U.S. firms shed Indian back-office operations

Some well-known U.S. firms that have been hit by the recession and need to cut costs, are abandoning the back-office information technology centers they have operated in India. In a move that counters a decade-long trend, Citigroup has sold its information technology operation in India. What's more, Delta Air Lines Inc. and UAL Corp. have shut down centers during the past few months, the Wall Street Journal reported.

At least 500 Western companies have such offshore offices in India. The newspaper reported that many U.S. firms originally opened the centers to take advantage of cheap labor and save money, but some are now reassessing that calculation and finding that operating their own offshore IT facilities no longer makes economic sense, in the current climate.

For more on offshore trends:
- see this WSJ.com article

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