Infosys to Revive Eastern India Plan

By Amit Tripathi

Mumbai, Mar 23 : Infosys Technologies, India’s second-largest IT firm by employee strength, is looking at setting up special economic zones (SEZs) in West Bengal and Assam, a senior executive of Infosys told DNA.

The move will throw up more job offers for computer science graduates and engineers in Eastern India.

Infosys already has a development centre in Software Technology Park at Bhubaneshwar, set up in 2000, which now employs about 3,000 software engineers. The firm is now looking to invest Rs 300 crore for its second project in Bhubaneshwar that will have a capacity of 5,000.

In Kolkata, Infosys had planned to invest Rs 500 crore to set up a development centre in 2004, housing 5,000 people. The project got delayed and in June 2009 an IT township project in Salt Lake, Kolkata was scrapped by the West Bengal government following a controversy.

However, in September the state government offered 45 acres each to Infosys and Wipro to set up development centres. But by then Infosys had developed second thoughts on the offer due to uncertainty in business environment.

“We were going slow on the offer due to the market meltdown. Additionally, the political climate in the state was not conducive then. But now we are considering the offer and evaluating it again,” said the Infosys executive who did not wish to be named as the company is in the mandatory silent period before the announcement of quarterly results.

Besides Kolkata, Infosys is also evaluating setting up an SEZ in Assam in the North East. “We are looking at North East to expand as well, but the problem there is of infrastructure and availability of professionals,” said the Infosys executive.

The company is looking to hire more than 20,000 professionals in FY10-11 due to improving business scenario. Infosys, which had 109,882 employees at the end of calendar year 2009, sees about 2,500 employees leave the firm every three months.

The Infosys move comes close on the heels of interest from Union government to attract investment in developing North East.
Earlier this month Sachin Pilot, minister of state for IT and communications spoke about government’s interest in developing Northeastern India. “North East can become a big centre for attracting investments from the private sector in business process outsourcing and knowledge process outsourcing,” Pilot said.

According to the minister, the Union government has helped Sikkim to set up a 50-seater business process unit and launched 3G services through BSNL. Similarly, the government is planning a software park at Itanagar for developing computer software and extending related professional services.

“I have already met the chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh. We are hoping to start this project soon. The state will then have a lot more money from the central government, which it can’t afford now,” the minister had said.

via DNA