'All 18,000 selected students to join Infy by July'

Stating that there is a slow down in recruitment, software major Infosys today said all 18,000 students selected from various engineering colleges across the country would join it in July this year.

"We have made offers to 18,000 students from different campuses for the 2009-10 batch. They will be joining us in July this year," company's Chief Executive Officer S Gopalakrishnan told reporters on the sidelines of a function at the Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology Here.

"All the offers we have made last year, we have honoured. Once Infosys makes the commitment, we will honour it," he said

"Right now, we have slowed down on recruitments. We are still recruiting, but only in case of absolute necessity," he said, when asked about recession and layoffs in IT companies.

However, the present 16 weeks training would be extended by another six to eight weeks, he said.

The CEO said the situation would become worse if the recession lasted for a longer period. Right now there were very few layoffs in IT companies. Companies are asked to perform better, he said, adding this was not the classical lay off. "But if the situation lasts longer, then all options have to be looked into. It is hoped the situation will improve by mid 2010 and in the worst case by 2014," he said.

Last year, the industry grew by 33 per cent. This year Nasscom has predicted the IT growth to be 10-15 per cent, he said.

Gopalakrishnan said Infosys would expand its presence in India, the Middle East and Latin America, South America, Europe and was already focusing on Japan.

Reacting to US move to eliminate tax benefits to companies shipping jobs outside, he said the software industry needs to wait and watch before overreacting on the statements made by US President Barrack Obama on outsourcing. Multinationals will come to India. India has currently 20 lakh IT professionals against 1.3 lakh 15 years ago.

"We need to wait for details before we overreact. During the elections in the past, in legislature similar statements have been made but industry continued to grow. In 2001, when the dotcom bubble burst, many state legislatures in the US passed laws saying governments cannot outsource. But outsourcing continued," he said.

The software industry is growing not because of cost advantage, but due to available talent. There is growing talent of software engineers and professionals. BT and Nano technology are also related to information technology, he said.

He pointed out that Going Green was a huge opportunity and that Infosys was making efforts to reduce power and water bills, reducing transportation costs through video conferencing and reducing the carbon footprint.