Tata Consultancy Services, the first Indian IT company to set up base in China, has recruited almost 250 engineers from the Shanghai University for its China facility.

In keeping with its philosophy of following a localisation programme wherein a maximum number of employees would be recruited and employed in the country of origin, TCS has decided to recruit most of its engineers locally.

According to a TCS spokesperson, "TCS has decided to adopt a policy of  'recruit local and deploy global'. The company is adopting this strategic decision as part of our localisation programme which aims at imparting a local flavour to our global operations. Our experience with customers who are more comfortable working with people from the country of origin has reinforced our belief in this policy."

The Chinese recruitment by TCS would also make it one of the largest ever recruitment drive by an Indian company in a foreign university.

TCS had started the China facility with a multi-dimensional approach to its business objectives. First to service its multinational clients which had expanded operations in China and needed a support base in the country.

Secondly, China is also being sought to be developed as a base by TCS to service the Asia Pacific region with markets such as Korea, Japan and Taiwan being the key focus.

Thirdly, the domestic Chinese market is also being sought to be tapped by TCS which sees a huge potential in that market as well for deployment of IT solutions and services.

The recruitment in China itself is also interesting since it has been perceived to be a market with a lack of talent and lack of delivery capability on account of the language barrier.

However the devotion of the administrative machinery in China to develop the IT sector has been the key element of attraction for TCS in the pursuit of its aggressive China plans.