Washington : Outsourcing of tech jobs to India has caused such an outcry in the United States that there are more than 196 anti-offshore outsourcing and call center bills in at least 40 states, of which approximately 123 measures have been voted down or failed in the various sessions, according to Mark Riedy, Partner, Andrews Kurth, LLP.

He said the general provisions in these measures generally prohibit offshoring state government and not private sector contract work. Besides, at least 10 states across the U.S. have passed 14 anti-offshore outsourcing bills. Of these, four have been enacted, two have been vetoed and eight remain pending action by respective governors, he said.

Riedy said this while participating in a panel discussion on ‘Outsourcing in Practice’ at a conference on ‘Outsourcing to Asia: Moving Beyond the Rhetoric’ organized by the Asia Society Washington Center under its Contemporary Affairs Series on Oct 28.

Riedy, who spoke in favor of outsourcing as being good for trade and globalization, said the advantages of outsourcing to India was because India leads the world in producing a dedicated and skilled tech workforce. It has some of the most competitive programs for engineering and technology training and 99 percent of its workforce is college-educated.

He said India is also committed to the industry and its talent. The country produces 150,000 software engineers each year in comparison to 50,000 in the U.S. Besides, more than half of the world’s Level 5 capability maturity model (CMM) companies are located in India.

Saying that the software and business process outsourcing industry in India is arguably the most investor friendly, Riedy said bureaucratic hurdles are minimal and the processes are constantly being reviewed for further streamlining.

India leads several Asian nations including the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore where U.S. companies have outsourced skilled work ranging from airline ticketing to payroll processing s a cost effective measure.

The keynote address was delivered by Catherine L. Mann, Senior Fellow, Institute of International Economics, and author of the recent IIE policy brief ‘Globalization of IT Services and White-Collar Jobs: The Next Wave of Productivity Growth.’ She felt innovation, education and technology were needed to make U.S. more competitive in a global economy.

Following Mann’s address, there was a panel discussion which on ‘Outsourcing in Practice.’ The panelists included Vivek Kulkarni, CEO, B2K Corp. and former IT Secretary to Karnataka; Anupam Ahuja of Office Tiger; and Mark Riedy, Partner, Andrews Kurth LLP. John Cassidy of New Yorker magazine was the moderator.