IT industry to recruit at least 2 lakh people in near term: Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan

Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys, said the IT services industry will continue to grow and recruit at least 200,000 people in the near term.

“The industry will grow secularly because the investment in digitisation and technology will continue to grow over the next several years. In the short term, there will be ups and downs because the industry will follow the ups and downs in the global economy.  I’m confident in saying that the industry will face these challenges (back to offices, attrition, moonlighting) and continue to grow and continue to recruit and in the near term, I see the industry recruiting at least 200,000 people,” he said while speaking at the inaugural session of Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS).

He said that the resilience shown by Indian IT companies and the global development centres in the country during Covid-19 increased the trust of global businesses and multinational corporations on Indian IT services.

“Industry is expected to grow at 8-10 per cent and this is on a base of $220 billion, (which is) not a small growth... It is a very exciting period for the IT industry. I believe that the next 25 years are going to be even better than the last 25,” he said.

Gopalakrishnan said IT companies are setting up centres beyond Bengaluru to enable employees to be closer to home and he expects a larger number of such small centres to come up in cities such as Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli–Dharwad, and Belgaum.

In a recent interaction with Business Today, Gopalakrishnan said concerns about global macroeconomic headwinds were legitimate, but one should look at the sector holistically, and from that perspective, there is much to be optimistic about.

"What I can say is that in the near term I am very optimistic about the IT industry. During Covid, for example, the use of digital technology has accelerated phenomenally, both in business and in our lives. And this has impacted positively the work done in India and from India, in terms of services delivered," he said.