial Express, 2007b). Indian vendors have significant
opportunities for expansion beyond their primary locations
to tier-two, -three, and -four cities in a hub and spoke
architecture. As the educational and ICT infrastructures
extend to more cities in India, Indian vendors would be
able to access a wider pool of talent and avoid the
bottlenecks associated with weak physical infrastructure
in large cities.
In our analysis, we suggest that lower cost of operations
may not be the main differentiator that determines the
growth of the IT/ITES offshore industry among developing
countries. Rather, it is the availability of a competent
human resource base that primarily determines the ability
of a developing country to attract offshored services. We
believe that India’s position in this respect would be
strengthened in the coming years in contrast to a shortage
of talent that most other competing developing countries
are expected to experience. As per a recent Forrester report,
a corporate executive noted that, ‘China had to be 20 per
cent cheaper than India to be [considered] viable’
(Financial Express, 2007a). This highlights the importance
of factors other than marginal cost savings, in the range of
10–20%, for the growth of the offshore services in other
developing countries.
India has the lowest per capita GDP currently among its
main competitors at $650 and, even by 2020, it is estimated
to reach only $3000, which would still leave India among
the low-wage countries. During mid-2005, the salaries
for entry-level IT staff stabilized and even declined by 7%
due to an increased supply in response to higher wages
(Economic Times, 2006). Such episodes of mismatch
between immediate demand and supply response may
occur from time to time, but generally the supply is likely to
rise in line with the rising demand for the next 10–15 years,
and the overall wages are likely to remain competitive.
India is gradually moving up the value chain to retain its
competitive advantage and market share. Indian vendors
are slowly expanding into higher-end KPO work, such as
consulting, engineering design, R&D, clinical trials, finan-
cial analysis, and legal work. A recent study by Deloitte and
Touche reports that in the rapidly growing offshored
financial services sector, which has a scope to save $150
K Joshi and S Mudigonda
225
billion for the developed countries by 2010, India has
already gained a market share of 80% (Hindustan Times,
2007). India is likely to gain a similar market share in the
delivery of other high-end services such as legal, architec-
tural, engineering design, and accounting.
Despite a rise in salaries and costs in Bangalore, one of
the costliest locations in India, Indian vendors still found it
to be 15–20% cheaper to operate there, compared to their
centers in other countries such as the Philippines and
Mauritius (Babu, 2006). Although salaries are rising in
India and competition for the best graduates is intensifying,
skills and productivity of Indian employees are also rising
correspondingly. For example, as The Economist (2006)
reports on one of the top Indian vendors, wages constitute
only 14% of the costs and even with a 15% wage inflation,
the impact on margins is only 2.1%, which can be easily
overcome with productivity gains. Therefore, it seems that
India’s competitive position, on account of lower wages, is
going to decline very slowly. This is supported by the
Everest Research Institute that estimates the net labor
arbitrage to decline only by 1.9% annually (Fernandes et al.,
2006). While salaries for the top-notch employees at
the leading vendors are increasing rapidly, those of others
are rising only gradually. Thus, India is likely to move up
the value chain without necessarily vacating the entire
lower end of the offshore services sector. Despite a rise in
wages, India is expected to sustain its current value
proposition due to its higher skilled, low-cost human
resource pool.
Most of other developing countries also aim to benefit
from the rising offshoring trends. Several countries are
already participating in the delivery of offshore services.
Their scale of participation, though small, is growing.
However, most of these countries face constraints that are
likely to limit their rate of growth and ability to play a
significantly larger future role. They have weaknesses such
as significantly higher wages (e.g., Eastern Europe, Russia),
an inability to scale up (e.g., Malaysia, the Philippines), a
lack of trained manpower (Indonesia, Vietnam, Africa),
unmanageable risks, a poor command over the English
language, and a weak vendor base.
Among the potential competitors, China aims to be a
significant player, and is likely to gain market share in the
coming years. However, the rapid expansion of its
manufacturing sector, which is sustained by high FDI rates,
would absorb most of China’s educated workforce (MGI,
2005a). Therefore, China’s net availability of graduates for
offshore service work would be less than India’s. China’s
other weaknesses in the area of English language, its lack of
experience and skills in proprietary technologies, and a
weak vendor landscape (MGI, 2005b) would also hinder the
growth of its offshore sector. Besides in-house R&D
associated with manufacturing FDI, much of the offshore
work in China is likely to be handled by international
vendors who would focus on serving the large and growing
internal market in China and customers in Japan and
Korea, and on establishing second-tier back-up facilities to
provide continuity of services in the case of disruptions in
primary locations (McCarthy and Hudson, 2005). China’s
wages and currency are also likely to appreciate signi-
ficantly faster than India’s due to its highly successful
export-based manufacturing sector, higher FDI, and faster
 India as an offshore destination for services
226
economic growth. China could also face a shortage of
workforce due to its aging population (UN, 2006a, b).
Considering India’s relative advantages and the current
trends in the growth of offshoring to India, along with the
relative weaknesses of potential competitors, our analysis
suggests that India is likely to remain the largest center for
offshored services well beyond 2015. Of the 4.5 million jobs to
be offshored from the US (3.3 million) and Western Europe
(1.2 million) by 2015 (McCarthy, 2004; Parker, 2004), India is
likely to retain about 50% market share. With ongoing
improvements in education, services-related infrastructure,
and a high elasticity of its labor supply, India seems to be well
positioned to retain its market share beyond 2015 to become
the dominant IT/ITES global services hub, just as China has
become the most competitive, dominant manufacturing hub.
Contrary to several reports and commentaries in the press,
our analysis finds that India would continue to play a
dominant role in the global offshoring of services, and the
offshored services sector would play an even bigger role in its
economy in the next decade.
In this paper, we analyzed the competitive position of
India relative to other countries for offshoring of IT/ITES.
In future research, it would be instructive to examine the
relative attractiveness of different locations within India,
and to study the dynamics of the relative growth of the
industry in those locations. This can help identify the key
determinants of the growth of the offshore services industry
across various locations in India. The framework presented
in this paper can provide a basis for such a study. The
results of such a study would help identify critical success
factors in the development and growth of the offshore
services industry, which should be useful to policy makers
in India and other developing countries.
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About the authors
Kailash Joshi is Professor of Information Systems at the
University of Missouri, St. Louis, USA. He received his
Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from Indiana
University in 1986. His research interests include IS
management, implementation, user satisfaction, offshoring,
e-government, and systems design. Prior to joining
academics, he worked in industry in the areas of purchas-
ing, materials, production, and systems for 9 years. His
other papers have appeared in MIS Quarterly, Decision
Sciences, IEEE Engineering Management, Information
Systems Journal, Information and Management, OMEGA:
The International Journal of Management Science, Data-
Base, Journal of Information Technology Management,
Journal of Data Warehousing, International Journal of
Operations and Production Management, Journal of Pur-
chasing and Material Management, and Production and
Inventory Management Journal.
Srikanth Mudigonda is a Doctoral Candidate in the
Department of Information Systems at the University of
Missouri, St. Louis. His research interests include software
development processes, knowledge management, and off-
shore outsourcing. Currently, he is working on his disserta-
tion in the area of knowledge management. Prior to pursuing
graduate studies, he worked as a systems analyst and
programmer at a software development firm in India.