India is known for its large IT industry and developments in outsourcing and offshoring during recent decades. Words like ‘callcenter’, ‘outsourcing’ and ‘back office’ are immediately linked to India nowadays.

Besides the IT industry, India has been developing its production facilities to which international companies outsource. As a result of the high education level, every year hundreds of thousands new technical educated engineers enter the workforce. Production and assembly facilities are managed in a increasinglyprofessional manner. 

The knowledge and skills present in India convince more and more companies to (partly) outsource product development (R&D) to the country. In comparison to China (purely mass production), India is perfectly able to execute these activities.

Other reasons to outsource production to India:

• Very cost-effective production of small (test) series.
• The spread of risk. Companies do not want to depend purely on China. More often firms also look at countries like Vietnam and China (multi-sourcing strategy). 
• Many high educated engineers available in every imaginable specialization.
  
• The level of the English knowledge. Perhaps the most important heritage of the British domination. Communication in English is possible on every level, from directors to laborers.