BT has announced today that it will be setting up a global operations center in Gurgaon, India, employing 300 locals and joining similar centers in Hungary, China, and Brazil in the global telecom powerhouse's off-shoring operations. BT has previously outsourced development work to Indian firms but this is their first foray into telecom operations on the sub-continent.

The move also joins a growing trend, which seems to be feeding off itself, for multi-national firms to use their India-based off-shore operations to serve not only European and North American outsourcing needs, but also to provide services to other customers within India. As the Indian off-shoring market expands, it drives the technology and infrastructure needs inside the company itself, as well as offering more ephemeral drivers of the tech marketplace such as improved education and expanded entertainment options. By growing Indian outsourcing operations, multinationals have been, perhaps inadvertently, creating new markets for themselves as they go.

One wonders, however, if this will serve eventually to push the pricing of Indian operations over the threshold which makes them so appealing for off-shoring purposes currently. If nothing else the country will continue to supply talented engineering and IT professionals, but as their own demand rises both globally and locally, and the infrastructure costs in the country increase, will these same multinationals start looking even further afield for inexpensive locales for their programming and operations centers?