Patni hardware arm to set up unit in Goa

PCS Industries, the hardware arm of the Rs 1,400 crore Patni group, is setting up a plant in Goa - its second in India.

The plant will be fully operational by May 2004 and will have a capacity to manufacture 60,000-70,000 units of desktops, servers and notebooks every year.

"With the domestic software industry set to scale new highs, we see a great opportunity for the hardware sector too. We are expecting a 20-25 per cent growth in demand this fiscal and looking ahead we expect similar or better growth," said Goutam Talukder, executive vice-president, IT services, PCS Industries. Talukder, however, did not reveal the investment in the project.

PCS has a facility at Silvassa and another in the Middle East. The Silvassa plant has a capacity of 80,000 units and manufactures around 60,000 units a year. The overseas unit caters to the Middle East region along with Africa and Eastern Europe.

Besides manufacturing and marketing hardware, the company also runs a IT services group to service PCS as well as third-party vendor products. It accepts outsourced IT infrastructure management contracts from Indian companies across sectors.

The company recently began offering services in the network and security audit vertical and is contemplating an international rollout of these services soon.

"We have very ambitious plans for our newest vertical of business and will offer these services overseas very soon. We will firm up our plans and be ready to roll in another six months," Talukder said. PCS operates out of 150 locations in India and employs around 1,200 people.