The former chairman and founder of Indian outsourcer Satyam Computer Services was released on bail on Wednesday by the High Court in Andhra Pradesh, state of south India.

H-1B visa critics and advocates agree that an increase in visa fees that targets Indian IT service providers is inequitable. What's more, they say, it will do little to create or maintain American IT jobs, and could in fact lead to increased offshoring.

China's appeal as an outsourcing location is limited to a few neighboring countries like Japan and Korea, unlike India and the Philippines, which address global markets including the U.S. and the U.K., according to a report released Wednesday by Everest Research Institute.

Within five years, the traditional IT outsourcing industry will be extinct, argues A.T. Kearney's Arjun Sethi. Most Indian providers will be sidelined or subsumed while the fate of seemingly stalwart U.S. players will hang in the balance. CIO.com talks to Sethi about his bold predictions for the IT outsourcing industry.

Two weeks ago, the CIO of Texas penned a seven-page letter outlining the "chronic failures" of the state's nearly four-year outsourcing relationship--a deal the Texas governor had briefly suspended in 2008 citing service delivery problems that he said put the state's agencies in danger.

British outsourcer Xchanging is setting up a business process outsourcing (BPO) center in a town in India, hoping to tap into the low-cost, skilled staff available outside the country's cities.

IT departments should beware of buying additional outsourced services from their existing offshore providers. Here are eight steps to consider before signing new statements of work.

Europe has always been a difficult market for Indian outsourcers, because some of the countries on the continent have been slow to adopt offshore outsourcing. The market has however worsened this year for the Indians because of a weak euro and tighter IT budgets in Europe, according to Forrester Research.

Offshore outsourcer Patni say the high U.S. unemployment rate has enabled it to increase its American presence at a low cost, but looming immigration and H-1B visa reform could put a crimp in the company's U.S. expansion plans.

India's National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) said on Wednesday that its member companies see business opportunities in the country's small towns and villages, where costs are cheaper and staff is more easily available