US offshores 22,000 green jobs to India
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| Mon, 05-04-2009 - 9:45am |
BANGALORE: As the Obama government gets ready to raise a protectionist wall against offshoring, the US firms seem to be shipping more jobs to India. Indian firms have gone a few steps beyond and begun to offer Green IT solutions such as consulting, virtualization, carbon management and paperless office, among others, to help their clients reduce carbon footprint and cut cost. IT infrastructure, such as data centers, are energy guzzlers and use 1.5 per cent of domestic power output in the US.
The US firms have offshored 22,000 green technology jobs to India since January 1, 2009, Doug Brown, co-author of the influential 2009 Green Outsourcing Report, informed TNIE.
“We see the (green job offshoring) trend increasing as the US and the UK outsourcing buyers are seeking lower cost in labour and energy consumption. There are few suppliers who match credentials and outcomes of Indian firms,†he said.
The annual industry study by Brown-Wilson Group, which surveyed 4,000 global firms, was released last week.
The report lists Patni, HCL, WNS, Wipro, Mastech and Tech Mahindra among important Indian green vendors who are benefiting from the offshoring wave.
Among the non-Indian firms, Xerox, Accenture, IBM Global, CSC, Capgemini, Oracle, HP/ ED S, Aramark, SITEL and Perot lead the list.
As most of these firms run large delivery centres in India, the boom in their green offshoring business is expected to further create jobs in India.
Noting an interesting irony the authors of the report say, “In the US, green stimulus plan is creating low-wage installation and construction jobs.†But, in India, which is usually associated with cheap and low-skill work, “…New green jobs include higher dollar engineers, strategic business management and support technicians charged with designing innovative environmental friendly solutions,†they add.
Green offshoring is creating demand for sustainability engineers, marketing and business development executives, data center management engineers, utilities and electric engineers and quality specialists in India, Brown informed TNIE.
Soaring energy cost and regulatory pressure have put pressure on firms in the US and Europe to embrace green technologies. Most of outsourcing buyers seek impeccable green credentials in their suppliers before handing over work, the report says.
This is an important condition as these firms have come to rely on their suppliers to mange their reputation as eco-friendly companies and ensure regulatory compliance.
Indian firms have passed this test with flying colours as over the last few years they have aggressively invested in appropriate hardware, waste disposal, recycling, eco-friendly buildings and other green technologies.
A Greenpeace survey recently ranked Wipro among top 5 green brands globally.
While the Indian firms have made ‘exceptional progress’ in building green credentials, Chinese and Central and East European (CEE) firms have made ‘the least advances’, the report says.


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