"For me, India is the backbone of our group, it is what holds everything together. We are very close to having 50 per cent headcount from India. We have 90,000 employees here and the group employs 1,80,000. A few more days and then we will have 1,00,000," Capgemini chairman and chief executive Paul Hermelin told reporters here.
He attributed the iGate acquisition as the real reason behind the increased role India plays in the group.
At a gross level, the company plans to hire around 35,000 people here this year, while the attrition rate at present is 15 per cent.
Capgemini launched a new campus at Airoli, Navi Mumbai which can seat 30,000. Built at an investment cost of Rs 1,800 crore, the campus is spread across 50 acres with a built-up area of 3 million sqft.
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The first phase of the campus with a built-up area of 1 million sqft and a seating capacity of about 13,000 is operational, while the second phase is expected to be completed by early 2018, Hermelin said.
He said Capgemini will create an innovation centre at Airoli which will form part of the network of applied innovation and exchange, launched at the end of last year.
On the integration of iGate, which Capgemini bought
last year for USD 4 billion, he said, "The financial markets want to see the integration by the end of the first half...I am sure to complete integration by the end of the year."
"My view is the market will expect a clear demonstration at the end of July with the first half results and at the end of the year," he said.
The US-based iGate was an applications network and business process outsourcing specialist and drew almost 35 per cent of its income from the US and Canada, while Capgemini offers software services to infrastructure companies, healthcare providers, retailer and manufacturers.
"iGate had focus on 280 clients, out of them Capgemini had only three. So there were 277 additional clients. The common client was GE and this is a big account for us. Together we are probably the largest provider to GE. They spend a total of USD 5 billion on IT and we sell USD 250 billion...So we haven't seen any danger in overlap," said Hermelin.