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Though not directly related to offshore outsourcing, this article at News.com is relevant because it helps sharpen the picture of the infrastructure problems in India, and also illustrates a potential area of growth for Western companies exporting technology to India. From the article: "If you don't get into the Bay of Bengal now, you will be left back as an Okie," he said during a presentation at the International Petroleum Technology Conference last week. "Unless you step into the breach, you may regret one day dismissing me as a raving lunatic." The optimism is grounded in massive oil deposits, close to 30 billion tons, in Central India. That's twice the size of the deposits in Iraq (13 billion tons, according to the Institute of Petroleum) and just shy of Saudi deposits. With this, India, which imports 70 percent of its oil, could become an exporter, Aiyar hypothesized. Unfortunately, oil is stuck under the Deccan Traps, a deep layer of volcanic rock created 65 million years ago when the protocontinent Gowandaland smacked into Eurasia. The collision coincided with the extinction of the dinosaurs. Simply put, India won't be able to tap this resource without Western help. If oil prices continue to stay around the $50+ a barrel range, you can expect growing interest in tapping this resource in the near future. If they drop back to levels seen a few years ago, the pressure to develop technology to drill that deep will subside until supplies become tighter and prices escalate. I think that most Westerners will be shocked by the next quote taken from the article. But it does illustrate a small part of the infrastructure problems that I have talked about in the past. For India, exploiting its oil resources could represent a massive step forward in modernization. Blackouts remain common in most Indian cities. Nearly half the country's electricity, according to various estimates, gets stolen by individuals placing illegal feed wires onto power lines. In Aiyar's dreams, it could also reverse the balance of power between East and West. The thing to keep in mind is that as India (or any developing country) becomes more prosperous, domestic demand issues will increase. This will result in a lower supply of people available to export labor to more prosperous countries through offshore outsourcing companies. In addition to a reduced supply of talent, increased domestic demand will result in more imports of things that are only obtainable from more developed nations. The doom-and-gloom stories from the mainstream media about the future of engineering centric occupations in this country are wrong. There are natural forces in a free market economy that tend to offset each other. Capitalism works. |