Indian business process outsourcing industry felt relieved over the re-election of President George W Bush, saying the poll results have cleared the air of uncertainty over outsourcing.

"Bush has always been pro-outsourcing. It is clear that for mainstream services like IT, which has been going on for a number of years now, work will continue as normal. A large number of IT and BPO deals are being talked about and signed now and that is not likely to be impacted," Phaneesh Murthy, chief executive officer of iGate Global Solutions said.

Outsourcing and India: Compelte Coverage

"There was concern that outsourcing is going to become difficult. Bush's victory in the presidential elections clears these concerns," ICICI Onesource's Raju Bhatnagar said.

Akshaya Bhargava , chief executive officer Infosys' BPO arm said, "It is good that the uncertainty created by the US elections is over. The re-election of Bush should help consolidate the overall commercial relationship between India and the US. Outsourcing by US companies will continue as it is a long-term trend based on sound economics.

Zia Shaikh, CEO of a leading Mumbai-based call center company Infowavz, said, "There were heavy political posturing and strong rhetoric on outsourcing during election time, making it a headline issue while it is not. It was becoming a heavy political issue," he said.

Since Bush is a supporter of free trade, the industry hopes that he President would try to create jobs to offset any so called  "job loss" that is taking place due to offshoring.

Ranjit Narashimhan, the COO of the BPO arm of HCL Technologies, said, "The re-election of Bush is welcome.  He favours free trade. His coming back to power again has cleared the air of uncertainty around BPO industry here as the US companies can clearly see now offshoring is not a negative trend and there is no pressure on them to resist outsourcing. The delay in decision making due to uncertainty is over for US companies."

However, Wipro's BPO subsidiary head Raman Roy said, "There was no impact of leadership, and business as usual will continue for the Indian BPO industry."