India Inc sees a silver lining in cloudy skies, waits for rebound

INDIAN IT industry will see growth slowdown this year, but companies feel they will be in a position to take advantage of the next growth cycle, said industry leaders on Sunday.
    Speaking at the India Economic Summit, organised by the World Economic Forum and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Infosys Technologies executive cochairman Nandan Nilekani said the growth witnessed by the IT sector in the last 4-5 years won't be replicated this fiscal, owing to the current economic slowdown. Infosys, which recently revised its full-year guidance downwards, would go ahead with its planned recruitments, he added. The country's second-largest tech firm plans to hire 25,000 people this fiscal.
    "There's a global scenario which is unprecedented and it'll have an impact on everybody. But time and again, the industry has demonstrated that it's resilient enough to deal with the harsh challenges," said Mr Nilekani. Referring to the 2001 dot-com bust, Mr Nilekani said that the current economic situation is not as profound. "At that time, we not only got out of the situation but took various learnings from it. As of now, the companies are just waiting for the downturn to subside and are getting ready to take advantage of the next growth cycle," he said.
    Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju said the ramifications of the economic crisis were not fully understood yet governments across the world are pro-actively taking measures to control it. "I don't think everything is understood yet about the crisis. I think the significant moves by various governments in a concerted way will have a positive effect. If the economic outlook improves, sentiments would also improve across industries. So far, our assessment of what we may expect from the year has not changed," he said.
    Satyam revised its dollar guidance for the year downwards last month on account of rupee depreciation and volume reduction. It expects FY09 revenues to be about $2.55-2.59 billion against a previous guidance of $2.65-2.69 billion. Indian IT association Nasscom, which had given a guidance of 21-24% growth for the current fiscal, would soon review the forecast. A downward revision is considered likely.
    Mr Nilekani, whose book Imagining India: Ideas for the new economy would be launched soon, said that the current crisis has shown that there needs to be a focus on basics. "We should learn from the mistakes that developed nations such as the US, Europe and Japan have made and see how technology can be used for transformation. There's a need to look beyond the divides of caste, creed and religion, and emerge as an integrated nation," he added.
    Infy offers sabbatical
    to 50 employees
NEW DELHI: Infosys CEO S 'Kris'- Gopalakrishnan on Sunday said the company has offered a one-year sabbatical to up to 50 employees in a year to work with NGOs. The company's total employee strength is over 1,00,000 and only 0.05% of its workforce will be able to avail this scheme annually. "Up to 50 people in the company can take the sabbatical in one year. We did this six months ago. It wasn't introduced now but it got linked (to the slowdown). It's not our way of managing utilisation," Mr Gopalakrishnan said. A few days ago, a business daily had reported that the country's second-largest IT services firm had been encouraging it staff to take a sabbatical. Those on sabbatical will get 50% of their salary, while drawing some amount from the NGO as well.