Wipro wants 50% of overseas staff to be locals

Wipro, the country's third-largest software services exporter, aims at having 50% of its employees overseas from the respective local regions in the next 2-3 years.

"The ratio across the world is about 38%. A year back it was 31%. And we will take it up to 50%," Wipro Chairman Azim Premji said.

He further said that Wipro has not lost business opportunities in the US because of visa restrictions as it has been significantly increasing hiring locals for onsite projects.

"Our objective is to build a strong cadre of local people -- whether it be in Europe, whether it be in the United States, whether it be in the West Asia, whether it be in Latin America -- and we are already doing it very aggressively in China," Premji said.

On the time-line to reach the 50% mark, Wipro Human Resources Head Pratik Kumar said: "We are not working towards a specific time-line or for that matter specific target."

"This is depending on nature of work, the kind of opportunities and our own ability to draw from local talent pool which is very much part of our ongoing strategy," he said.

But Premji later said: "Pratik is trying to back out of that in terms of beating around the bush. But that's [50%] our goal to achieve in 2-3 years," adding, it is completely doable and he would thrust it from the top.

He also said there is a huge shortage of technical IT professionals in the US and Wipro has now been hiring from campuses there as also from science colleges. Many of those hired are American citizens of Indian origins.