While the outsourcing of manufactured goods can be traced back to many years ago, service (or IT) outsourcing was started in 1992 by Covansys.



Source: Indian Insitute of Technology Delhi

According to Clague, the CEO of Covansys as quoted by Fast Company:

The roots of the successful development of an IT industry in India go back to the late 1970s, when the Indian government put in place a policy requiring a majority ownership of all foreign ventures. Fearing nationalization, companies such as IBM pulled out, leaving the country with a small tech infrastructure but no one to maintain it.

That's when Indian IT workers stepped in, which also triggered the education system to produce more skilled people in this area.

Indian Institute of Technology is renowned for their excellent graduates who are more than technically skilled. They are known for their resourcefulness and entrepreneurship.

IIT graduates have dominated the C-level executives in Silicon Valley during the dot-com frenzy period. Now they're dominating the positions at outsourcing suppliers in India.

IIT graduates will continue to be important "silent" players in both sides of the fence of outsourcing. Pretty interesting picture, indeed.