Infosys plans to increase stipends during internship to attract talent

Fresher salary offered by IT companies in India had been stagnant at the level of Rs 3 lakh over the past 8-10 years.

Infosys, India's second-largest information technology (IT) services company, on Thursday said although it had no plans of increasing entrant salaries. 

While some competitors had announced increasing salaries, it was taking a different approach.

Instead of increasing the pay packages for campus recruitment, Infosys is planning to increase the stipend money.

"We are taking a slightly different approach. We are not increasing the (fresher) compensation broad-based, but are trying to put similar kind of money or even more in our internship programme because it has a very strong correlation to those people joining us," U B Pravin Rao, chief operating officer, said while addressing the Citi Global Technology Conference in New York.

Though the export-driven IT industry is still growing, fresher salary offered by IT companies in India had been stagnant at Rs 3 lakh to Rs 3.25 lakh over eight to 10 years.

However, during the ongoing campus recruitment season, some of the larger IT companies, including Tata Consultancy Services and Cognizant, decided to increase it by 10-12 per cent. 

"One thing that people are talking about is giving Rs 3.3 lakh (per annum) as a starting salary for new entrants. But today, we (Infosys) are not far behind; we are already offering Rs 3.25 lakh, which is even ahead of some of our competitors," Rao said. "So, to some extent, they have marginally increased."

Regarding the availability of talent, Rao said: “Overall, I don't think there is any scarcity per se because more than a million people graduate from technology colleges (every year). Maybe over a period of time we will land up in surplus because of automation and other things coming in. Also, you have to recognise that the industry is growing yearly between 13 per cent and 15 per cent against 25-30 per cent in the past."

Infosys employs 179,523 employees across around 100 delivery centres globally.