Infosys Technologies, the country's second-largest information technology services exporter, will invest $100 million (Rs 440 crore) on establishing a 20,000-seater campus in Shanghai, China, says its managing director and chief executive S Gopalakrishnan.
"Whenever we create a centre, we create it as a general purpose one, so that any project can be executed in any of these locations, like those in Hyderabad, Bengaluru or Mangalore. Our Chinese centre will be similar. We currently have about 2,850 employees in China and plan to immediately take it to around 4,000," Gopalakrishnan said.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the CII southern regional council's meeting here today, he said the company was in discussion with the Chinese government for land. The proposed investment would happen over a period of time. "Given the scale and size of the campus, this, however, will not happen in the next five years," he added.
Managing personnel
On pay hikes and promotions to curb attrition, he said mid-term promotions had already been extended in April and more were lined up in October. It should see 12,000 employees getting promoted, he said.
"From last year, we have been giving promotions twice a year. This is part of our routine cycle and pay hikes will be tied to promotions.
"All these have been budgeted and factored in our guidance (official growth estimates)," Gopalakrishnan said, declining to comment further.
On sectoral trends, he said the IT sector recruited 60,000 people last year. This was expected to touch 150,000 this year, on the back of the increasing demand for IT services, primarily driven by the recovery and companies getting ready to invest for growth.
"Many of them (companies) are investing through outsourcing and offshore outsourcing. The IT sector growth has a ripple effect in retail, construction and travel as well.
"However, we have to wait for the results of other companies. Infosys itself has revised its guidance from 19-21 per cent to 24-25 per cent.
"A couple of years back, there were questions about whether the industry would get back to double-digit growth. This quarter alone, we have grown over 10 (per cent), a clear indication that the industry is now on a growth path," he said.
UK challenges
On the British government scaling down its budget and adopting austerity measures, he said though industry had come out of recession, the growth was muted.
"A lot of problems on the business side have now moved to governments. So, governments are looking at austerity measures to address this issue.
"This is part of the whole recovery process, which will play out till the next five years. There are still challenges in the future; we are not completely out of them."
Adding: "The amount of works that IT companies are doing for governments today is very small and limited. The impact, if at all, will be very small," he said, adding that Infosys' exposure to the UK market was a little less than one per cent at this point.
