The aura associated with working for multinational companies is increasingly diminishing, with more and more foreign nationals opting to work with domestic IT majors, fondly called the Indian MNCs.
The domestic companies are gaining popularity in the global employment markets, mainly due to technological advancement and blurring of geographical boundaries.
According to industry sources, there are over 25,000 foreign nationals working with Indian companies across the world. These numbers, even though unofficial, is much higher than that was two years ago, when it hovered around 2,000-3,000.
Tata Consultancy Services with 3,056 foreign nationals, Infosys Technologies with around 1,500 and Wipro with 450 top the chart, while Satyam Computers and BPO majors like Intelenet Technologies (employing over 1,000 foreigners) and WNS are also reputed names in the global job hunting scenario.
"Indian IT companies have underlined their presence in the global employment arena, with the feeling among job-seekers is that getting a break with an Indian adds great value to their resumes," Nasscom vice-president Sunil Mehta told Business Standard.
Fifty-five per cent of the total foreigners employed are from Britain and the remaining are from Europe and US, while a handful are from China and Japan. There are over 800 foreigners working with IT companies in India alone, he said.
According to Infosys Technologies Chairman and Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy, "We firmly believe that the future success of Infosys lies in its ability to create an environment that is open to people from different nationalities and ethnicities."
Infosys employs people from 59 nationalities, including the US, China, Australia, France and Germany among others. The company is also planning to hire 325 college graduates from US and UK by the end of 2007, and has also intention to hire from 25 different nations.
Of the 450 employed with Wipro, 30 are based in India and the rest in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan. A company spokesperson said, "Indian companies like Wipro are able to offer challenging assignments which is a draw for any person regardless of the nationality."
Intelenet Global Services Chief Executive Officer Susir Kumar said, "There are lots of expats employed with IT and ITeS companies in Bangalore and most of them are from Asian and European countries. However, they do not exist in huge numbers. What BPO companies can truly boast of are senior management people on their board of directors who are of foreign origin. This trend also applies to companies in the service sector such as the retail and airline industry."
However, the increased interest in Indian companies has not impacted global IT majors like HP and IBM, due to an increase in job opportunities across the spectrum.
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