Pune to turn Infy's largest manpower base

PUNE: The Queen of the Deccan, Pune, which saw the birth of the Indian infotech giant Infosys in a small flat in 1981, is all set to witness some exciting developments relating to the much-admired company.

Rejecting the all-round pessimism about Pune’s future on the infrastructure front, Infosys has expressed confidence on its expansion plans for Pune and is marching on to create a seating capacity for 20,000-plus employees here by 2008.

This will make the Pune operations the largest manpower base for Infosys, the company’s new CEO and MD S Gopalakrishnan said.

The $3 billion-plus company which has 14,000 employees at its Pune Development Centre (PDC) has so far invested Rs 723 crore here. As of June 2007, Infosys had a total headcount of 75,971 employees, of which, 18,490 were based in Bangalore where it is headquartered.

Gopalkrishnan said while Pune was likely to emerge as the largest Infosys centre in terms of people, the Mysore campus would be the largest in terms of size with about 375 acres. The PDC was established in 1996 and occupies two sprawling campuses spread over 138 acres.

With nine software development blocks, a customer care and support services block and other facilities, the development centre offers key services in areas such as domain consulting, technical consulting, infrastructure management, system integration and enterprise application integration among others. The Pune DC services customers in sectors such as banking, insurance, financial services, logistics, manufacturing and healthcare.

Speaking amidst massive infrastructure development at its phase-II campus in the Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park at Hinjawadi, Pune, Infosys CEO said he was not overly worried about the infrastructural woes of Pune, which were common to most cities in the country.

While the government certainly needs to make investments to provide better air-connectivity, public transport and roads, Pune has many positives that have enabled sustained growth for Infosys, he said. “The environment and the work culture is very positive here. The government created this IT park; when we outgrew, they created phase-II. So, support from the government is very important,” he said.

Emphasising on ensuring sustainable growth for Pune, he said, “If employees don’t feel this is a good city to live in, they will move out and business will follow. People are becoming highly conscious of the quality of life and cities are now competing in attracting employees.”

Both, Gopalkrishnan and Priti Rao, head of Infosys’ PDC, said the availability of a large talent pool from Pune and Mumbai, good educational and residential facilities, land availability for expansion and manageable attrition rates were factors that went in Pune’s favour.

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"Fuel deal" delays Infosys campus in Thiruvananthapuram

The state-of- the-art campus of the Indian IT major Infosys near Technopark here has hit another road block as the Technopark authorities have failed to relocate a petrol pump that function in the land allocated to the Infosys.

According to sources, the Technopark authorities had at first tried to acquire the land in which the pump functions. However the idea to take over the 16 odd cents of land by giving compensation to the pump owner did not materialise as the pump owner was unwilling to accept the proposal.

When the Technopark authorities had acquired all other pieces of land for the proposed facility centre of the Infosys, the petrol pump owner took issue to the court, demanding a fair deal. After months of arguments and counter arguments, the court directed the Technopark authorities to provide another piece of compensatory land in the nearby area to the pump owner.

Moreover, the government should set up the infrastructure facilities required for the pump and hand over the same to the pump owner.

At this point of time the Bharat Petroleum authorities and the pump owner insisted that the work on the infrastructure facility should be entrusted with one of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation- empanelled contractors.

The park authorities who were in a haste to get rid of the imbroglio, accepted their proposal. A contractor suggested by the Bharat Petroleum Corporation was given work to the tune of Rs 60 lakh. However, the contractor stopped the work in the midway citing shortage of funds.

Earlier, the pump owner and the BPC was not happy with the shape of the land allotted to them. Following the complaints, the Cabinet approved the change.

The contractor has now asked for a meeting with the authorities as he needed more funds to complete the work. According to sources, the Infosys authorities are not happy with the delay in relocating the petrol pump from the land earmarked for them.

Infosys to open unit in Mexico

Information technology major Infosys Technologies today said that it would soon open a 200-seater BPO facility in Mexico, its first in Latin America.

