The high-level Confederation of Indian Industry delegation has received a 'positive response' from the United Kingdom government and leading British companies on the question of outsourcing from India, Tarun Das, director general, CII has said.

"We had a very positive response from the leading British companies, and the British government is also saying the same thing that outsourcing in India is beneficial to the companies," Das said in London on Wednesday night.

In the latest case, David Jafferies, chairman, Costain, informed him that his company has employed 150 people in Mumbai to do the back office work.

Though trade unions are concerned about the loss of jobs, the British companies want to use the Indian back office services as it improved their profitability and competitiveness.

On the other hand, the Tata Consultancy Services has set up its company in the UK, providing jobs to 1,200 people, Das said.

During the discussions, the British companies have argued that it was better to lose couple of hundred jobs and save the majority jobs rather than closing down.

"We had a very good response from the government during our discussions with Mike O'Brien, minister of trade and industry and foreign and commonwealth office; Petricia Hewitt, secretary, trade and industry; and Sir Stephen Brown, head of the British trade commission," Das said.

There has been a quantum jump in the number of Indian companies in the UK. When the CII delegation visited here last year, there were 300 Indian companies and their number has gone up to 450 now, Das said.

Most of the Indian entrepreneurs were locating their companies in the UK in order to service the clients in Europe and America.

The delegation led by Anand Mahindra, president, CII, suggested that the British companies must step up their sales efforts as India imported goods from all over the world. Like the Chinese market, the Indian market was also expanding very fast, he said.

Mahindra has invited Sir Stephen Brown to visit India to evaluate the prospects of exports and he has accepted the invitation.

The 15-member delegation, which concluded its three-day visit on Wednesday evening, included N R Narayana Murthy, mission co-leader and co-chairman, Indo British Partnership and chairman and chief mentor, Infosys Technologies Limited; Jamshed J Irani, director, Tata Sons Limited; Ratan Jindal, vice chairman and managing director, Jindal Strips Limited; Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and group managing director, Bharti Enterprises and Gautam Thapar, vice chairman and managing director, Ballarpur Industries Limited.