Indian IT industry to hire 200,000 people in near term: Kris Gopalakrishnan

'Ups and downs' in global economy will not impact Indian industry for long, he says

The Indian information technology industry will continue growing despite global macroeconomic challenges, said Kris Gopalakrishnan, a cofounder of IT giant Infosys, citing investments in digitisation and technology for his projection.

The industry is expected to grow at 8-10 per cent on a base of $220 billion in revenue, he said on Wednesday. It is expected to recruit at least 200,000 people in the near term. Gopalakrishnan’s comments about hiring come at a time when many US tech companies, such as Meta and Twitter, are sacking employees.

“The industry will follow the ups and downs in the global economy but that is for the short term,” said Gopalakrishnan, at the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2022 which is being attended by industry leaders, investors, civil servants and technologists.

Companies face challenges related to attrition, moonlighting and getting employees back to office but they will continue to grow and recruit.

He said digitisation accelerated during Covid. Besides that, Indian IT services companies and global development centres in the country demonstrated that they have the resilience to withstand shocks. This has increased the trust of global businesses and multinational corporations in Indian IT services.

Indian IT companies are now searching for talent beyond traditional technology hubs such as Bengaluru. They are setting up centres in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities so that the talent can be closer to home and leverage technology to remotely work from these centres.

“I see a larger number of smaller centres coming up in Mysuru, Mangalore, Hubballi and Dharwad,” said Gopalakrishnan.

He said the Indian model for technology deployment is unique, especially in the area of public digital infrastructure and private entrepreneurship.

Gopalakrishnan said issues that need to be addressed include data protection and making databases available to startups and researchers for innovation and entrepreneurship.