Keane India to ramp up headcount

Keane India Limited, a subsidiary of Keane Inc, a global information technology and services company, has announced that it was stepping up its presence in Indian and would employ about 5,000 people by the end of 2005, up from the present number of 1,600 employees.

Addressing a press meet on Saturday, Parmindar S Miglani, managing director of Keane India, said: "A significant part of the expansion would be in the Hyderabad operations. We are in the process of building a 38,000 sq ft facility at the Cyber Pearl project in Madhapur, which will have a 350-seater capacity. The facility will be operational from later this year."

"We are also considering the possibility of establishing our fourth centre in India, details of which are being worked out," he added.

The Hyderabad operations has about 650 people and the rest is spread over Noida and the recently-commissioned Gurgaon centres.

"We expect the number of employees in the IT wing to be increased to about 3,000 from the current 1,600 employees," Miglani said. He also said that Keane India would be expanding its business process outsourcing (BPO) operations in the country.

The company had recently acquired a 62 per cent stake in World Zen, a BPO company, earlier this year.

"Keane World Zen, which has 300 employees at present, would be increased to 2,000 by the end of 2005," he said. The company plans to invest $ 25 million for the expansion plan, of which half is expect to be invested this year.