Source: www.eetimes.com
Richard Wallace

India is riding a new wave of globalization-”and prosperity–as the economics of IT outsourcing, design and development propel it into a new role as a technology leader.

No longer an island of outsourcing, India is at the center of a growing number of regional business and IT technology partnerships with neighbors as diverse as Egypt, China, Pakistan and Dubai. All are poised to shake up the IT status quo in the West while bringing a new phase of tech-driven development to North Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf states.

With aspirations of repeating India’s success in business process outsourcing, design and development, political, the region’s business and academic leaders are seeking to align with, or replicate, India’s models for IT business and technology development.

This new geo-technology axis is destined to have a profound impact on the global IT and technology sectors, and it marks a turning point in the industry’s balance of power. This shift mirrors the decades-old exodus of electronics and computer manufacturing from the U.S. to Asia and China. It also comes as the U.S. IT sector is increasingly seen as a “mature” market that is on the verge of a recession.

India’s emergence as a global IT leader will have profound significance for the electronics market as next-generation semiconductor and electronics system design–including embedded systems design–will follow technology demand emerging from burgeoning domestic and regional economies.

This trend is foremost in the minds of the India Semiconductor Association, (ISA) which convenes its 2008 Vision Summit here this week. ISA expects the Indian industry to evolve from design into a major electronics manufacturing hub before the end of the decade.

According to analysts at Prayag Consulting, the geography of innovation is changing, and, according to John Kao, an innovation consultant, all of the key advantages once enjoyed by the U.S. are disappearing. “While in the 20th century, leading-edge thinking emanated from the West, today, the rise of Asia is evening that out.” In its place, Prayag’s consultants see a new technology innovation triumvirate emerging.

“We are seeing a whole new age of globalization today. With the explosion of technologies, knowledge pools and people are connected as never before and the rules of the game have changed irreversibly. The death of distance, a result of the wired world we now live in, has opened up possibilities for individuals, enterprises and nations. Three countries that are taking full advantage of this paradigm shift are Israel, China and India,” the market researcher asserted in a research bulletin.

Following in the footsteps of India pioneers like Texas Instruments and Motorola, multinational companies like Cisco Systems and IBM are launching operations here. IBM alone employs 76,000 workers in India, its second largest employee base.

From its new headquarters here, Cisco is developing the network architecture for an $8 billion high tech “smart city” project in Saudi Arabia, part of a contract it signed in January. According to Cisco, there are as many as 12 “smart city” deals in the pipeline.

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Source: www.suntimes.com

The Chicago Sun-Times and more than 70 sister newspaper titles throughout the metro area have entered into an agreement to outsource most of its print and online ad production.

The outsourcing agreement with Elgin-based Affinity Express Inc. is expected to reduce operating costs by $3 million a year at The Sun-Times News Group, which in addition to the Chicago Sun-Times includes Fox Valley Publications, Midwest Suburban Publishing, Pioneer Press and Post-Tribune.

The cost reduction, which will result in an unspecified number of layoffs as the outsourcing is implemented over several months, is part of parent company Sun-Times Media Group Inc.’s previously announced plan to trim $50 million a year from operating costs.

Cyrus Freidheim Jr., president and CEO of Sun-Times Media Group, said, “Partnering with Affinity will enable us to significantly upgrade our service to our advertisers while reducing our costs. This is one in a series of moves to make our company more nimble and efficient.”

Under the agreement, The Sun-Times News Group newspapers will outsource the internal creation of ads. However, advertising clients will experience no change in the ad-submission process, the publisher said.

Freidheim said Affinity, with production offices in India and the Philippines, was chosen because of its “extensive infrastructure and expertise in the field of advertising production for news companies,” including the Charlotte Observer and the Columbus, Ohio Dispatch.