The phenomenal growth of IT and business process outsourcing in India is fuelling demand for new skills from overseas countries, including Ireland.

With export revenues of €3.05 billion forecast this financial year and a growth rate of more than 30 per cent, some analysts claim that skills shortages may affect the industry's performance.

"In an industry this young, how do you get people with 10 years' experience?" said Kiran Karnik, president of Nasscom, the national software and services trade association in India.

"Some companies are getting expatriates. Their numbers are still very small, but I see more people willing to come and spend time here," he said.

According to Nasscom, about 2,000 foreign nationals now work in IT, software and business process outsourcing in India, but some estimates suggest far more.

Michael Sauer merged his software firm based in Gurgaon, 30km (19 miles) south of New Delhi, with a Danish IT consultancy two years ago.

A former venture capitalist with experience in Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan, he said that Indian attitudes to hierarchy, deadlines and truthfulness can pose problems for the uninitiated.

The merger resulted in savings of 65 per cent for the company. This would have been impossible, he said, without recruiting four expatriates to "interface" with clients and Indian staff, mainly programmers.

"Without a level of western project management, I could not guarantee quality," said Sauer.

"Indians are technically very good, but they come from a different cultural reference point."

Irish firms with outsourcing and offshore operations also post staff on short- and medium-term contracts to ensure quality.

Seán O'Carroll, head of manufacturing for Dublin-based electronic security firm Europlex Technologies Limited (which recently merged with a southern Indian firm), is currently working on restructuring its plant in Pondicherry.

"We've gone through this for a number of years in Ireland; we have the skills base because of our large multinationals," he said. "There's lots of experience to be gained out here as the country starts to take off."

Expatriate jobs in outsourcing are not restricted to highly qualified IT and software projects.

Customers across Europe can dial local numbers for Ebookers budget travel agency and are connected to fellow nationals in New Delhi, without ever knowing their call has been rerouted.

Prashant Sahni, head of Ebookers' Indian subsidiary, said the company employs over a hundred Europeans who speak nine languages - and not only for their linguistic skills.

"It's more about cultural understanding," he said. "An Indian who learns German may not know the difference between Oktoberfest and Karneval for instance, which any German would."

Staffed by young Indians and Europeans in search of travel and work experience, Ebookers is unique as it pays Indian salaries, a situation made possible by the low cost of living in India.

Sahni believes it is a trend set to continue.

"We should all be free to work anywhere. I'm willing to face any backlash by employing your people here," he said provocatively.

"If a person loses their job to another part of the world, they have not necessarily lost it to another person," he added.

"They can follow their job to that part of the world."