‘‘Outsourcing is good. BPO rocking. and India is shining’’. This, coming not from a politician in his constituency but from two busloads of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, who landed in India on Saturday for a weeklong visit.The 50-odd students of International Business at MIT’s Sloan School of Management set out on the visit to Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore on their own to get a grip on the Indian outsourcing industry and ‘‘Indian business in general’’. Besides, there are term-end papers on India to be submitted .‘‘I think it’s important to be in India — or China — at this point in time. These are places the world is watching. In the coming years, this is where businesses will want to invest in,’’ says Deborah Farese on why she chose India over Brazil or Japan, her other options for a group visit.And never mind what American Senators or trade unionists say. These students — between 25 and 35 — are all sold out to the inevitability of business process outsourcing (BPO) and globalisation. ‘‘You must have heard of the ‘win-win’ proposition of outsourcing.The way I see it, BPO is a re-distribution of resources, not necessarily as good for America as it is for developing countries. But it is, nevertheless, inevitable and good in that sense,’’ says Neil DeSilva.‘‘Somebody can’t stop India or any other country from doing business for an American firm if it cuts costs and offers good quality of service,’’ reasons Tolu Adeleye. ‘‘I’ve asked a couple of call centre workers if they were in India, and a few times they were. If you ask me, I’d rate their level of service as good to excellent.’’The students are off to Bangalore and Mumbai on Tuesday, and will visit a range of industrial houses from Infosys, Wipro, GE and Godrej to Sun Pharmaceuticals, ICICI bank and even Bollywood during their stay.
