India, May 3 -- A proposed rule by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has triggered another serious concern for the Indian IT industry. The regulation is tantamount to a quantitative and non-tariff barrier on services exports by offshore call centres to the US - of which India has a large share - as it seeks to put a cap on operations which can be outsourced, in terms of both quality and quantity. The justifications provided are loss of jobs for Americans and customer safety concerns.

On face value neither of them are without basis. American companies have outsourced jobs to save costs and of late, there has been an increase in cyber frauds to which America isn't immune either. However, to put it as if the gains of such outso...