Trouble in India, and its impact on outsourcing

Finextra received some interesting feedback from a reader today about this story, which covered NAB considering further Indian outsourcing. Our reader pointed out that with Maoist insurgents having slaughtered 40 Indian policemen this week, moving operations there now requires a hard second look.  “Forget the weather issues, training, infrastructure and the rest - security is and will continue to be the single most important (issue) India must address in the months and years ahead if their initial success is to continue,” she said.

My initial reaction was that India is a large and diverse country, and the troubles in one state shouldn't be implied as being relevant to all parts of the country. But, according to this BBC report , Maoist rebels are active in about a third of India's states and are so powerful in several districts of central and eastern India that they virtually run a parallel administration.

So maybe there is something in our reader’s comment. Security is undoubtedly something that those looking to outsource to India need to at least think about, and it's something that will concern the Indian business community, particularly those in Jarkhand (where a lawmaker was recently shot at a football game), which is trying to catch up in the BPO stakes with southern centres of Hyderabad and Bangalore.