India's IT biggies who were long accused of stealing jobs from the West, are ramping up local hiring in the U.S. and Europe.

HCL Technologies intends to hire 10,000 people in the U.S. and Europe by 2015. Infosys too will increase U.S. head count by 1,500 in the next 12 months from 3,000 now. Tata Consultancy Services is planning to hire an additional 1,200 people in the U.S. by March, and Wipro Ltd. intends to train and hire 400 American veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, reports the Wall Street Journal.

These companies have long derived the vast majority of their revenue from the U.S. and Europe. As their operations have grown, so has the need to bolster functions like sales, marketing and consulting services that rely on personal communications. This is also an attempt to reduce criticism on taking jobs away from these countries, by becoming significant local hirers.

But adding head count in the Western economies could challenge the economics of the outsourcing industry, which takes advantage of the lower labor costs in India and other developing nations.

Companies can charge higher prices to customers when work is done locally in developed countries. But profit margins on that work are typically lower since labor costs in developed countries are higher, too. The challenge for these companies will be to maintain a balance where revenue significantly outpace these costs.

Since 2008, the Indian IT industry has continued to grow, albeit at a slower rate than in past few years. HCL says in order to hire its target number and manage the cost of doing that; it needs its customers to sign up to the idea of paying more for work that will be done on-site.

As an initial incentive, HCL is also offering to clients India rates for work that will be done in the U.S., said the Wall Street Journal report. Work done on-site in the U.S. is typically three to five times more expensive than comparable work in India.

HCL's Mr. Nayar says he will use profits from other units of the company to cover these costs until he builds a sufficient volume of work. He warns that the company's margins will be flat for the financial year ending next June, as a result of this program.

HCL is working with 12 universities—including in Seattle, Rochester, N.Y., and Raleigh, N.C.— to offer a six-month elective course that graduating engineering students will have to complete before they can be hired by the company.

Wipro says it is working with Washington's Workforce Development Council, the Veteran's Administration and Microsoft to hire veterans as software test engineers and in technical or customer support.

At Infosys and TCS, the increase in U.S. hiring comes as part of an overall push to increase local work forces. Infosys has said it plans to increase its non-Indian work force to 15% of the total, from 6.46%.