India taking US jobs away? Bah!

US Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton agreed with her archrival Barak Obama on one front -- outsourcing is resulting in job drain for the United States. After sitting on the fence for quite some time, Clinton has joined Obama in berating the flip side of 'shipping jobs' to India and China.

Both the senators blamed outsourcing for rising unemployment amongst Americans and strongly recommended scrapping of tax breaks for companies that are shipping jobs overseas.

Whilst the crusade against outsourcing gains importance as a veritable trump card for the Presidential candidates, India Inc offered a counter offensive that has put the matter in a nutshell.

In a full page advertisement published in Chicago Tribune on Tuesday, industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry cited examples of Indian business houses that have 'gifted' thousands of jobs to Americans. The legendary Tata Group, along with several others like Ranbaxy, Mahindra USA, Bharat Forge, ITC Kitchens of India and HCL America have invested in different sectors of the US economy, thereby creating job opportunities for the Americans, said the Ficci ad.

According to Ficci, Indian corporate investments in the US were over $10.25 billion in 2007.

Outsourcing in the print media in Chicago includes The Chicago Sun-Times and more than 70 sister newspaper titles throughout the metro area that have outsourced most of their print and online ad production.

They have entered into an agreement with Elgin-based Affinity Express Inc for outsourcing. This agreement brings down operating costs by $3 million a year at The Sun-Times News Group.

Affinity has production office in India and Philippines and is equipped with extensive infrastructure and expertise in ad production. The company especially caters to news companies like the Charlotte Observer and the Columbus, Ohio Dispatch.

Considering the extent of ad production outsourcing in Chicago newspapers, it wouldn't come as a surprise if the Ficci ad itself had been outsourced and crafted in India.

Looking at the mathematics of running a newspaper in the US, it can be concluded that outsourcing some ad production to India can actually help the newspapers survive and even run profitably. Outsourcing for these US newspapers implies cost savings, ergo it can be said that outsourcing is actually helping in saving thousands and thousands of US newspaper jobs.