Although Indian employees typically earn less than their American counterparts, the standard of living is improving, said Ramesh Nair, CEO and creative director of Niyati Technologies, based in Chennai, India. The five-year-old company offers such services as application development, user interface design, Web site creation and multimedia production. Its U.S. client list includes BMW, drugstore.com and Hewlett-Packard. "[The standard of living] definitely has gone up," Nair told the E-Commerce Times. "The last time there was such a boom was when people -- mainly from South Indian states like Kerala -- went to the Middle East for jobs. The difference is that, earlier, people only made money. Now people are more open to accepting American values and culture too." Indian workers typically make about one-fifth to one-eighth of what U.S.-based workers do, Dr. Alok Aggarwal, chairman of Evalueserve, told the E-Commerce Times. But those lower salaries go further in India. "When you look at purchasing power parity, it's not one-sixth," Aggarwal said. "Probably a reasonable amount is one-third to one-half. Their purchasing power is substantially more."