The company is also looking at other countries to start such units. “As we speak, we are in the process of moving into our own office. We have taken the office. It will be operational very soon”, company CEO and managing director Mr S Gopalakrishnan told here today. “Right now, we are looking to start with approximately 200 seats”. Primarily, the centre will focus on BPO. We will monitor the growth and then we will look at starting other services from the unit,” he added.

The NASDAQ-listed IT and consulting major has just opened a 60-seater BPO facility at the Philippine capital of Manila which will be ramped up to 700 seats in an year’s time.

Infosys Head (HRD, education and research) Mr TV Mohandas Pai, said “Mexico is closest to the US in the time zone and American clients are very familiar with that country. There is a good emerging employee pool there.” Infosys, which has a employees of around 65 nationalities, is also scaling up hiring of locals.

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Govt clears two Infosys SEZs

NEW DELHI: The government today gave go ahead to six SEZ proposals, including two proposal from the IT major Infosys to set up special economic zones (SEZs). Of the six SEZ proposals, four were given in-principle approvals while two received formal clearances.

Infosys has received initial go-ahead for two IT zones to be set up near Hyderabad, while Genpact has received formal approval for an IT SEZ in Jaipur and Enfield Infrastructure was given a green signal for an IT zone at South 24 Parganas in West Bengal.

The government has so far given 364 formal approvals and 180 in-principle nods. These take the total number of clearances to approximately 550. The proposals were cleared by the Board of Approval, which took up eight cases in its meeting here. It, however, deferred two proposals from Adarsh Prime Projects and Blue Vision Construction.

In a separate development, Commerce Ministry extended the validity of the Reliance Industries' Maha Mumbai SEZ. "The extension to in-principle clearance to Maha SEZ was done by the ministry itself" without referring it to BoA, Commerce Secretary and BoA Chairman GK Pillai told reporters.

Another nine proposals would be taken up for clearance at the BoA' next meeting on August 30.

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Infosys to Invest Rs 30 cr in Chandigarh Operations

Chandigarh, Aug 5 (PTI) Software solutions developer Infosys Technologies Limited has said it will invest Rs 30 crore on expansion of its Chandigarh operations during the current fiscal.
"We will invest Rs 30 crore on infrastructure development of our operations in Chandigarh during this year," Infosys Technologies Limited's Development Centre Head Sameer Goel said here.

The company, which is India's second biggest software exporter, has so far invested Rs 160 crore on its facility in Chandigarh.

With the new investment, it proposes to set up blocks for software developers at its IT centre in Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park.

The 30-acre Software Development Centre of Infosys employs about 2,000 people in Chandigarh, which is extendable to 3,000.

The company has been exporting softwares to countries like the United States, Europe and Middle East. It has also been awarded the STPI software export award for earning export revenue of Rs 17,423 lakh from the Union Territory. PTI

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Q&A: 'Reservations alone can't equip students to face competition'

Infosys Technologies with the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore, has just concluded the first course of a Special Training Programme (STP) for SC, ST students aimed at enhancing their employability.

T V Mohandas Pai, director, human resources, Infosys, spoke to Dhanya Krishnakumar about the programme:


Are you looking at expanding this programme beyond Karnataka?

Ideally, there should be a similar effort in every state. Currently, we plan to conduct pilots in five other states, including Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Orissa. A successful pilot will convince state governments of its need and feasibility. In Pune, we are collaborating with the Symbiosis Institute for a pilot in September. We are talking to two other institutions and we'll finalise things soon.

How did the idea for such a programme come about?

During a meeting with Narayana Murthy, Union minister for social justice and empowerment Meira Kumar asked him to come up with a programme to empower students from the socially disadvantaged classes. We believe that reservation alone cannot equip students for a sound future. The basic premise of STP is to equip these students who have done well in their engineering courses, but lack of resources or opportunities have not been able to get access to good quality higher education.

What are the skills imparted and how are students selected?

Anybody who has finished her engineering a year or two ago and belongs to SC/ST is eligible. We worked with the department of social welfare, government of Karnataka to come up with a list of candidates who would qualify for the pilot project. The training process is similar to the one we provide to those who join Infosys. Our usual process takes about five months, but the STP course is seven months.

