Infosys slams US outsourcing bill

India's outsourcing giants have slammed a US bill that could double the cost of a work visa in a move seen as targeting high-profile Indian software exporters, reports Physorg.com.

The measure would boost annual US visa costs for India's outsourcing industry by 200 to 250 million dollars annually, the National Association of Software and Services Companies warned.

S Gopalakrishnan, chief executive of India's second-largest outsourcer Infosys Technologies, told reporters late Monday he was "saddened and disheartened" by the step and said the sector would lobby strongly against it.

Philippines healthcare information outsourcing industry will be expanding services as demand for electronic healthcare services increases, according to the Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines, says Business World.

Myla Rose Reyes, association president, told reporters in a briefing the healthcare information outsourcing has expanded to other areas such as medical coding, medical billing, information technology support, and claims processing.

“Medical centres in the US, UK, Europe and other countries are outsourcing services beyond medical transcription. There is a growing need for companies who can handle information technology development for solutions that will support electronic medical records,” she said.

By 2012, Ford expects to create nearly 2 000 hourly jobs within its US plants by doing less outsourcing, the automaker said recently, states KansasCity.com.

That includes more than 200 jobs that have been brought into the Claycomo plant since 2008, a figure that local union officials said sounds accurate.

The “in-sourcing” of more jobs was one of the pledges made by Ford in its national contract with United Auto Workers union in 2007.