Wipro hired about 1,000 professionals in Q1

BANGALORE: Wipro Ltd hired about 1,000 staff in the quarter ended June, a big increase from the last few quarters, indicating that its slowdown-hit business is picking up, the Press Trust of India reported on Friday. The local agency said, quoting sources from Bangalore-based Wipro, about thirty percent of the recruits were fresh graduates but the exercise was in line with the company's strategy of need-based hiring.

A spokesman for Wipro reached by Reuters did not offer any comment on the report, but said that the company would give details about hiring when it announces first-quarter results on July 19. Many Indian software exporters have resumed hiring in the past few months after a year of freezes and low-key lay-offs. The recruitment drive comes amid a pick-up in orders from overseas clients, who are outsourcing to cut costs.

"The restart of fresh hiring is probably the big theme this quarter," UBS Warburg said in a results preview of India's main technology companies. "Wipro has been amongst the most vocal in this respect, adding close to 1,000 engineers in the quarter," Warburg said in a July 4 report, made available to Reuters on Friday.

The Wipro spokesman said the company's global IT business had added a net 124 employees in the fourth quarter compared with 91 net additions in the third quarter. Wipro's shares ended flat at Rs 1,398.45 on Friday while Bombay's main 30-share index closed up 0.42 percent.