India Inc Roots for Bush, Seen Favouring Outsourcing

[OhioChick]

BOMBAY (AFP) - Corporate India favours the re-election of US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) as it feels a Republican win would boost India's already booming BPO sector, industry officials said.

Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (news - web sites), by contrast, is linked in many Indian business minds with opposition to BPO or Business Process Offshoring, they said on Monday.

Bush's "return to power would be good for India as he is for outsourcing to low-cost countries like India," Amit Verma, economist at the Confederation of Indian Industry, the leading business lobby, told AFP.

Other analysts echoed the view, saying a Bush win in Tuesday's elections would be better for India.

"Kerry has promised to cut back tax benefits for outsourcing firms which is a not a good sign," said A. Anand Kumar, managing director of Magma, an electronic design automation firm in the southern city of Bangalore.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1535&u=/afp/20041101/wl_sthasia_afp/us_vote_india&printer=1

[aquart]

1. Too damn bad.

[OhioChick]

2. My Thoughts Exactly........

[liberalpragmatist]

3. Business obviously favors Bush

The intelligentsia and much of the science community and upper-middle-class is very anti-Bush. Middle-class entrepreneurs, small businessowners, etc. may well be for Bush, b/c they tend to be relatively well-off but less well-educated, less worldly, and more anti-Muslim. Much of the country couldn't care less. The poor are concerned about their own livelihood. While the Indian poor are highly political, they don't give a damn about American politics. They have children to feed.

The Indian-American community will probably back Kerry pretty heavily, however. They backed Gore by a 70-30 margin (actually, it might have been 60-40, but it was either of those), will probably support Kerry by a similar if slightly reduced margin.

*On edit: I am Indian-American.

[mikehiggins]

4. OH, yeah. Another story gets a 5 vote

Oh, yeah.

[venus]

5. Yeah too bad. I love India. Beautiful people.

They also support the Iraq war I think. Heard lots of this attitude on local weekend Indian shows. Of course they are benefiting from our outsourcing, helping their economy in big ways.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

6. Yep, it's at the top of my list: what's "good for India"...right behind:

1). The war in Iraq

2). The number of Americans who have fallen out of the middle class and into poverty

3). Tax cuts for the top 1% wealthy Americans while the items above are happening

4). Unemployed Americans who, if they are lucky, eventually get TWO jobs which, when the income is combined, still fall below a "living wage"

How, in good conscience, could we choose a president whose election is "not a good sign" for India's "booming BPO sector?"

:grr:

[high density]

7. Good news for Kerry

I could care less if Indians have jobs or not.

[Triana]

8. Tough!! Kerry will do what is best...

...for America, not INDIA. They've taken enough of our jobs. ENOUGH.

[ima_sinnic]

9. yeah Bush, you (*#%ing traitor, do "what's best for India" and

screw the American workers. May you rot in hell with a gazillion fire ants blistering your pasty flesh.

[goforit]

10. More souls who sold out for SATAN!!!!...I won't forget Indian Inc. EVER!!!

[dingaling]

13. I DO NOT AGREE

with hating a whole country because of one issue. India was conquered, looted and raped by the west. Do we hate the west? We dont. India is a poor country and the labor there is cheap compared to here. That doesnt mean that we are in any way inferior compared to Americans. You cannot blame Indians to supporting outsourcing. If it is an issue that makes money for them, they have every right to support it. In the near future, if big business finds another country that is cheaper than India, they will move operations from India in a heartbeat. Also, the Bush support in India is bullshit. India is a extremely liberal country with a record of supporting oppressed countries and peoples that is equal to if not better than any country in the west.

P.S: I am Indian Indian and as a personal opinion I think that moving jobs to another country (especially government jobs) is wrong.

[liberalpragmatist]

11. People - don't get mad at India in general

They're talking about CORPORATE India. Of course Big Business in most countries is going to favor Bush. That's a universal rule. That doesn't necessarily mean that most Indians approve of Bush or want him to win.

I am Indian-American and I find the Indian-American community to be very supportive of India. In India itself, much of the intelligentsia and the educated upper-middle class (about 10-15% of the population, still 100,000,000 to 150,000,000) seems to be quite anti-Bush. The lower middle class may favor Bush because they're often more anti-Muslim and so may support Bush's "war on terror" - that said, when I last visited India, there was tremendous anger at the Iraq war. The previous govt. had to back down from popular pressure and neither that govt. nor the new govt elected in May is sending troops to Iraq.

A recent poll said that Indians were split 34-33 Kerry-Bush. The rest couldn't give a damn - they're poor and worried about their own livelihoods and putting food on the table, not the American election. If they had to vote, they'd probably go Dem because the majority of Indians are still Socialists.

[cosmicone]

12. Hey -- wait a minute here!!!!

The companies doing business in India are American companies just as the manufacturing outsourced to China was also by American companies. The Indian BPO companies are still small as compared to the giant operations of the likes of Microsoft, IBM and EDS in India.

What are Indians supposed to do? Turn down a job because it may affect some faceless and nameless person in the US?

When the US was exporting sewing machines, did the employess care if seamstresses elsewhere in the world were losing their jobs? When the US exports bulldozers and tractors, do the employees of Navistar or GM care that manual laborers will lose their jobs in many third world countries?

