IT firms should hire locals abroad, says Narayana Murthy

Indian information technology firms will have to recruit local people at the front end of their operations in the US and other markets to mitigate the discomfort and outsourcing fears, Infosys mentor N R Narayana Murthy said on in Bangalore on Monday.

"We have to make sure we are not very visible in those markets," he said when asked about a possible solution to IT outsourcing concerns faced by Indian companies.

He said there was "bound to be discomfort by any government" if a large percentage of the workforce was of foreign origin. He cited the example of the Indian government's discomfort when China sent people to erect power plants in India.

"The solution for us is to make the front end local, then no one will raise any objection," he said, citing the example of China. "Why isn't there uproar against China," he asked. "China exports $1.1 trillion. Ours is a piddling $50 billion. Ours is nothing compared to China."

He said the damage done to lower level employment opportunities in the West was because of China's extraordinary performance in exports, but nobody was talking about it because they were not visible.

"The moral of the story is to make sure we are not very visible in those markets," he said. "Hire local talent. Hire Englishmen in England, hire Americans in US and the Brazilian in Brazil," he said.