Infy plans hiring spree, to hike employees’ pay

Infosys will also pay up to 17 per cent more to its employees in 2004-05 than it did in 2003-04, to realise its vision of globalising beyond existing markets.Nilekani announced the salary hike on Thursday and said the new business plan has proved to a significant second step up the value chain for Infosys and its 25,000 employees.

“We have a global delivery model, and will work further on our business and domain skills to grow,” Nilekani said, emphasising on international expansion beyond China, the Czech Republic, Mauritius, Canada and the US , which account for most of its revenues, around 74 per cent.

Infosys is investing US $20 mn into expanding its recent foray into business consulting as well, to ’’mature further’’ as an IT services firm. Nilekani said the company has become a billion-plus dollar firm in a short span of time, and has awarded shareholders with three bonus shares against each held share, which pays further testimony to the increasing maturity of Indian firms in the software business.

He said Infosys’ operations in China were relatively young, and so the expected losses of $ 2.3 mn is not stopping it from further investments. “It is growing, and fast. We’re investing five million there in the next two years or so,” he said.

Infosys, which reported a net profit of Rs 1,243.47 crore for 2003-04, will focus on organic growth, Nilekani said, ruling out immediate mega-acquisitions in India or abroad. He said 3,80,000 American jobs had grown due to outsourcing, and it was time for India to highlight these mutually beneficial aspects to counter the backlash.

On work at Infy’s under-three-years-old BPO outfit, Nilekani said, ’’It contributed around 7 per cent to revenues and employs under 10 per cent of the workforce,” while stressing that business was as usual at Infosys, backlash or not.