India's most valuable natural resource lie in its abundant technically skilled English speaking manpower. India is the world's second largest exporter of software (after the U.S.), and is the source of management and technical talent for over 40 per cent of new start-ups in Silicon Valley. Thanks to its large English-speaking scientific and higher education institutions, specialist computer institutes, and low costs of software talent, India has more software companies with ISO 9000 and SEI CMM Level 5 certification than any other country in the world

India software development firms have provided efficient software solutions to Fortune 500 companies. Citibank, Morgan Stanley, Wal-Mart, AT&T, General Electric, Reebok, General Motors, Sony, Boeing, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, SwissAir, United Airlines, Philips, General Electric, IBM, Reebok, Lucas, British Aerospace, General Motors, and Sears are some companies relying on software companies in India.

India has invested heavily in technical education and can provide a ready supply of bright people at relatively low cost. Infrastructure improvements in India, particularly in the area of telecommunications, and the independent nature of working in IT make it possible to bring this talent to bear on virtually any programming task. Traditionally, the most active location for staging these types of IT initiatives has been India. A strong supply of high-programming talent, favorable government and tax incentives, and the ability to complement U.S. time zones with a virtual around-the-clock approach are some of the advantages India has to offer.

According to the National Association of Software & Service Companies, the Indian software industry lobby, almost half the Fortune 500 companies now use Indian Software services. With over 4 million highly trained English speaking technical personnel (second only to the USA), heavy government support and leading world class software companies, India is set to become the software giant of the new Millennium. Furthermore, a World Bank funded study in the United States confirmed that vendors rated India as their number one choice for outsourcing. Other industry sectors have benefited greatly from their decision to outsource to India: The U.S. and India have an average 12-hour time zone difference, but this kind of use of datacom can provide a virtual 24-hour office to a client in the U.S. Lately, this concept has worked wonders for large projects and also for projects involving remote software maintenance using video conferencing. Offshore projects mean immense time and cost savings.