IT firms on expansion spree

Infosys, Tech Mahindra ramp up headcount, MindTree starts exports

IT majors Infosys Technologies and Tech Mahindra have expanded operations at their city units by ramping up headcount.

Infosys, the biggest software exporter from the state, has recruited 1,500 people for its second campus at Infovalley, the hub for IT units. Infosys has been allotted 50 acres of land for its second development centre at this location. The IT bellwether has plans to hire 15,000 professionals for this centre in three phases. Infosys is the anchor tenant for the Infovalley spread over 500 acres of land being developed by the state's nodal agency for Industrial infrastructure development- Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (Idco).

Similarly, Tech Mahindra has raised its headcount at the Bhubaneswar centre from 700 to 1,500 as part of its second phase expansion. Tech Mahindra had inaugurated a new block at its city campus in December last year. The new block was built at a cost of Rs 55 crore. The present campus of the IT major is spread over six acres of land. Tech Mahindra proposed to invest Rs 500 crore in Odisha over the next five to seven years.

In the meantime, mid-sized IT firm MindTree has operationalised its global training centre.

"It has also commenced exports from the Bhubaneswar centre," said state IT secretary P K Jena after a review of the IT department by chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

Besides the training centre, MindTree is coming up with a 10,000-seater software development centre in Bhubaneswar with a total built-up area of 1.5 million sq ft. The company co-headquartered in Bangalore and Somerset in New Jersey (US) had announced an investment of around Rs 200 crore for the development centre in the city. It had inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government in August 2006.

IT minister Pranab Prakash Das said, the state government targeted at an employment figure of 50,000 in IT and ITes (IT enabled services) in the next four years.

To make the graduates passing out of engineering colleges and universities more employable, Jena said, the government would focus on establishing more finishing schools in collaboration with the private sector.

"We are making efforts to rope in more mid-sized IT investors to the state to scale up employment potential. To attract such companies, the government will offer plug and play built up space," he added.