First, Read this ...
New Jersey Bill Hits a Road Block
AGENCIES[ MONDAY, APRIL 07, 2003 11:25:48 AM ]
In what could bring some cheer to Indian IT professionals, the US federal government is believed not to be in favour of New Jersey’s proposed legislation to prevent government contracts from being outsourced
Confirming the development, highly-placed sources in the Union Commerce Ministry — which oversees the issue at the bilateral level — said that Washington is not in favour of the New Jersey’s bill.
Even as the bill moved by state Senator Shirley Turner in the New Jersey senate has been put on hold till May, US Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Zoellick is learnt to have sent a letter to the Commerce Ministry conveying the US government’s reservations on the bill.
Considering the gravity of the problem, Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley had raised the issue with USTR at the recently held mini-ministerial meeting of WTO in Tokyo.
If the move gains momentum and the bill is passed by the state senate when it meets in May, Indian companies would be badly hit, as the bill prohibits foreign call centres from executing state-awarded customer-support contracts. Four other US states are also considering similar bills.
It had come as a big blow to the IT industry, which has, recently, witnessed professionals being roughed up in various places, actions the industry views as “latent restriction”. Industry experts said this ban could have “serious repercussions”, especially for the IT sector with its lion’s share in BPO, mainly due to wage differential and English-knowing quality workforce.
Now tell me , should we really be concerned about this.Hmmm.. Wots up with eFunds are those guys moving back their operations?
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