Outsourcing not a closed issue yet, says Nilekani

While the backlash on outsourcing seemed to have mellowed, the issue cannot be ruled out completely, says Nandan Nilekani, president, CEO and managing director, Infosys Technologies.

Addressing mediapersons during the announcement of the company's first quarter results on Tuesday, Nilekani said, "I think it is too early to declare the issue as closed. We have to wait and watch. It has the potential to erupt again. Considering when we met last time (April 2004), the decibel level has abated and the backlash (against outsourcing) has abated."

Stating that it is too early to say that the issue of backlash against outsourcing can be considered as closed, Nilekani added, "It is a fact that the issue had reached a crescendo in February-March. Subsequently, it has been off headlines because of other issues like Iraq War."

According to him, "There was also a jobless growth in the US. But in the last 3-4 months, US has added a cumulative one million jobs."

So, to some extent, the pressure of jobless growth has come down. And now, many studies are showing that outsourcing is just one of the factors that was responsible for job losses."

For the quarter ended June 30, 2004, the company's onsite-offshore revenue split was 51.9 : 48.1. Interestingly, this compares with 53.9 : 46.1 during the corresponding quarter last year. North America accounted for 65.2 per cent of the business during the quarter ended June 30, 2004. This compares with 74.7 per cent during the corresponding quarter last year.