BPO hot despite SARS, war: Infy

While in the short term the war and the SARS virus seem to have taken their toll on the Indian IT industry already suffering from pressure on pricing and margins, an increasing number of clients from non-US countries have expressed their interest in outsourcing to India, said Infosys Technologies chief executive officer (CEO), managing director and president Nandan Nilekani.

Addressing the media after releasing the company’s annual results, Nilekani said though clients were expected to continue consolidating external spends, offshore outsourcing was expected to gain momentum.

“The SARS scare in Asia-Pacific (APAC) and the war in particular have seen a number of clients cancel their visits. In fact, there have been no significant client visits since March at Infosys which has impacted the business as a whole,” he said.

Though Infy’s exposure to the APAC region, particularly South China, Hong Kong and Singapore were limited at the moment, four employees are expected to return shortly from Hong Kong. Though the outlook of 14-16 percent growth in earnings this fiscal provided by the company continues to be conservative, Infosys has seen the highest ever addition of employees (gross addition of 5,509 and net addition of 4,618), taking the headcount to 15,356 people.