While Indian outsourcing providers seem able to handle just about any task put before them, they sometimes struggle with the English language and with more subtle cultural differences, which are frequently cited as a cause of problems in outsourcing relationships.

So some providers are enrolling their workers in the newly opened Dale Carnegie Training center in Bangalore. According to TIME, the hope is not only that they will "win friends and influence people," as Carnegie promises in his seminal business communications primers, but also become better employees.

The Indian talent shortage is intensifying, with the country's National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) predicting a shortfall of a half-million workers by 2010. Contributing to the problem is the number of university graduates who have technical chops but lack needed social skills, notes TIME.

Social training is even more key for those who hail from rural areas of the country, which are becoming popular spots for talent recruitment due to their lower costs and relatively untapped labor pools.