Bangalore in for thousands of Infosys jobs

Bangalore in for thousands of Infosys jobs
Deccan Herald

The Infosys Chairman has said Chief Minister Dharam Singh is keen on developing Bangalore but needs time to implement his strategy.

Infosys Chairman N R Narayana Murthy has dropped his broadest hint to date that his company is considering expansion plans that could create thousands of more jobs in Bangalore.

The software giant has targeted Bangalore as one of nine Infosys development centres in India; but within the overall strategy of the company, Bangalore has a high priority, not least because it is the chairman’s home town. “The work force could easily increase to 30,000 by 2012 if we take a decision to expand in Bangalore,” Mr Murthy told Deccan Herald during his three-day visit to London.

‘Wonderful place’

“We want to, and if we did, there’s no doubt that we could easily create 30,000 jobs for the interest of Bangalore, they are very good jobs, high-quality, high disposable income jobs with top salaries.”

Mr Murthy is visiting London in his capacity as the India-based chairman of the Indo-British Partnership and a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) delegation that is making its annual visit to the British capital. Asked to comment on Bangalore and its evolution as a brand name for excellence, Mr Murthy said: “Certainly it is a great, wonderful place. It has a good climate, it has a lot of engineering colleges and a lot of our employees want to be in Bangalore.” He said: “Currently, we have 13,000-14,000 employees working for Infosys in Bangalore, which makes it one of the largest single employers in the City. I think we’re the largest, but best to confirm with Wipro.”

Mr Murthy was also fulsome in his praise for Karnataka Chief Minister Dharam Singh. He said Mr Singh was very enthusiastic about Bangalore, but required time to implement his strategy for the City. “Bangalore has become a brand name.... Give Mr Dharam Singh some time, he wants some changes... he has acted by completing the flyovers... I believe that he’s very keen... So let’s give him some time before saying anything,” Mr Murthy said.

“I don’t see any problem with the City, it can accommodate future expansion, I don’t see any problems, but I think the best thing is you should ask Mr Dharam Singh if he’s happy and what are the new things he wants to do.

“I’ve had discussions with him and he’s been very open, extremely open. He wants to bring about changes and he’s started them, so at this stage I don’t want to demotivate him,” he added.