Bangalore: NASSCOM on June 12 said the spate of bills in US against outsourcing of IT and Business Process Outsourcing services were politically motivated and was not a "backlash" against Indian firms, but was due to sluggish economic conditions there.

"It is not a backlash against the Indian IT industry. Due to the key elections ahead, many of them are politically motivated," National Association of Software and Service Companies Chairman Som Mittal said.

Stating that the amendments were yet to be implemented, Mittal said there are going to be amendments in the New Jersey bill which would water down the legislation.

"The Maryland, Connecticut and Washington bills are unlikely to be introduced," Mittal, who is the President and CEO of Digital Globalsoft, said at the inaugural of the "NASSCOM's India ITES-BPO Strategy Summit 2003".

Mittal said previous incidents have shown that restricting of outsourcing had only depleted the long term competitiveness of certain industries.

He compared the US auto industry which became "strong" once it started outsourcing and the struggling steel industry which went for protectionist measures.

"We are not complacent and not worried, but at the same time we should not lose sleep over these issues," Mittal said.

He called on IT firms to respect the sensitiveness of security concerns in countries, which has heightened in the past few years, and to follow the Visa rules.

PTI