INFOSYS HYD SEZ TO BE OPERATIONAL IN 12 MONTHS
Chennai/Hyderabad
Business Standard DNA
Infosys Technologies, the second largest software services exporter, has said one of its two special economic zones (SEZs) in Hyderabad would become operational within 12 months. The SEZs span across 440 acre and work on both of them has already begun.
In all, the company would invest about Rs 600 crore to set up new facilities at Mangalore, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar during the current financial year, according to chief financial officer S Gopalakrishnan.
?The market now is slow. We are readying ourselves to cater to client needs when the economy revives,? he said.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a CII conference here on Wednesday, Gopalakrishnan said the company would hire about 18,000 employees this financial year. ?Offer letters have been issued to some of the campus recruits already and we would take some more freshers gradually.? Infosys currently employs about 10,000 people at its Hyderabad centre.
To equip entry-level employees with more competencies, the company has extended the training from three to six months before putting them to the regular work.
Meanwhile, with an eye on IT products space, Infosys has started piloting a retail product in India and other countries. The product would assist retailers with stock positions and other information, which is done manually now.
On the IT industry, the CFO said most companies impacted by the slowdown would recover in the mid-2010. "This would also increase the employment opportunities and as a result most of the companies would start recruiting around January 2010."
INFOPARK POSTS MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT
Kochi
The Pioneer
Despite the threats of global recession, Kochi-based Infopark claimed to have clocked an 87-perent growth year-on-year by achieving a gross turnover of Rs 463 crore in fiscal 2008-09. An official release said that the total turnover from Infopark, including other ancillary units, touched an all-time high of nearly 600 crore.
It said that the IT facility was able to add 2,500 professionals taking the total number of direct employees in the centre of excellence to 9000. Besides, the financial results also showed a significant push from the SEZ units and a planned increase in capital investment of 600 percent year-on-year.
Infopark Kochi had attracted a record number of leading world class established companies like US Technologies, BlueLabs Technology Solution, UCI Technologies, Arbitron, Zerone Consulting, NHR Outsourcing, SIT Mobile and Alcatel Lucent and the Indian behemoth Tata Tele Services.
The facility also succeeded in launching new Infoparks at Cherthala, Ambalapuzha and Koratty along with ramp-up of co-developer projects including L&T, Leela Group and two IT giants, TCS and Wipro, the release said.
Accroding to Infopark Kochi CEO Siddhartha Bhattacharya, the facility was daring to experiment with right mix of domain expertise, skills and experience with Government support and policies. Within a short span of time since its inception in the year 2004, Infopark had a great record of attracting software and service companies, he claimed.
The IT park was also involved in various other initiatives as part of Kerala IT. Following the Hub and Spoke model of development strategy of the State Government for the promotion of IT/ ITES industry in the State, the extension at Cherthala, Ambalapuzha and Koratty were being planned, the release said.