Shefali Kapadia watches election night coverage with Indian techies in New York

New York, Nov. 5: As President, Barack Obama will not be able to reverse the whole process of outsourcing to India whatever he may have indicated during the election campaign, many Indian Americans feel.

Explaining why Indian “techies” took this view, Kartik Kilachand, member of South Asians for Obama, told The Telegraph: “Indians comprise 2.4million — about 0.8 per cent of America’s 300 million population. Yet out of the $650million campaign funds collected by Obama, Indians raised nearly $30million — about 5 per cent of the total.”

Kilachand, who had gathered for an Indian election-night party in Brooklyn Heights, an affluent New York suburb, said: “We now have a seat at the table. We will be consulted on important policy issues, such as outsourcing.”

The Indians clearly felt part of the US political process. A rousing cheer went up at 8.45pm when CNN called Pennsylvania for Obama. At 9.20pm, Ohio, another crucial battleground state, followed.

One of the guests, Shefali Kapadia, combining the glamour of New York and Mumbai, the two cities between which she — like many other Indian Americans — practically commutes, said she worked for two NGOs, Chakshu and Blazing Hope, which focused on 64 villages in Maharashtra.

“I often work in the village of Shivkar in the Panvel area and know bright children,” she said. “All they need is a break. I am confident they could be the Indian Obamas of tomorrow, the outsider who has come from nowhere.”

Last night’s party was hosted by Ashok Vasvani, a “financial analyst for hedge funds”, and his wife Bansi, an art dealer. Many of the guests were entrepreneurs in software development.

Whether Obama really will consult his Indian supporters on outsourcing remains to be seen but the main argument advanced last night was that, in office, he would be unlikely to adopt policies that would damage American companies by restricting their ability to engage with business partners in India.

There was no jingoism on display, only a presentation of the realities of burgeoning Indo-US trade and business. And it came at a celebration where the mood was genuinely pro-Obama.

Kilachand’s business partner, Samir Hutheesing, stressed that US corporations outsourced to India “not because it was cheaper but because they received quality”.

He said: “Obama has talked of rewarding American companies that don’t send jobs abroad but I don’t think US companies have a choice. The Wipros and the Infosyses of this world are multi-billion-dollar companies. Indian companies are very competitive. Indian companies can offer good service with excellent technical skills, which are often things you cannot get in the US.”