India is likely to benefit from the exodus of high tech jobs from North America as over 6 million jobs are expected to shift overseas in a decade.

"In the next decade, as many as 6 million jobs might be sent to India and other nations by US companies in search of lower costs and a tech-savvy, English-speaking workforce," Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a recent report.

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"The shift of North American technology jobs to low wage countries like India cannot be stopped because not only are Indian companies a third of the cost, but they actually are better," said Pradeep Sood, president of Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce.

Indian workers earn as little as one-tenth of their North American counterparts, and India produces 67 per cent more engineers and computer scientists each year than the US, said Sood, suggesting that India should take full advantage of its low salaries and skilled work force.

A number of multinational corporations like Microsoft, Intel, Accenture Ltd and GM Motors have already started taking advantage of cheaper costs in India.

Microsoft, that employs 250 workers in India, is on track to double its workforce to 500 by 2005.

Intel, the global chip giant, has invested $20 million in an Indian customer service centre of Satyam Computer Services Ltd, one of the biggest software makers in the country.

Intel employs about 1,000 people in India and has its largest non-US chip design centre in Bangalore. Accenture Ltd, which manages business computer systems for clients including AT&T company, plans to double its workforce in India to as many as 10,000 by the end of this year.

General Motors Corporation, the world's known auto maker, plans to hire 100 researchers in Bangalore to develop lightweight material and conduct crash tests, according to economic experts in Toronto.