Following the UK elections and subsequently, the naming of the country’s new Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne has pushed government outsourcing contracts in limbo, as companies anticipate the stance the new government will enforce.

The big three of Indian outsourcing companies have a lot to evaluate, as their lower ranking rival Cognizant (NASDAQ:CTSH), is slowly starting to emerge ahead of the pack following the company’s first quarter results. This comes with the continued albeit slow rebound of the outsourcing market this year.

For the first quarter of 2010, there were some notable outsourcing contracts established, albeit they’re not the ‘mega deals’ of old, but substantial they are still.

A few months back I wrote an article on how outsourcing has already been helping with cost reductions in the Healthcare Industry, and with the recent passing of the U.S. Healthcare Reform Bill, many are anticipating an increase in business opportunities in this sector.

Cloud Computing is a computer concept that is starting to appear in the limelight of outsourcing and IT companies. It is an alternative solution for computer services where one service is shared by many through a collection of servers. This means that instead of installing a program into a single computer unit in the company, the program can be accessed by multiple units via the internet. Now what does that mean? It means savings on licensing original products and cost reduction on IT maintenance, a problem that has become a vital and important issue for chief information officers according to experts.

Contrary to what some naysayers of outsourcing are saying, the industry is alive and well, and it seems that it’s going to stay for a long while yet. As mentioned in a previous article, competition in outsourcing is becoming very stiff now, what with the industry expanding, as is what professional services firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers surmised in its Jan, 2010 report. Everyone wants a piece of the cake, but when everyone’s toting the same salver, it’s a bit difficult to decide to whom to give a piece to.

With the United States market still in slump, businesses project difficulties in profit increase in the next 7 years. Job cuts continue in the US and the rate of job creation of 25 per year is not sufficient to offset job losses in the next 5 years. On the other side of the world, Indian outsourcing firms show an opposite trend. Global IT service providers such as Infosys which provides technical consulting, design and development of business solutions have been aggressively increasing their workforce. Last week, the company reported that in the second quarter it has hired 6,069 people offsetting the 4,521 employees it laid off in the same quarter. Tata Consultancy Service is also bullishly hiring with plans of hiring 25,000 people worldwide for this year 2009 and 90% coming from India. Also part of the bandwagon is Wipro Technologies. In October 15 Wipro CEO Azim Premji said that the company is planning to hire about 500 local employees for a new service centre by Jun 2010. Manpower India Director Cherian Kuruvila also highlighted this hiring trend by Indian outsourcing firms saying, “Companies are expected to build a talent pool for upcoming projects as green shoots are visible”.