Asserting that India was a better destination than Israel, Ireland and China in business process outsourcing, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday said the controversy in the United States over BPO was 'highly exaggerated' as Washington stands to gain more from the deals.
"I think this dispute about outsourcing is highly exaggerated. For every dollar that is outsourced by American business to India, US insources at least $10 of business from India," Chidambaram said in an interview to BBC in London.
"What do they (US) outsource? They outsource low-end jobs, call centres, help centres. What do they insource? They insource orders for capital goods, for technology, for design, for brands, for trademarks, for intellectual property," he explained.
He said the gains of US business through insourcing far outweigh the alleged outsourcing losses. "Believe me, US business knows that it can remain competitive only if it outsources low end jobs."
On whether India might have already enjoyed its golden age in outsourcing and may lose out to countries like China, he said "No. Israel, Ireland are indeed competitors but neither Israel nor Ireland can offer the scale of work that India can."
"China can, but India enjoys a huge advantage in terms of English language, in terms of software, advantage in mathematics, advantage in design. Anyway I don't see India and China competing as rivals, I think there is enough room in this world for both China and India," he added.
