Rupee appreciation a long term issue: Infosys

CHENNAI: India's second largest software exporter Infosys today said the company was looking at rupee appreciation issue with a medium to long term perspective, and its immediate focus is on productivity, work practices and hedging.

"Productivity is a continuous issue. The second is about work practices, about working smarter," Infosys CEO and Managing Director S Gopalakrishnan told reporters here after inaugurating the P G Senapathy Centre for Computing Resources at IIT-Madras.

The rupee rise has resulted in a fall in profit margins of IT companies, which are getting fewer orders from overseas clients.

"Our view is that we cannot predict how the currency is going to move...we look at a two quarter hedging strategy," Gopalakrishnan said.

To a query that most Indian IT companies in China were expanding faster, while Infosys had only about 700 employees on its roll, he said the company was prepared to grow in that region.

"Let business drive the growth," he said, adding Infosys had some internal plans in place to gain a stronger presence in China.