Oracle to add 1,500 jobs in India by Dec'03

KOLKATA: Oracle Corp, the world's No. 2 software maker, will hire 1,500 new workers in India by December 2003, a company official said on Monday. "We should hit the 4,000 mark by December next year. We have been recruiting 100 a month for some time and that trend should continue," Keith Budge, Oracle's regional managing director for South Asia, said on the sidelines of an industry seminar.

Oracle has its global research and development operations in Bangalore and Hyderabad and currently has 2,500 employees in India. In August, Oracle said it would grow to 4,000 staff in the next four years. But the California-based firm, which sees India as a major market in the coming years, is now more upbeat about the country's IT sector.

Budge said Oracle's India expansion was not about slashing development costs, but part of a longer-term plan to tap the large number of information technology graduates Indian universities churn out each year.

© Reuters