We also train them in personality development, confidence building, articulation and communication because often people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds suffer from low esteem and it's essential to change that. The average perfor-mance of the STP batch was comparable to a typical batch at Infosys.

What about placements post this training?

From our first batch of 90, close to 76 got placed in companies like IBM, EDS, HP, MindTree, Wipro and Infosys itself. We made 23 offers, but only 15-16 joined us which shows the power of this programme. It made them competitive enough to have choices. Placement is based purely on merit.

What's the investment in this programme?

For the pilot, we invested Rs 3 crore. Starting with the next session, we are looking at Rs 1 crore with a 50-50 partnership with the state government. The government has the funds but lacks the capability to plan and execute something like this. That's where we come in. We also got support from our partners like HP, Canara Bank and some other corporate houses.

Infosys plans expansion in Trivandrum

IT services major Infosys, which is on a massive expansion spree, is likely to have its own campus in Thiruvanathapuram in a year or two. N Radhakrishnan Nair, CEO, Technopark campus, who is part of the Kerala delegation at BangaloreIT.in said that the company would have its own campus in the city. “Starting November, Infosys will begin construction of its campus and has taken up 50 acres of land. It plans to have 2.5 million square feet of space that can seat more than 5000 people,” he said.

In the first phase of construction, around 600,000 sq feet of built space will be completed. “The catalyst for the Infosys’ interest in Kerala is the COO Kris Gopalakrishnan who hails from Thiruvananthapuram,” said Nair.

At present, Infosys has more than 500 people working at its facility in Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram. In May this year, senior Infosys executives including Kris Gopalakrishnan met with Kerala CM V S Achuthanandan to discuss their growth plans in Kerala.

The Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram houses 110 companies and 12,500 people. In the next six months, the number of employees is expected to touch 20,000.

Another initiative by the Kerala Government is an integrated township for the IT sector called Technocity. This project would be a private-public partnership involving 500 acres of land very close to the existing Technopark. The land acquisition is expected to happen in the next one year.

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Infosys vs. Google : Which employees are more spoilt?

Infosys is a huge company in India while Google is a huge company in the U.S.A. Well Indians are known for their hospitality. Both companies are known to spoil their employee’s silly, well let’s put them through their paces and see which company can make their employees the spoilt brats they are aiming for.

First: Infosys (Main Facility)

1. Hostel: 2,250 rooms to accommodate 4,500 trainees. 5 star luxury.

2. 3 (Yes, THREE) Food courts which can accommodate 3,000 people at any given time. They have 8 kitchens offering anything from Domino’s Pizza to Pave Bhaji (Indian Dish).

3. Employee Care Centre:

A 10 bed hospital

+ A bank

+ A Laundromat

+ A 10,000 sq. ft. gymnasium

+ 6 shuttle courts

+ 22 table tennis boards

On top of that: a 25,000 sq. ft. swimming pool

+ A 6 lane bowling alley

+ Climbing walls

+ Meditation hall!

+ 11 pool tables

Wait! There’s more: A book shop

+ Supermarket

+ Beauty Salon

+ 4 screen multiplex (with a geosidic dome!) capacity around 1,500 people.

+ Amphitheatre

4. Hold on, don’t forget the sports! There’s a cricket ground (an actual stadium)

+ An 8 lane Olympic running track

+ Basketball court

+ Volleyball court

+ 8 (EIGHT) Tennis courts

+ 6 badminton courts

+ 4 squash courts

+ A football ground

All of this on around 330 acres of land. Can easily accommodate 10,000 employees.

Google has been beaten. From what we know, they cannot even compete with these guys. All the lava lamps in the world can’t compete with the IMAX Dome they got there. Now for a moment, lay back, be stunned, and dream of working there.

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Infosys Planning Entry into Gujarat?

Gujarat is becoming favourite IT destination in the country with more and more companies coming forward to set up their IT parks. The IT friendly policies of state government has played a important role in this.

According to a survey carried out by a national news magazine state’s income from this sector has almost doubled during last two years. The state has given subsidy worth Rs.12 crore to IT companies.

