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Infy, Wipro feel the pinch, bench staff; TCS bucks trend

Arijit De & Anusha Subramanian

The infotech slowdown is beginning to cast its shadow on two of India's largest software companies, Wipro and Infosys Technologies, with both having benched --a term used to describe unutilised hands -- a large number of employees.

An exception, however is TCS. Unfazed by the slowdown in the IT sector, Tata Consultancy Services, which had earlier planned 4,000 fresh recruitment for the current financial year, has already made 1,500 new job offers in campuses in the new fiscal.

While TCS, maintained that not even one software developer has been benched by the company, Wipro, which had 26 per cent of its 9,935-strong workforce benched at the end of March 2001, has seen the number increase in the two months of the current financial year. Infosys, too, has benched a total of 500 of its 9,831 employees.

The official spokesperson at TCS said: "We have not laid off people and we have also not put any of our staff on the bench. In fact, we are hiring more people. We have already started our campuses rounds and are making 1,500 offers immediately."

"Apart from this, we are also going to hire another 1,000 people through the TCS Talent Test that was held across the country," the official added. During the year April 2000 to March 31, 2001, TCS had made 8,000 campus offers. Of these, totally 5,042 joined the company, and from April 1, 2001 till June 23, 764 new recruits have joined. The balance 1,580 recruits who have the offers will be joining the company during the course of this year.

TCS is not only on a recruitment spree, it also is firm about retaining its existing staff. S Ramadorai, CEO said, "We have extremely talented people and will not tolerate anyone poaching on our talent."

The Wipro official, however, shared no such optimism, and said: "Because of the global IT slowdown, the number of employees benched will be higher than the 26 per cent as of March 31. I cannot comment on the exact number."

Meanwhile, an Infosys spokesperson declined to comment, saying that company officials could not be quoted during the "quiet period" before the company's results are announced. But a company source confirmed the development.

The figure for both Wipro and Infosys include trainees as well as those involved in marketing functions.

What is more, Wipro has also decided to delay the date of joining of a large number of campus recruits, who were to begin work in May and June. The spokesperson said: "We will take a final decision within the next fortnight on what to do about the date of joining of the new recruits."

Analysts say a crucial cause for concern is that there is no indication on IT spends in the US going up. While 73.5 per cent of Infosys' revenues came from the US, the figure was around 70 per cent for Wipro, analysts said.

Both the IT majors have indicated they would like to reduce their dependence on the US market and perhaps focus more on Europe, Japan and South Africa.

TCS, on the other hand, is now aggressively moving towards strengthening its position in the consultancy space. "Since we are moving up the value chain, in terms of consultancy services and practices other than software services, we need people with core competencies and domain expertise in the areas of security, strategic consulting, banking practices etc," TCS officials said. The company is looking for close to 500 people to work on its IBM mainframes.

With domestic expenditure on IT expected to increase by around 40 per cent this financial year, both Wipro and Infosys are expected to eye the local market. Only 1.4 per cent of Infosys' income came from India last year, while that of Wipro was minuscule, analysts said.

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