Mumbai, June 12: Mahindra British Telecom (MBT), a telecom-focussed software joint venture between Indian auto group Mahindra & Mahindra and British Telecom, plans to raise its staff strength by 50-65 per cent this year, a spokesman said. "We are adding 1,500-2,000 people this year and 80 per cent of them will be in India," he said.

"This is based on our internal estimates of business, on what our customers are telling us and what our sales people are saying."

The company currently has about 3,000 employees.
MBT announced that its net profit for the year to March 2003 rose 35.85 per cent to Rs 170 crore from Rs 126 crore a year earlier. Revenue rose 18.13 per cent to Rs 623 crore from Rs 527 crore. Bureau Report