Indian software engineer Prithvi Sen has a spring in his step after getting re-hired by the country’s flagship outsourcing industry, which is shaking off the effects of the global recession.
“I was unemployed and it was tough, but I’ve got work again,” said Sen, who landed a job recently with a small outsourcing company in Bangalore.
Sen is benefiting from a hiring wave by India’s outsourcing sector that is set to increase recruitment by nearly 70 percent in the next financial year, the National Association of Software and Services Companies said (NASCOM).
India’s big three outsourcing companies — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro — all have plans to boost hiring sharply in the coming financial year.
“The feel-good factor is back in the industry,” said Prithvi Lekkad, head of the Union of IT and IT-enabled Services (Unites) Professionals, a trade union that represents some outsourcing workers.
India’s software and services exports are expected to grow by up to 15 percent in the next fiscal year to next March.
This is still far below the blistering 28 percent export revenue rise clocked in the 2006 to 2007 financial year.
However, it is allowing major companies to bump up hiring again.
Indian software companies were hit by the global slump that prompted many customers to put projects on hold.
More than 2.3 million people are employed in the sector either directly or indirectly, making it one of the biggest job creators in India and a mainstay of the national economy. It accounts for 5.9 percent of GDP.
India’s success has been in convincing US and other foreign firms to farm out processes that were previously done in-house.
“We expect net hiring in the ensuing fiscal year to be over 150,000,” Nasscom president Som Mittal said.
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