BANGALORE: Indian software giant Infosys Technologies Ltd is taking in more entry-level engineers this quarter to cope with rising outsourcing business, matching the record hiring in the preceding three months, analysts said. The Bangalore-based firm, a show piece of India's technology revolution, has already recruited about 1,500 people on a gross basis in the past two months and is set to add another 500 this month, they said on Wednesday.

That will push up Infosys's hiring numbers in the October-December third quarter to its record gross addition of about 2,000 people in the preceding quarter, or nearly triple the figure in the April-June period. A spokeswoman at Infosys told Reuters the company's recruitment continues to be based on business requirements but declined to give details.

Analysts said the stronger-than-expected recruitment suggests Infosys is seeing a sharp pick-up in orders as global companies step up outsourcing to cheaper locations such as India to cut costs at home. Infosys, with about 13,000 employees, mostly based in India, draws on the nation's large pool of cost-effective software workers, besides executing work at clients' sites overseas.

The revival across India's export-based software industry follows a nearly two-year long freeze on recruits and low-key layoffs caused by a slump in revenue growth rates to about 30 percent last year from an average 50 percent in the 1990s. Nasdaq-listed Infosys caters to more than 300 clients globally including American Express and Citigroup and competes with local rivals including the No 1. privately-held software exporter Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro Ltd.

"Typically, about 75 percent to 85 percent of this number (gross recruitment) would be fresh recruits, where gestation -- training period -- is 14 weeks," Merrill Lynch said in a report earlier this month. "Hence, most fresh trainees would become billable towards end-Q4 or early Q1, indicating high visibility for those periods," it said.

Infosys's shares were nearly four percent higher at Rs 4,680 ($97.1) in afternoon trade, outpacing gains in the broader market. The stock has surged 23 percent since end-October, attracted by a boom in the outsourcing business. The company had indicated last October it would hire about 1,000 people in the six months to March 2003.

It soundly beat forecasts for second-quarter revenue growth and raised full-year guidance to 30-31 percent in dollar terms, from the earlier 17-20 percent. Infosys had added only about 900 staff in the year to March 2002 as corporate clients slashed spending and projects got cancelled. It had hired nearly 4,500 people in the year before. ($1 = Rs 48.2)

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