I am an Indian here. I have heard horror tales from TCS employees on how they are given "on-site" experience. Mostly it is a portrayed as a favor done by the management to the employee. You have to earn the on-site opportunity which involves a great deal of kissing people's rears. It is mostly not about the talent you have. One of the guys who had gone on-site on one such occasion had told me how the organization billed him as an Expert Oracle consultant while he was told to study oracle while he was boarding the flight. It is true that they get paid a pittance when compared to US nationals. A developer with 5 years of experience makes about $2.5k a month. They usually subsist on Taco Bells, McD burgers and so on. On the other hand many indians prefer this, as it still works out better than if they had stuck to the indian job. In fact, in many family circles you are not considered a human if you are working in IT and do not have any "on-site experience". Most these folks are completely dependent on the organization that they work for and are willing to fight for it tooth and nail to defend it even if the organization is holding them under a sort of an indentured servitude. There are a few genuinely smart hackers but those are far and few in between. Most of these organizations are as dysfunctional as the companies that they consult for.