Date:05/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/05/stories/2008120556411600.htm

Business

IT sector to grow only 15% this fiscal: Infosys CEO

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The information technology sector, hit by the global economic slowdown, is likely to register only 15 per cent growth this year against 30 per registered last year, said Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan.

The National Association of Software and Service Industry (Nasscom) has already said that the growth would be slow at around 21 per cent this fiscal due to global economic crisis, particularly in the U.S. from where 60 per cent of business comes for Indian companies. Blaming delay in global orders for the slowdown in IT industry growth, Mr. Gopalakrishnan said they were looking at controlling cost and expenses to run an optimised business.

“We will have to look at what are things we need to do in order to prepare ourselves for the recovery. Growth is coming more and more from emerging markets and we are preparing ourselves for it. We should not lose momentum in this slowdown,” he added.

Talking about the hiring plans of India’s second largest software exporter, Mr. Gopalakrishnan said the company would go ahead with its plans for hiring 25,000 employees this fiscal. “But there will be no fresh recruitments beyond that, except in specific skills,” he added. He also clarified that there were no plans to cut headcount.

Mr. Gopalakrishnan clarified that Infosys will stick to its revenue guidance for the third quarter and the fiscal. The company had earlier scaled down its dollar guidance (revenue projection in dollars) by about three percentage points for the full year to 13.1-15.2 per cent.