The government has identified special land for IT companies and Rahejas, Wipro, Satyam, Infosys are planning entry into Gujarat, according to a government release. The state has received proposals from eight companies to set up an IT Special Economic Zone.

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Infoys Campus Tour Videos by Scott Budman of NBC11

Visit this link for watching Videos.

It looms above this teeming city like a Las Vegas hotel. Its pyramid shape is distinctive and impressive in this land of older, traditional structures. But this pyramid, while noteworthy, is actually a very small part of the headquarters of India's hottest company, as NBC11's Scott Budman learned on a recent visit.

Technologies has such an enormous campus in Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, that it took us almost all day to see the entire property.

It's a software powerhouse, with a flair for architecture, evident in a building modeled after Australia's famed opera house.

There are gardens, pools, a veritable oasis, all enjoyed by Infosys employees who come here from all over the world.

The jobs are better paying. They require an educated workforce.

In short, they are the jobs of the future.

And the future looks bright for Infosys, which is growing by the day.

In fact, a couple of hours away in the city of Mysore, Infosys has an even larger campus.

This location boasts buildings based on the Parthenon in Greece, origami designs and a geodesic dome.

In any language, you can call it an incredible place to work.

And Infosys doesn't just have a big campus, it has a big stock market value, not just among the biggest in India, but among the biggest in the world.

To put that in perspective for you, Infosys is more valuable than video game developer Electronic Arts, more than grocery chain Safeway, more than tech heavyweight Advanced Micro Devices, and triple the value of Juniper Networks.

And here's something you probably wouldn't expect to see - a training class.

Yes it's in India, but that's not what makes it different. Its purpose is not to train call center workers.

No, believe it or not, the class is full of American engineers, all of them recently hired by Infosys.

Adam Anderson is one of those engineers. He could work anywhere but he's training in India and soon he'll start working in Fremont, at Infosys U.S.A.

"Of all places, to go to India, it was a definite shock,"Anderson said. "I don't think a lot of people are fully aware of the technology going on in India, and the kind of economic growth because of the tech boom."

They're America's best and brightest, leaving home to learn the lessons of India -- even if their friends think they're crazy.

"They thought it was some humanitarian mission, or religious thing," said Sarah Taliaferro, wearing traditional Indian garb.

"Coming to India was a definite plus. ... I've had a great time learning about India and Indian culture."

Thanks to companies such as Infosys, India has come a long way from the days of inexpensive labor.

And America isn't so much losing jobs as it's losing engineers.

They're coming to India, to a big campus that's making the world a smaller place.

Who are, by the way, going willingly

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Infosys Bangalore Campus Pictures

One of our readers sent us these amazing pictures of Infosys's Bangalore campus. Hey, is it the heaven on the Earth? :-) Click to see in original size.

If you have more beautiful pictures of Infosys (Bangalore or other locations), do send to us for publishing in this blog.

Elliptical Spaceship Buildings in Infosys Pune

Infosys Technologies is expanding in Pune. The company will be opening the first of its two new buildings at Hinjewadi that resemble spaceships on Tuesday. Infosys director and CFO T V Mohandas Pai will be present for the function that also marks the celebration of the 11,000 headcount in Pune.

Designed by Hafeez Contractor and constructed on 1.5 million sq ft,the five-storeyed building will accommodate around 2,000-odd techies. Together, the two buildings will have around 3,500 professionals.

“Infosys is known for its innovation. This is just another attempt to bring in an element of novelty,” said Priti Rao, senior VP and head of the Pune development centre. She was speaking about the elliptical shape chosen by the company for the new buildings.

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Infy to Expand Czech Operations to 350 Seater

A new 350-seat facility is under development to double Infosys’s existing capacity in the European country. The new centre will open in January 2007 and will continue to deliver business process outsourcing (BPO) services while increasing its IT services capacity for its European customers.

The original Brno facility was opened in 2004. It handles business processes such as sales order management, finance and accounts, market research and underwriting for clients across 16 European countries. It currently employs 130 people and is set to grow to 350 people by the beginning of next year. Infosys has been on an expansion drive in Europe due to the increasing adoption of outsourcing by European companies.

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