Mumbai, June 29: IT consultancy and services provider Patni Computer Systems (P) Ltd is planning to hire 2,000 more employees in calendar year 2003, mostly it professionals, as it is expecting to post an "above average industry growth" during the year. "We expect to increase our clientele, and in turn, our business in 2003, and an addition of employees is in line with this growth," Patni Computer Systems general manager (marketing) Deepak Khosla told newspersons here today.

About 90 per cent of the employee addition would be in software and related sectors, while the remaining 10 per cent would be as support and office staff, he said.
Patni Computer Systems had recruited over 1,600 employees in 2002, a major chunk of which were software professionals, taking the total number of employees to 5,690 as on December 31, 2002, Khosla said.

The company had around 4,150 personnel on rolls in year 2001, with over 90 per cent being software professionals.

The IT major is also planning to acquire real estate "to augment the needs to house employees and infrastructure,” the General Manager said.
He, however, did not divulge further details, saying it was too early to comment on the company's space acquisition plans.

The IT services provider had posted a 42 per cent growth in 2002, while it was slightly lower at 32 per cent as on March 31, 2003, he said, adding that Patni expects to maintain the "high growth" figures in the current fiscal.
Bureau Report