Kolkata: Voicing concern over the United States outcry against outsourcing of jobs to countries like India, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) today (Mar 3, 2004) said the next six or seven months would not be easy for the Indian IT companies.

Addressing a press conference in Kolkata, NASSCOM president Kiran Karnik said as elections in the US were slated for November this year, there were possibilities that more legislation would be passed banning outsourcing of jobs by the US companies to other countries, including India.

Karnik said since America was the biggest market for Indian IT firms, months preceding the US elections would not augur well for these firms.

However, he said that there would not be much business impact due to this.

Stating that the job losses in the US market were mainly in the manufacturing sector, Karnik said NASSCOM was pulling all stops to explain the Americans that outsourcing will actually benefit them more than anybody else.

NASSCOM had commissioned and picked up independent studies carrying this message in the US media in a big way, he said.

Regarding the United Kingdom, he said the issue was little different there since there were no polls scheduled in the current year.

NASSCOM had several discussions with the trade unions of BritRail, he said, adding that the outcome was successful.