They will benefit from the new U. S. healthcare bill by handling more administrative work for insurers, say companies in India.

Ananda Mukerji, managing director of Firstsource Solutions, which handles so-called back-office operations for dozens of U. S. insurance companies, said, "The healthcare reform bill is a very, very big opportunity for us."

The new law will create pressure on U. S. insurance companies to cut costs, which will mean more outsourcing to Indian companies, Rana Mehta, a spokesman for Technopak, a Indian consultancy firm, said.

Mehta told The Washington Post in a story published Friday, "Ultimately it is a business decision to outsource. All this new work has to go somewhere, and India will gain."

The Post further reported that many Indian companies are negotiating mergers and acquisitions in the United States, including Patni Computer Systems, a large technology firm which this month established an office in El Paso, Texas. (With Inputs from Agencies)