TCS to open 3rd centre in China; to up headcount to 5000

Tata Consultancy Services plans to open its third IT centre in China in the current fiscal and increase its headcount five-fold to 5,000 by 2010, a senior official said on Friday.

The new centre would be established before March-end in China, where the company currently has a workforce of 1,000, TCS's Executive Vice-President-Global Sales & Operations N Chandrasekaran said on the sidelines of quality summit organised by NASSCOM in Bangalore.

He said TCS has not seen any impact on its outsourcing business from the US sub-prime mortgage crisis.

"...we don't see any impact. Our direct

presence in the mortgage area is very negligible," he said, adding, overall, the busines is good. The company would continue to monitor the sub-prime crisis very closely.

"Financial services business is healthy and we are on a growth path," Chandrasekaran added.

There is no evidence of pricing pressure in the short-term. Demand continues to be very strong. "Prices will not be impacted in the short-term," he said.

He expects wage increases in the IT and BPO industries to moderate from next year. Noting that wages had gone up by 12-15 per cent in the last 2-3 years, he expects it to taper off from next year.