Washington: India's economic growth and reverse brain drain illustrating its progress in technology has found mention in 'The Wall Street Journal'.

In a dispatch titled "Indian tech companies step up rivalry with West", the paper noted that Indian firms are now able to lure away employees of Western companies to bring bigger contracts.

"Indian computer services companies have drawn heavy attention for taking contracts - and jobs - from US and European rivals. Now, the Indian upstarts are opening a new front in the battle - luring employees of the Western competitors to make a dent into the North American and European computer services markets, valued at about $ 422 billion this year, the paper said.

While public attention has focused on jobs moving to India, the 'Journal' said on Tuesday (Dec 16), the biggest Indian players have been poaching staff from consulting and computer services companies in the US and Europe. That includes hiring "rainmakers" - veteran consultants with boardroom access who bring in big contracts - and demand salaries to match.

"These high-profile hires," said the paper, "are a big part of the Indian companies' strategies for winning the biggest contracts, valued over $ 100 million each, that largely still elude them. They are also part of their push to provide more complex and expensive services, such as computer-strategy consulting, to match their brand-name US and European rivals."

To win such work, "we need to get top talent", said head of Infosys' consulting team in London, Arindom Basu.

PTI