TCS expects emerging markets to fuel IT growth

SYDNEY: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s biggest software services provider, expects its global sales to continue growing as developing countries race to catch up with industrialised nations in offering new technologies.

“I am optimistic of the growth of IT services,” Girija Pande, TCS’ head of Asia-Pacific operations, said in an interview in Sydney on Tuesday. To fuel that growth, the Mumbai-based software exporter, with 1,63,700 employees at the end of June, plans to add 40,000 workers globally in the current fiscal year, Mr Pande said.

TCS, Infosys Technologies and Wipro, India’s three biggest computer-services companies, have more than doubled their revenue in the past five years as overseas companies outsourced more operations.

Consumers are fuelling sales by buying new gadgets even as economies in North America and Europe slow while demand from companies has grown as they restructure operations to reduce costs with new technologies, Mr Pande said. “Whether there is a recession or not, the iPad is selling,” he said.

Last quarter, Apple’s iPads accounted for $2.17 billion, or 12%, of the company’s overall sales, more than the nine-year-old iPod digital music player. TCS expects growth from its current businesses rather than from acquisitions, Mr Pande said. The company may buy firms in countries it may want to enter or for a specific technology that it may lack, he said. “We’re always looking for acquisitions but that's not the main focus of the company,” Mr Pande said.