Software major Infosys Technologies said on Monday that all 18,000 students selected by it from various engineering colleges across the country in 2009-10 would join the company in July this year.

"We have made offers to 18,000 students from different campuses for the 2009-10 batch. They will be joining us in July this year," chief executive officer S Gopalakrishnan, told reporters on the sidelines of a function at the Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology in Kochi.

"All the offers we have made last year, we have honoured. Once Infosys [Get Quote] makes the commitment, we will honour it," he said.

"Right now, we have slowed down on recruitments. We are still recruiting, but only in case of absolute necessity," he said, when asked about recession and layoffs in IT companies.

However, the present 16 weeks training would be extended by another six to eight weeks, he said.

The CEO said the situation would become worse if the recession lasted for a longer period. Right now there were very few layoffs in IT companies. Companies are asked to perform better, he said, adding this was not the classical lay off. "But if the situation lasts longer, then all options have to be looked into. It is hoped the situation will improve by mid-2010 and in the worst case by 2014," he said.

Last year the Industry grew by 33 per cent. This year Nasscom (National Association of Software and Service Companies) has predicted the IT growth to be 10-15 per cent, he said.

Gopalakrishnan said Infosys would expand its presence in India, the Middle East and Latin America, South America, Europe and was already focussing on Japan.

Earlier, delivering the Rajagiri Excellence in Leadership lecture on 'Managing Recession - Challenges for India Inc', he said the software Industry needs to wait and watch before overreacting on the statements made by US President Barrack Obama on outsourcing. Multinationals will come to India. India has presently 20 lakh (2 million) IT prfoessioals against 130,000 fifteen years ago.

"We need to wait for details before we overreact. During the elections in the past, in legislature similar statements have been made but Industry continues to grow. In 2001, when the dotcom bubble burst, many state legislatures in US passed laws saying governments cannot outsource. But outsourcing continued", he said.

The software industry is growing not because of cost advantage, but due to available talent. There is growing talent of software engineers and professioanls. BT and Nano technology are also related to Information Technology,he said.

He pointed out that Going Green was a huge opportunity and that Infosys was making efforts to reduce power and water bills, reducing transportation costs through video conferencing and reducing the carbon footprint.