India, US to discuss outsourcing concerns

The Indian government is set to discuss the IT industry's concerns over outsourcing curbs and visa fee hikes with US president Barack Obama during his India visit starting this week, states The Telegraph India.

India's $50-billion outsourcing industry has been hit by two US laws - the Mexico Border Security Bill, which more than doubled visa costs, and a ban by the Democrat-ruled Ohio on outsourcing of government IT work.

“The finance minister and the commerce minister are expected to take up the issue of outsourcing of IT services and the recent hike in US visa fees for software professionals with Obama,” says a top official of Nasscom.

As Japan-based optical disc-maker Taiyo Yuden was recently reported to have cut its CD and DVD production by 40% due to the rising Japan exchange rate, market watchers believe the decision should benefit Taiwan-based makers as the production may be outsourced to them, says Digitimes.

However, sources from Taiwan-based optical disc makers point out that the CD and DVD markets are already mature and demand is dropping every year, therefore, Blu-ray disc will still be the key driver for their performance in the future.

Taiyo Yuden was the fourth largest optical disc maker worldwide in 2009 with a share of 9.4% and 8.8% in global CD and DVD market, respectively. The company reportedly plans to reduce its monthly capacity from 110 million units to only 65 million units and market watchers expect the company will outsources the orders to Taiwan-based makers CMC Magnetics and Ritek.

Fashion designer Derek Lam is embarking on a capsule collection to be sold exclusively on e-Bay, writes The UK Independent.

Upon the collection's initial unveiling during New York Fashion Week in February 2011, Web users will be able to vote for their favourite looks to determine what goes into production.

Following the runway show, shoppers will be invited to vote on e-Bay to determine the most coveted Lam pieces. Crowdsourcing will thus be responsible for selecting which items actually go into production and will be sold on the Web site next spring. EBay said the price points will be "accessible," but so far has not given exact figures.