Indian IT Companies Branching Into Canada?

Am I the only one who has noticed the recent proliferation of Indian IT companies setting up in North America last year? When I asked a representative of one of these companies (just out of curiousity) what was going on, his response was simply ... globalization.

While that response is probably true as far as it goes, it really doesn't explain the recent proliferation!

As a Canadian IT person, a software developer, with origins in India (fathers family came here and to the US in 1908, mothers family came in the 60s), I have taken notice. I'd like to understand what is really going on and what the effect on our Canadian software development industry is likely to be.

If this current proliferation was just a result of globalization, why is it happening now? Why didn't it happen 10 or 15 years ago?

Bush recently went to India for the first time. Again why now? Why not in the 90s? The reason the US didn't have a relationship with India before the 90s was because of Indias' support for the communist run Soviet Union. Why didn't they hook up when the Berlin Wall came down and when the Soviet Union finally made a break with their communist past?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth (well ... maybe I am) but it's an interesting curiousity.

I've long felt that the US was wrong in maintaining a relationship with Pakistan and not India, particularly after the 9/11 Al Qaeda terrorist attack in New York. India has a lot of experience dealing with modern moslem extremists (and no I'm not say that all moslems are extremists - most are extremely nice hard working people just like the rest of us) and India, in fact, did make a contribution toward assisting the US in terms of information sharing, despite the tight US-Pakistan relationship which existed up until very recently.

So ... I don't have a problem with the close ties that have recently been developed between India and the US. In fact, I think it's a good thing. It will benefit both India and the US in the long run.

Canada has maintained a close diplomatic and trading partnership with India for a very long time. Some have commented that the Canada India relationship has actually benefited Canada more than India. I don't know whether this is true or not. There has certainly been a mutual benefit!

I'm just wondering why there is a huge proliferation of Indian IT companies coming into North America now, what role they are playing here, and how it will affect the software development community in Canada?

I think I'll do a little research ... more on this later.