Firms such as US-based consultancy group Accenture Ltd -- formerly Andersen Consulting -- IBM, Hewlett Packard, Cap Gemini Ernst and Young and Electronic Data Systems have set up shop and are doing work away from the United States to take advantage of cheap labour.

"Now the norm is definitely offshore," said B.R. Sheaker, chief of CRV Consultants Private Ltd, a headhunting firm for IBM, Hewlett Packard and Dell Computer Corp. "And India is a good option for these firms as the costs can be driven down.

"These foreign firms are trying to beat the Indian companies at their own game as they are offering the same dollar rates per hour compared to Indian companies and by hiring Indian engineers," Sheaker told AFP.

"Chances that an Indian professional will find a job are on the higher side now.

"From an average hire of 30 to 40 people a month during the first three months to March currently our firm is averaging about 70 to 80 people every month," he said.

That figure, industry analysts said, was close to the hiring pattern observed during the peak of the dotcom boom in 2000 when headhunters used to trawl pubs, resturants and golf courses to hunt for the badly-needed talent.

After the dotcom bust, most of the headhunting firms took a beating due to lay-offs and closures.

Bangalore, India's 'Silicon Valley', houses more than 1,000 foreign and domestic technology firms and contributes 2.5 billion dollars of India's total software exports of 9.5 billion dollars.

Gautam Sinha, chief executive officer of TVA Infotech Private Ltd., a headhunting firm based in Bangalore, said multinational software firms were hiring about 6,000 engineers every quarter at salaries close to one-eighth of those paid to professionals in the US.

"Headhunting is intense for senior guys from tier one companies such as the Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro and Satyam," Sinha said.

"Of the 6,000 people, 80 percent are at the programmer level and senior engineers are being lured by higher salaries," he said.

Sinha said the top Indian software firms such Infosys Technologies, Wipro Limited and Satyam Computers all had staff strengths of more than 10,000 people and would not be hit.

"They will be worried but not unduly as only a handful of people cross over," he said.

Sinha's firm placed about 90 software engineers last month compared to about 20 people the same month the previous year.

"The market is in the boom period. Compared to last year, not many people are getting pink slips and large recruiting firms have a steady order in the pipeline," he said. "For another year we need not worry."

Analysts said during the dotcom era, most of the hiring by the Indian firms was for "bodyshopping" as these companies later sub-contracted their software engineers to foreign firms.

"The increase in jobs we see presently is entirely different. It is meant for programming work within India," Sinha said.

India has one of the largest pools of English-speaking manpower and an army of engineering graduates have fueled its software growth, with exports clocking 26 percent growth to 9.5 billion dollars in the fiscal year to March

CRV Consultant's Sheaker said the surge in hiring, on the back of an outsourcing boom, would not last long if the Indian software industry did not consolidate.

"Both the company and the employee will have to behave in a mature way. One should not leave a firm in three months for a 30 percent hike as happened in the dotcom days. There should be some amount of sanity in the system," he said.

India has emerged as a backoffice for the world with companies shifting jobs such as call centres, payroll processing, insurance claims processing and technical support to the country despite strong opposition back home.

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