Hire local talent to mitigate outsourcing fears: Murthy

India will have to recruit local people at the front end of its operations to mitigate the discomfort and outsourcing fears, Infosys mentor N R Narayana Murthy said here today.

"We have to make sure we are not very visible in those markets", he said when asked about a possible solution over IT outsourcing concerns faced by Indian companies.

He said there was "bound to be discomfort by any government" if a large percentage of the workforce was of Indian origin. He cited the example of the Indian government's discomfort when China sent people to erect power plants in India.

"The solution for us is to make the front end local, then no one will raise any objection", he said citing the example of China. "Why isn't there uproar against China", he countered, "China exports 1.1 trillion Dollars. Ours is a piddling 50 billion Dollars. Ours is nothing compared to China."

He said the damage done to lower level employment opportunities in the West was because of China's extraordinary performance in exports, but nobody was talking about it because they were not visible.

"The moral of the story is to make sure we are not very visible in those markets," he said.

"Hire local talent. Hire Englishmen in England, hire Americans in US and the Brazilian in Brazil", he said.

Murthy was addressing a seminar of the All India Management Association (AIMA) titled 'knowledge summit: India - knowledge and professional services to the world - the next decade.