Asia’s renewed political presence is redefining global politics, driving the evolution of historical alliances and proving to be a new challenge for America and Europe. Eastern influence now permeates the politics, economies and cultures of even the world’s most powerful states. The large-scale offshoring of factories and plants to China, for example, is redefining the manufacturing sector of the American economy.

But many people, focused on the rapid rise of China, are not as aware of the threat being posed by a nation just to its west: India.

India, in many ways, should concern Americans and Europeans even more than China should. The outsourcing of service jobs such as call-center, tech-support and customer-service jobs to India is revolutionizing the way business is done in America, as well as Australia and many European nations. Like China, the nation teems with cheap labor, but it also boasts a workforce that is highly educated, very efficient and very willing to work. India now produces more than 3 million college graduates a year, compared to 1.3 million in the United States and 2.9 million in all of Europe.

India’s skilled workforce is gaining a foothold in a number of booming sectors across the world, including technological development, software development, engineering, medical science, accounting, call-center operation and the list goes on. An increasing number of American and European companies are realizing that for a fraction of the cost they can farm out much of their work to India. An American tech company, for example, employs an American computer programmer for $80,000 a year, but could employ an individual with the same qualifications and competency in India for only $11,000 a year.

Thanks to this highly skilled, dirt-cheap labor force, India is on its way to dominating critical sectors of the global economy. Take software development for example. “In 2000, Indian software exports were about $6 billion. By the end of 2004, they were estimated to have hit $16 billion. The big accounting and consulting firm Deloitte forecast last year that within five years, the world’s largest financial firms will have shifted $356 billion and 2 million jobs offshore, mostly to India” (Clyde Prestowitz, Three Billion New Capitalists). Even your taxes could be done in India this year. In 2004, 25,000 American tax returns were performed by graduate accountants in India. The following year, that number multiplied eightfold, to 200,000.

For around the quarter the cost of a call-center employee in America, a company can employ an Indian college graduate to answer phones in Islamabad. And the salary for the Indian employee is a good one; in many cases it includes insurance and medical benefits for the individual and his or her family. When call-center jobs arise, literally hundreds of applicants, including many college graduates, seek to fill each vacancy.

GE, for example, employs more than 15,000 Indians in its call center and back-office processing operations. It also has one of the largest research and development centers in Bangalore, employing several thousand highly educated scientists and engineers who work on the cutting edge of GE developments.

As Prestowitz stated, “this combination of skills, low cost, quality work, and instant communication means that few aspects of your life will remain untouched by the outsourcing of services to India. You may not be aware of it, but whether it is your yellow pages, the interactive websites of companies like Boeing or Morgan Stanley, or the report on the X-rays you had yesterday, the skilled hands and brains of Indians are present.”

The United States is encouraging and augmenting India’s rise on the world scene both because New Delhi is critical to Washington’s security policy in the region, and also to provide a counterweight to the rise of China both economically and militarily. President George W. Bush sought to strengthen ties with India on his visit to New Delhi only last week.

But is India a reliable ally? When push comes to shove, will it support America, or side with its Asian neighbor?

Rapprochement between traditional enemies China and India, in fact, has already begun. And, ironically, it is likely America’s overtures to India that will in turn spur China to forge a closer alliance with India to counter America’s advances.

“Though the people of India and China may still be keeping prejudices alive that have divided the two countries for decades, a rapprochement is taking place on the political level,” reported Spiegel Online yesterday. “In recent years, New Delhi has signaled that it may align with its former military enemy and current economic competitor in its battle for shares of the world market and to increase Asia’s military clout. Together, the countries aspire to move up into the league of rich nations” (emphasis ours throughout).

China and India established an economic cooperation partnership last year intended to facilitate an increase in trade from the current $13 billion to $20 billion within two years. The two countries have concluded a declaration of intent to increase cross-border businesses and transport networks. Cooperation, they have declared, should also be strengthened “in the development and use of oil and gas resources in third countries.”

“If these new Asian friends successfully implement their plans, a partnership that first caught Europe and the United States by surprise could soon fuel fear in the West. The most ambitious idea being floated in Beijing and New Delhi is that of creating a joint Sino-Indian common market based on the European model. If that effort ever prevailed, it would result in the world’s largest economic unit, with around 2.5 billion consumers, one third of the world’s population” (ibid.).

It is no wonder the U.S. wants to keep India onside. But, through Bible prophecy, we can know what the outcome will be. Asia will align both politically and militarily, and the U.S. will be shut out. India will go the Asian route. Scripture actually provides quite a detailed account of how and why Asia will come together in the very near future. These events are described in greater detail in our free booklet Russia and China in Prophecy.