Infosys, the second largest IT services firm in the country, on Tuesday announced that it will hire 10,000 Americans over the next two years, and open four Technology and Innovation Hubs in the US.
This decision to hire local talent comes at a time when the US administration led by President Donald Trump has made tougher immigration policies and visa curbs that made sending enginners to the US costly for Indian companies.
In a release issued to DH, Infosys stated that the Technology and Innovation Hubs will focus on cutting-edge technology areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, user experience, emerging digital technologies, cloud, and big data.
Commenting on the development, Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka said the company is committed to hiring 10,000 American technology workers over the next two years to help invent and deliver the digital futures for our clients in the US.
“Learning and education, along with cultivating top local and global talent, have always been the core of what Infosys brings to clients; it is what makes us a leader in times of great change. In helping our clients improve their businesses and pursue new kinds of opportunities, we are really excited to bring innovation and education in a fundamental and massive way to American workers,” he said.
The first hub will be opened in Indiana in August 2017, and is expected to create 2000 jobs by 2012. Besides working closely to serve clients, these hubs will play key role in industries such as financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, retail and energy, among others.
The company said it would also take the model of hiring fresh engineers from colleges and training them on its core technologies to global markets of the US and UK. Infosys will gradually step up hiring from US universities too.
Infosys’ decision to hire more people abroad, in addition to the existing about two lakh people globally, will create additional burden on company’s labour costs. At the same time, the North American market accounted for over 60% of Infosys’ total revenue of $10.2 billion in the FY 2017.
Indian IT companies have been facing growing clamour of protectionism across various markets, including the US. The US had also accused Infosys and TCS of unfairly cornering the lion’s share of the H-1B work visas by putting extra tickets in the lottery system.
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