Europe is like a Hindi movie: Premji

BANGALORE, INDIA: In the current global economic situation, European markets are the most vulnerable, said chairman of Wipro Limited Azim Premji here on Friday.

"What you are seeing in the Europe is like a Hindi movie (release); there is a weekly change (in the situation)," he quipped, speaking after the announcement of the company’s third quarter results.

Fun apart, Premji conceded that delays on the client side were taking place. "But European companies have realized that they haven’t taken advantage of global partnerships."

He, however, reiterated that they didn’t expect the Eurozone to break up. Furthermore, " We continue to invest there and do reasonably well. Some of our competitors have also shown good growth in these markets," explained Premji.

While there is uncertainty, he said that it was not impacting the IT sector. "Customers are prepared for the slowdown in the West. They are not arresting investments. Our major market, the United States, is surprisingly strong. Enterprises in the US have good cash flows and are reaching capacity. They need to now invest in building new capacity to keep the growth going."

As for U.S. visa restrictions, Premji pointed out that they hadn’t lost any opportunities because of that.

Local talent acquisition, he said, was a major issue in the U.S., "As there is a huge shortage of technology professionals. We do recruit there locally, but it’s very difficult. We are able to find talent from universities, but laterals are difficult to get. Yet, we have done it pretty successfully in Atlanta."

It may be remembered that Premji lamented the delay in policy-making on part of the government during the last quarterly results announcement. He had a fresh, positive perspective to offer this time around.

"Everyone is preoccupied with the five elections. The government will get much more active on policy-making after elections, irrespective of the results. If the opposition is more constructive, it would help expedite the whole process," he remarked.