New Delhi: India’s largest software exporter firm Infosys is going through a troubled phase. While on one hand Infosys CEO and Managing Director S Gopalakrishnan said the rising rupee issue is a long-term crisis, what’s also a major concern is the talent crunch that the IT industry is going through.
There were 2,50, 000 engineering graduates last year and the IT/ ITeS industry absorbed about 60 per cent of them. But this is clearly not enough for an industry which is looking to employ over 1.6 million people by the end of the year.
IT companies, especially BPOs are now resorting to what could be seen as a lowering of standards. The IT firms are also increasingly hiring locals from foreign countries.
The non-Indian workforce comprised 9.6 per cent of the IT majors’ total workforce in 2006-07, and the number is set to rise. Wipro Technologies, for instance, hired over 200 college/ business school graduates from the US and Europe in 2006-07. This is a 150 per cent rise in the recruitment of locals in their overseas operations over the previous year 2005-’06.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), on the other hand, as its long term strategy is looking at having 15-20 per cent of their workforce from foreign countries. Infosys Technologies, during its first quarter results for financial year 2007-08, said: “Outside employment could shoot up by 25 per cent in future.” Infosys already has 3 per cent of its workforce made up of foreign nationals, and has seen their numbers grow 28 per cent from fiscal ‘05-’06 to ‘06-’07.
Kiran Karnik, president, Nasscom, says: “The trend certainly shows a maturity among the Indian IT companies. As you do higher degree of sophisticated work, you are not just looking at technology solutions but business solutions. And then you need people to understand the context of the problem, which might be easy for a local to know.” The companies recruit foreign students for their foreign offices.
With these IT majors on an acquisition spree, the need for such recruits is only rising. “We recruit students from management schools and engineers from countries like Romania, Mexico, Germany and Austria. Most recruits are for our foreign operations,” says Achuthan Nair, VP, resourcing, Wipro Technologies.
"Our view is that we cannot predict how the currency is going to move...we look at a two quarter hedging strategy," Gopalakrishnan said.
To a query that most other Indian IT companies in China were expanding faster while Infosys had about 700 persons, he said the company was prepared to grow in that region. "Let the business drive the growth," he said adding Infosys had some internal plans to be more stronger in China.
On availability of talent pool, he said there was more competition for resources.
"Nowadays, it is good to be a student," he said.
With inputs from PTI
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