Date:08/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/08/stories/2008090854260400.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

Wipro to launch Vizag operations in six months

Santosh Patnaik

Vizag emerging as IT and ITES hub in AP after Hyderabad
Campus being developed at a cost of Rs. 200 crore

Photo: K.R. Deepak

New facility: The campus of Wipro in Visakhapatnam. -

VISAKHAPATNAM: Wipro Limited is set to enhance the brand value of Visakhapatnam by launching its operations here in six months.

Wipro is developing its campus on seven acres of prime land sold to it by State government opposite Satyam Centre in the city. The company has plans to have 6,000-seater with a total investment of Rs.200 crore.

HSBC and Satyam were the first to kick off operations in the city.

Wipro is also getting ready to launch operations in Greater Noida and Kochi. The new centres will provide employment opportunities primarily in customer service, technical support and all in voice areas of business.

As per roadmap prepared by the IT giant, Vizag is emerging as IT and ITES hub in Andhra Pradesh – the second after Hyderabad. While the new centre at Greater Noida is ready for operations with 1,000-seater in the first phase, the Vizag unit will be operational in six months. The Kochi centre will be ready with BPO operation in a year.

Senior vice-president of Wipro BPO Praveen Kamath told The Hindu that the Vizag centre was in advance stage of construction and it would have a 1,200-seater in the first phase.

Wipro has 84,000 employees all over the world of which 20,000 are in BPO. It has seven centres in India and five abroad. The Hyderabad centre has 1,000 employees giving voice and technical support to large computer manufacturing companies.

Mr. Kamath said the company was hiring 15,000 people during the year out of whom 7,000 to 8,000 were from southern States particularly from cities like Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore. Now the focus is on Vizag. The staff size in these three centres will be raised from approximately 8,000 to 12,000 by March 31.

To a question, he said Wipro BPO in specific had not felt any slowdown in the industry and it was all set to ramp up big time in Kolkata and youngsters were being hired from State to meet the requirement.