Sec. Clinton: India’s Outsourcing Restrictions Need to be Resolved

Ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's five-day trip to India Friday, an agreement of end-use monitoring of technology and equipment has been outlined.

Secretary Clinton and Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna are scheduled to ink agreements on Monday, when they plan to announce what is involved in ‘an enhanced U.S.-India strategic partnership’ bringing 21st century solutions to impending challenges, reports taragana.com.

Earlier, in a speech to the U.S.-India Business Council and other representatives from the offshore outsourcing industry, Secretary Clinton underscored the importance of a ‘dramatic expansion’ with respect to India-U.S. relations. Clinton’s speech outlined her vision for a brand new beginning with India with respect to practices such as outsourcing. This is in contrast to earlier views expressed by President Barack Obama’s administration that changes would be made to the outsourcing sector to ensure that more Americans are employed amid a recession in the U.S. Clinton was speaking at the U.S.-India Business Council’s Synergies Summit in Washington D.C.

Clinton said that the Indo-U.S. relationship is due for an ‘upgrade’ that was termed “U.S.-India 3.0.” Her remarks appeared to support claims by Indian IT outsourcers like Infosys that H1B visa restrictions imply that the U.S. is practicing protectionist measures. However, Secretary Clinton stayed away from addressing offshore outsourcing versus the unemployment in the U.S. in specific sectors. Nonetheless, she did say that any differences in views about such matters would be negotiated with a focus on common goals and tangible results.

Ass. Secretary for South Central Asian Affairs, Robert O. Blake commented that Washington had waited to engage India until after the Indian Parliamentary elections were over. The strong mandate by the ruling Congress party coalition and the comeback of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with President Obama’s pledge for a ‘new invigorated partnership with India’ set the stage for the new discussions.

Meanwhile, Meera Shankar, Indian ambassador to the U.S. explained that India’s IT workforce offered U.S. firms the opportunity to be more competitive with their rivals in other parts of the world. Simultaneously, offshore outsourcing from U.S. to India created the right economic climate for more jobs and profits to be circulated through the economy.