Monday, November 3, 2008

Prime Minister to India Inc: Refrain from layoffs

This morning's Hindustan Times has this headline and request to corporate India: "While every effort needs to be made to cut costs and raise productivity, I hope there will be no knee-jerk reaction such as large scale layofffs which may lead to a negative spiral." This in a meeting with "business honchos" in which the country's "top macroeconomic managers confabulated for over two hours with industry leaders." I love the message and the words....honchos ... confabulated.

Also on the front page is, of course, our election along with the perceived stance by Obama and McCain on Outsourcing, India, Pakistan, and Nuclear Policy. The summary statement on outsourcing: "Rough times ahead for India's $40 billion outsourcing industry, still growing at a 25% annual clip. Obama will try retaining tech jobs in the US. McCain says all the right things from India's point of view, but if he wins at a time when job losses are accelerating, he may be hard pressed to walk the talk." Obama is more protective. It is, of course, a tough line to walk.... take advantage of what the world has to offer and have access to the world's customers .... essentially putting up no walls around our economy vs. keep jobs at home.

Now...off to some meetings in Delhi.

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