New Delhi, Nov 18: Expectations of worldwide pick-up in IT spending and better than expected quarterly results have prompted Indian Technology companies to go on a hiring spree with some contemplating as much as 70 per cent increase in manpower this year. Research firm Gartner Inc has said that overall it spending has bottomed out and 2004 and 2005 will see a minimum of strong single-digit growth over 2003 levels.
With other studies also painting rosy picture of pick-up in it spend and this being reflected in revenue growth of above 20 per cent reported by major companies, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, Infosys, Satyam and HCL Technologies have now started hiring in thousands.

The biggest among the Indian IT companies and the first one to touch one billion dollars in annual revenues, TCS, has plans to add 5,000 consultants to its existing workforce of 25,000 by March 31, 2003.
Wipro, though not the one to predict future hirings, has added 4396 employees since March 31, 2003. Most of the new hirings are for Wipro's business process outsourcing subsidiary Spectramind. The company's manpower now stands close to 25,000 and as revenue continues go up by 29 per cent year-on-year, which it did in September quarter to touch Rs 1,374 crore, it will need to add people in hordes.
Infosys, which along with Wipro is within a striking distance of one billion dollars in annual revenues and also grew by 29 per cent in September quarter to 1,134.75 crore, plans to add 3,000 more in September 03-March 04 period. The company's manpower stood at 15,356 on march 31, 2003 and in first quarter of 2003-04 it added 1,739 employees and in second quarter it took on 2025 hands. If Infosys meets its projections its manpower in FY 2004 will go up be 44 per cent over the figure of 15,356 at the end of 2002-03.
Bureau Report