So I have worked with Indian offshoring, remote and on-shore since the late 90's for various companies. Currently we have people in India and remote here in th

So I have worked with Indian offshoring, remote and on-shore since the late 90's for various companies. Currently we have people in India and remote here in the U.S. The reality is that Indian developers are just as talented as their U.S. counterparts in most things. However, where I have seen struggles is around 3 key things. 1. Timezone difference is just too large to make it efficient. I routinely have to wake up very early my time or stay up very late just to have meetings or calls with teammates in India. This isn't a 3 hour difference like hiring in the U.S. remote. I literally have some calls that start at 10:30pm and others that at times start as early as 5am. This is a huge barrier to most companies and teams. This is why you are starting to see a lot of remote job ads with a +/- timezone difference. 2. Indian developers as a group are more specialized in their skillsets and expectations and less able to move things forward without on-site direction compared to their western counterparts. I think this is more cultural as this is how the larger firms in India work, but it differs greatly from most western companies. I found working with really good people in India, they still struggle to task switch and handling disparate tasks as is very typical in many early stage and smaller companies. Where this becomes less of an issue is with large multi-national corporations because those companies will have highly specialized positions which fits better. This isn't about intelligence or capability, just how one culture works vs the other. 3. Communication can be tough, and I don't necessarily mean understanding people like others are saying, although this does happen in some cases. What I mean is that communication is more about how things are said and interpreted. While most every educated Indian person I have ever dealt with has solid English skills (likely more properly than most Americans I know) there are distinct issues in translation of nuanced requirements for most things. Many times with super complex issues I have to find one of the Indian team members that I can communicate best to, make sure they get it and then have them help me make sure the other team members get it. Also, western people (especially U.S. sadly) in general I have noticed can communicate pretty poorly expecting people to adapt to them and learn their nuances rather than finding middle ground, so that doesn't help. There are a number of other factors I could share that also affect the ability to hire remotely in India but I already wrote a bunch, and in the end, I'd say item #1 is the biggest factor overall, 9.5-12.5 hours is a huge difference to make up for a remote team member.