Indian-Americans are very enterprising and have caused the US economy to grow by fuelling startups and building companies HERE.

Let's not convert what a few companies in India think of the election into India-bashing on this board. That is freeper behavior.

Like someone else pointed out, Indian Americans are overwhelmingly democratic -- as much as 75:25.

No one in India supports the Iraq war but some people used to like Bush because they thought he will attack Pakistan next and take away India's threat. Instead, Bush has disillusioned them by giving economic aid, military hardware and spytools to Pakistan and its terror network.

If Indian people had supported it, India would have joined the coalition of the bribed and coerced. India has steadfastly opposed the Iraq war -- even turning down a $6 billion potential payoff by the Chimpenführer.

On Edit: I'm an Indian-American too.

[OhioChick]

15. I don't hate India...

not by any means. Indians have gotten an opportunity to increase their job market because of another countries stupidity for rewarding domestic companies for removing jobs from domestic workers and exporting them to a foreign land. Labor costs are obviously slanted in the favor for export, this is bad enough... but to reward a domestic-based company to offshore it's employees is absurd. Offering tax-break loopholes and such makes outsourcing of domestic jobs an even more profitable experience for the companies CEO, CFO and shareholders.

India is not at fault for this activity, nor should the American people blame the Indian people. It is our countries policies that caused this mess to proliferate out of control. Indian workers should, without out a doubt, make every attempt to better themselves and accept jobs that are offered to them. India is not the problem. Our tax laws and trade policies are.

Indians should be for Bush... His party helps their livelihood. Well and good for the Indian people. The trade off is that these policies hurt families here at home and weaken the US economy.

I know I will hear the argument that the export of tech jobs will help the US economy because the US company is more profitable... this is BS. These companies do generate more profit, it is taxed far less than revenue generated domestically. So how does this help the US economy... less people domestically working... less money filtered by our taxation... added corporate revenues will be used to further outsource more existing and future jobs (because this model works for the company). Take a look at Cisco, the computer networking hardware giant; They plan to offshore the entire company to China by 2008.

No, I do not think we should take out our outrage on the Indian population... they are merely fulfilling opportunities that our government is offering them in truckloads! It is our government and our lawmakers that we should all be pissed at.

[cosmicone]

16. I take issue with one statement from your post...

"...Indians should be for Bush... His party helps their livelihood. Well and good for the Indian people. The trade off is that these policies hurt families here at home and weaken the US economy..."

I disagree. Every Indian knows that Bush's policies have caused the oil prices to rise drastically. An average Indian doesn't see the benefit of outsourcing much but he/she surely feels the pain of rising oil prices which, as a percentage of per capita GDP, hurt Indians far more than the average American. They earn money in Indian wages and pay for oil at world-rates -- you do the math!

Indians have always had friendly relations with all democratic administrations. Big Dawg Bill Clinton is extremely popular in India - he could even win an election in India!

On the other hand, the repthugs have always had cozy relationship with the Pakistani dictators, funding them and arming them to the teeth.

Indians are not as dumb as the freeper-sheeple. They can identify a short term advantage packaged as a long term detriment and know the importance of keeping the US economically strong for the benefit of the entire world.

[saigon68]

21. I agree with you

Beating up another group of poor people solves nothing.

What is need here is a Global strategy to eliminate starvation, hunger and redistribute wealth more equitably.

Not to get 2 groups of poor people to fight each other. The rich criminals always get along, their friendship and business relationships controlled by wealth.

[LongTomH]

14. Outsource This!

A documentary movie and page on outsourcing issues:

http://www.outsourceoutrage.com/

[cliss]

17. The Hindus shouldn't be too eager to endorse

the Old Crony. As some readers might remember, India had a huge problem with Enron, of all things. It seems that the Evil Company was involved with the Dabhol power plant which was left high and dry. I'm not sure about all the details, but it's my understanding that Enron wanted to build something in India. Leaders of course were very happy about this.

When Enron's house of cards folded, the energy project was abandoned. The Hindus got stuck with the mess, and I believe nothing has been done about it. In the meantime, people are stealing electricity by hooking up wires to electricity lines (can you imagine that). There is so much stolen that hardly any power gets to its intended destination. I believe this is a huge problem in India.

So much for the Bush Buddies.

[Robert Oak]

18. India is pooping in their pants about outsourcing

So this is a major endorsement for Kerry.

If you look at the numbers, this great "cost savers" has resulted
in those fired American's salaries going directly into CEO's pockets, verified by the dramatic increase in CEO compensation at this very companies. The tech industry repeated gives flat quarterly profit numbers to wall street and the India companies have growth in profits
from 30 to 80%.

It's a direct brain and money drain on the US.

[NeoConsSuck]

19. Any American that reads this story..

is a guaranteed vote for Kerry.

[schultzee]

20. GW cares about India having an economic boom and does not

care about the people who built this country. Who is unpatriotic?

[camero]

22. Another reason globalization is bad for world peace

It gets countries competing with one another for limited jobs and causing needless tension between countries. It will likely cause another war. Even more so than with protectionism.