India’s Edge Goes Beyond Outsourcing

Developments in transportation and communications technology enable greater globalization of more segments of the labor market. For several decades, manufacturing jobs gradually moved from developed countries to areas with low-cost workers. Now workers in the developing world take on more complex tasks in engineering, finance and pharmacology. Boeing, for instance, relies on Indian-developed software for lifesaving functions like crash landings and averting mid-air collisions. India has become so central for information-technology operations that more companies require executives to work from there. Analysts have long suggested that improvements in education and adult training can maintain a set of skilled jobs in the developed world. However, companies and individuals must also re-invest profits in high-tech competency. For example, Indian-owned Infosys Technologies outpaces global-giant IBM in dedicating a proportion of revenue, 10 times as much, toward employee training. Multicultural teams also spark innovation. As a result, much of the work performed in India does not involve jobs shifting from the West, but actually new jobs. – YaleGlobal