Skip to main content

India joins family of elite nations

Two relatively unrelated news caught the attention of iProceed.



  1. General Electric (GE) has sold a majority stake in its Indian outsourcing arm for $500 million to two private equity firms to have unrestricted access to the world market for BPO services. What this means is that India is now clearly the world leader in BPO services and there is nothing that can stop it from becoming a center of excellence.
  2. India and the European Union have launched a 'strategic partnership' deal which will culminate in India having the same relations with the EU as the US, Canada, China and Russia.
These are two very important developments since they indicate how India, that was so closely allied with Soviet Union and Non-aligned Movement, is quickly embracing more free-market and capitalist business principles.



Why is this a good news for the family of elite nations?



  • No matter what the short-term consequences of offshoring are, the basic idea behind offshoring is still a sound one - let everyone do what they can do best at the lowest possible cost. That creates value for everyone.
  • American companies, as expected, were the pioneers in embracing offshoring. The partnership with EU will help many EU nations to consider India as a possible resource.
  • The rapidly rising middle class in India (spurred by the free flow of information from the west through the Internet and television) wants to improve its lifestyle as fast as it can. Or in other words, it wants to "consume" like us. That is only good news for us. Americans cannot consume any more and growth in coming years has to come from under-developed, but rapidly growing economies like India.

Related article: Growth opportunity for direct marketing in India