Business
Infosys to hire 850 techies in China
Indo-Asian News Service
Bangalore, April 14, 2005
Infosys Technologies Ltd on Thursday said it would hire 850 more techies in China during the current fiscal (2005-06) to expand its subsidiary operations for servicing its global clients and tapping the huge domestic market.
Infosys CEO Nandan M Nilekani said the company had invested $5 million in the last fiscal to set up its China operations in Shanghai and would scale up its presence in this fiscal to have about 1,000 software engineers by March 2006.
"Currently, we have a modest presence in China with about 150 people, including 120 Chinese engineers and 30 lateral employees from India. Though the subsidiary had generated Rs. 80 million in revenues last fiscal, the net loss was also Rs. 80 million.
"Going forward, we will be investing in technology as well as people to expand our China operations. About 100 Chinese techies will also be trained at our facilities in Bangalore and Mysore during this year," Nilekani said.
On Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's comments during his recent visit to India, Nandan said Wen's observation was a recognition of the Indian IT industry and its reputation in China.
"We think there is a lot of merit in coming together of both the countries. Former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji also spoke on similar lines during his visit to Infosys in 2002," Nandan added.
Infosys Technologies (Shanghai) Co Ltd CEO James Lin said later the subsidiary will target global firms operating in China and the local market in diverse verticals such as banking and financial services, communications and utilities, including logistics and transportation.
"China is a big opportunity for Indian IT firms like Infosys with the market size for software services alone at about $100 billion. Though engineering skills are as good as in India, we need to move up the value chain in terms of management, processes and delivery mechanism," James said.
© HT Media Ltd. 2005.