Why the development shop in India at all? Is it just a cost benefit - cheaper developers? Because there is some truth in "you get what you pay for". The ratio

Why the development shop in India at all? Is it just a cost benefit - cheaper developers? Because there is some truth in "you get what you pay for". The ratio of good to bad programmers in India is the same as anywhere else[1]. But the pool is quite a bit larger than anywhere else, and there is a massive push of people into IT and IS because of the disproportionate pay. This combines to make very, very difficult to find significant talent[2]. It's comparable to the sudden influx of people into comp sci tracks in the US in the late 90s, but with a population base that's triple the size. If you're looking for people to follow an exact, detailed, spec that you or other senior developer has written -- without exercising any independent though[3]; or if you have already located skilled individuals then it's worth going ahead. Otherwise, make sure it's the right move for your business. The cost can easily run deeper than expenses. The talent is there, but you're going to have a hell of a time finding it if you don't have an connections. [1], [2]: experience in hiring while working for a large US company that employed multiple large indian hiring mills, most notably TCS and InfoSys. [3] the vast majority of the remote hires out of India that I've worked with both at the company above, and subsequent employment.