Offshoring: India rules the world

India is the world's leading offshore services location according to the Global Services Location Index, the latest annual survey by global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney.

India, closely followed by China, continues to lead the Index by a wide margin, with declines in cost advantage offset by further improvements in talent supply and business environment.

The survey also indicates that globally the wage cost advantage of offshore locations for office services is set to last for another 20 years. 

Even though wages in offshore locations for services, such as IT, business processes and call centres, have started to rise, they will remain cheaper for the foreseeable future under the most aggressive projections of wage inflation and currency appreciation in developing countries. 

The labour cost changes are partly the result of accelerating wages and currency appreciation in offshore hotspots, as well as downward pressure on wages in impacted sectors in developed countries.   

The Top 50
1	India
2	China
3	Malaysia
4	Thailand
5	Brazil
6	Indonesia
7	Chile
8	The Philippines
9	Bulgaria
10	Mexico
11	Singapore
12	Slovakia
13	Egypt
14	Jordan
15	Estonia
16	Czech Republic
17	Latvia
18	Poland
19	Vietnam
20	United Arab Emirates
21	United States (Tier II)*
22	Uruguay
23	Argentina
24	Hungary
25	Mauritius
26	Tunisia
27	Ghana
28	Lithuania
29	Sri Lanka
30	Pakistan
31	South Africa
32	Jamaica
33	Romania
34	Costa Rica
35	Canada
36	Morocco
37	Russia
38	Israel
39	Senegal
40	Germany (Tier II)*
41	Panama)*
42	United Kingdom (Tier II)*
43	Spain
44	New Zealand
45	Australia
46	Portugal
47	Ukraine
48	France (Tier II)*
49	Turkey
50	Ireland
* Based on lower-cost locations in each country: San Antonio (US), Belfast (UK), Leipzig (Germany) and Marseilles (France).

At the same time, key emerging markets have continued to improve their attractiveness in terms of access to talent, industry experience, quality certifications and their regulatory environment. 

"What is most striking about the results of this year's Global Services Location Index is how the relative cost advantage of the leading offshore destinations declined almost universally, while their scores for people skills and business environment rose significantly," said Paul Laudicina, managing officer and chairman of A.T. Kearney.