The Kerala Information Technology Department’s efforts to showcase the State as a natural hub for information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services got a boost with Wipro chairman Azim Premji expressing interest to expand his company’s footprint in Kochi.

Wipro is a major player in IT landscape of the city with a full-fledged private campus at Infopark in Kakkanad. The 10-hectare campus has a built-up space of 10 lakh sq.ft. It employs 1,900 people and focusses on software development, with domestic and international clients.

Mr. Premji’s announcement focussing on business process outsourcing (BPO) ventures in Kochi had only confirmed the speculation to that effect. At the request of Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, during the course of their meeting on Thursday, Mr. Premji agreed to expand the campus with prominence to BPO ventures in the domains of law and finance. (more…)

Employment in the IT/BPO sector has showed the highest increase at 6.9 lakh during 2009-10. This is according to the sixth quarterly survey by the Ministry of Labour and Employment to assess the effect of the economic slowdown on employment in the country. Employment has increased by 0.16 per cent in the textiles, leather, metals, automobiles, gems and jewellery, transport, IT/BPO and handloom sectors during the January- March 2010 quarter as against the corresponding quarter last year.

In absolute terms, employment in the eight sectors grew by 10.66 lakh in the quarter under review as against the corresponding quarter last year.

The survey also points out that the IT/BPO sector has shown the highest increase in employment at 6.9 lakh during the year 2009-10. Employment increased in all sectors other than textiles and handloom which showed a marginal decline. Overall employment for the quarter ended March 2010 grew by 0.61 lakh over the December 2009 quarter. But in textiles, employment declined by 1.19 lakh during the same quarter. (more…)