Reversing the earlier trend derogatively referred to "body-shopping" — locating Indians to work in the US on temporary visas — Indian companies are hiring aggressively in the US, as they acquire greater global strengths.

The new trend is referred to as "reverse offshoring". Asia''s largest offshoring firm, Tata Consultancy Service Ltd (TCS), Infosys and Wipro, which make up India''s three largest IT companies, have emerged the largest employers of laid-off American workers after training them suitably in India.

According to a report in BusinessWeek, Indian firms are recruiting a combination of fresh college graduates and experienced workers who have worked at American companies.

The report says Indian employers are particularly active at campus job fairs, and unlike a few years ago students know who these companies are and respect them. In fact, the Indian connection has become an attraction.

Wipro Ltd, for instance, is scouting US locations for two big software-writing centres that eventually could employ hundreds of programmers each. Cities on its short list include Austin, Tex, and Atlanta, because of their deep tech-talent pools and reasonable salary costs, the leading business magazine says.

"The work we''re doing requires more and more knowledge of the customers` businesses, and you want local people to do that," Wipro Chairman Azim H Premji is quoted as having said in the article.

Today Wipro''s global work force includes 2.5 per cent non-Indians, which the company expects to grow to over 10 per cent in the coming years.

Hiring close to clients, also saves Indian firms the trouble of having to bring in employees from India on temporary visas, says S Padmanabhan, HR head for Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), India`s largest outsourcing firm, said.

Of TCS''s 10,000 US-based workers about 1,000 are Americans, which the company plans to take up to 2,000. TCS currently has 90,000 employees worldwide.

Interestingly, the appreciation of the rupee by over 10 per cent against the dollar this year, has made hiring Americans cheaper.

Forrester Research analyst John McCarthy made a comparison of Indian IT firms hiring in the US with the hiring of American workers by Japanese auto makers, "The Indians are doing to the world`s IT processes what the Japanese did to manufacturing."