If what Rajiv says is true, then this is very good news. I had noticed that advertising and publishing are getting to be big business in India.

Note what else he said - that he paid $12 for a 4x5 scan. This means that the price differential doesn't yet make it viable to try to set up a business there to do outsourced LF scans. However, if the right outfit in the States or Europe can hook up with the right person in Chennai or another Indian city, then a business could easily get underway.

If this were to ever happen, remember that it would represent a tiny fraction of the total image processing business in the world. At the same time, the impact of the revenue from outsourcing is so great in India, and the trickle-down is real, and the impact on ordinary people's lives from the increased economic activity is so tangible, that I think it is inhuman to denounce the outsourcing trend. In those areas of India where these businesses have taken hold, many thousands of people's lives have been bettered as a result. I certainly see a difference in the way ordinary people live, compared with 10 or 15 years ago, when travelling in South India. It is a part of the world where a little increased business revenue goes a long way towards making a lot of people's lives more bearable (even if not directly employed by the business in question).

P.S. Can anyone recommend a lab for e-6 processing in an Indian city near you? Would they take business from walk-in customers off the street?