Covid-19 created the necessity of getting the work done by employees staying home.   The corporations have found out that they can save considerable sums by allowing many employees doing their work from home.  As a result, many businesses are trying to get the work done from homes on a permanent basis.  This will save in rent and cost of all facilities and infrastructure that they provide in office.

Now that the corporations have concluded that many of its employees can deliver their work from their homes, the question arises whether it matters where the employees are located. Also, these days, video conferencing has become routine.

This provides great opportunities for countries like India where there is an oversupply of qualified employees.

If India knows how to market, it can expand outsourcing business several times.

In India there are MBAs from top schools such as IIM, Ahmedabad; Kolkata; Hyderabad; Bengaluru etc.  The graduates from these can deliver more efficient services than the MBA’s who work for American corporations in the USA.

The same applies to engineers, accountants, computer professionals, attorneys, etc.

There is a heavy shortage of certain professionals in the USA, such as engineers, computer professionals, and others.

There is no reason for qualified Indians to remain unemployed or underemployed. There is a huge outsourcing opportunity for outsourcing, probably bigger than when Infosys and other companies started outsourcing

However, this can materialize only if Indian outsourcing companies undertake aggressive marketing. It is my observation that even now, no one in India has taken pains to advertise the high quality of Indian manpower in engineering, science, management, etc. Foreigners recognize the high quality of IIT, not the Indians.

Ven Parameswaran

(Ven Parameswaran  is former president and CEO of First Asian Securities Corporation, New York City. He is also senior adviser at Imagindia Institute, a think tank in New Delhi. He lives in Scarsdale, New York. He can be reached at  vpwaren@gmail.com)