Infosys shifts focus on developing economies

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IT giant Infosys is shifting its priorities to increase its revenues from the domestic market, as also other developing economies like China, Malaysia and South Africa on the back of slowdown in the US and Europe, a top executive of the company said on Friday.

"We are shifting our priorities to include more revenues from developing economies like India, China, Malaysia and some other developing markets like South Africa. We want to increase our share from developing markets.

"We are investing in India, we are investing in China, we are investing in several countries in Asia," Infosys Limited executive co-chairman S. Gopalakrishnan told reporters on the sidelines of an event.

He, however, said the shifting of priorities was a slow process. He also said the company will employ an additional 45,000 people by March, 2012.

"About 35,000 to 40,000 have already been recruited," he said. He said the global economy was now facing a more difficult situation than in 2008 when a worldwide recession occurred.

"In 2008, all the nations came together, including India. There was a coordinated action which, in fact, brought us recovery. But now, the coordinated action has been more difficult because at that point (in 2008) there was significant opportunity to stimulate the economy by nation states."

"Now, the nation states themselves are in deficit and debt. And thus they are finding it much more difficult to stimulate the economy," he said.

He, however, said the IT sector has shown resilience in the face of global downturn. "This is the great strength of the industry today," he added.