CSC to triple Indian staff to 5000

BANGALORE: Computer Sciences Corp. aims to more than triple its staff in India to 5,000 in about two years, as its Indian unit emerges as a strategic hub, a senior company official said.

"The mood is very bullish and we are excited," said Manoj Tandon, assistant vice-president at CSC India Pvt Ltd, which employs 1,400 people and kicked off operations three years ago.

CSC's expansion comes as rival technology services providers including IBM and Electronic Data Systems aggressively tap India's pool of low-cost engineering talent.

"Increasingly, the challenge for us is to keep growing and manage growth," Tandon told Reuters.

IBM has an Indian headcount of about 10,000 and is still expanding, while Accenture Ltd aims to double its staff numbers into five figures by the first quarter of 2005.

Headhunters, scrambling to fill new jobs in India, say foreign service providers offer higher salaries than locals, putting pressure on top home-grown software firms including Infosys Technologies Ltd and Wipro Ltd.

India's software sector is riding an outsourcing wave as Western firms move back-office service jobs to low-cost countries, but this has stoked a growing political backlash overseas and become a hot election issue in the United States.

California-based CSC, one of the world's biggest providers of computer services for large companies and governments, said on Monday its year-to-date contracts totaled a record $16.8 billion.

The Indian unit does not handle government contracts, which have been first in the firing line for outsourcing opponents.

Tandon said CSC is investing $12 million to expand into the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, building a facility which will employ 1,000 people by the end of the year.

CSC has one center in the central Indian city of Indore and three units in the northern township of Noida, outside New Delhi.

CSC's Indian unit handles customers' information technology operations, including applications and infrastructure, and has a small team, which provides back-office services.

© Reuters