[...] Having secured their control of NASSCOM, and through NASSCOM the IT policy agenda, the Giants felt suitably emboldened to change tack in their recruitment. They stopped employing entry-level professionals and started poaching experienced employees of other software firms, in particular from Indian Majors. An unofficial feeder system quickly materialised whereby the Majors and other Indian software firms trained their employees only for the best and brightest to be poached by the Giants after a number of years.

The impact of this on the Majors was catastrophic. In their quest to compete with the Giants in the top tier of the software services industry, the retention of staff was vital. [...]

The effects played out in the wider competition between the Majors and the Giants. The Majors, wracked as they were with already high and growing attrition rates, struggled to move into the highest echelons of the software services market. In contrast, the Giants successfully entered the product market in lower-end IT services previously monopolised by the Indian Majors [...]