Indian IT giant Infosys is reportedly planning to double its campus hiring in the coming fiscal as part of the company's localisation drive in the United States. The company had earlier set a target to take in 10,000 workers in the US by the year 2020.
In the last 18 months, the Bengaluru-based tech giant is known to have hired about 7,600 locals in the US and had said that it was making a "sustained effort" in taking forward its localisation drive. Of the 7,600 employees, about 2,500 were reportedly chosen from various campuses in the country.
Speaking of the hiring, U B Pravin Rao, chief operating officer at Infosys told the Business Standard that localisation is one of the components of the company's growth strategies. "In last couple of years, we have been on a journey to localise our workforce. In the last 18 months (alone), Infosys has recruited about 2,500 students from campuses, mostly in US and from other parts as well," he said.
"This programme has been a huge success and this year, we are looking at doubling that count."
The tech giant has also been taking a quite a few interns under InStep, its internship programme. Through this initiative that turned 20 on Thursday, February 7, Infosys has reportedly taken in about 250 interns every year, instead off the usual 175.
"We see a lot of benefit from this (internship) programme. It's an investment, which gives us back," the daily quoted Salil Parekh, CEO at Infosys as saying.
Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy also lauded the InStep programme and Parekh for the efforts he has put into the initiative. "I am glad that Salil has blessed Instep programme. Salil has indeed, in fact, for the first time in so many years, has expanded the scope of this project. I believe as against 175 we used to take, interns across the globe is probably now is 250 or so," the Press Trust of India quoted Narayana Murthy as saying.
Infosys, in 2017, had announced that it would hire 10,000 American workers by 2020, and also set up four hubs in the US. These hubs, the company had said, would focus on technology and innovation.
At the time, Eric J Holcomb, Indiana governor, had lauded the decision and had said that the move would benefit the state in a big way. However, many believed that this was the company's way to appease the the Donald Trump administration, which has tightened H-1B visa rules to stop its "abuse."
