A day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked industries to broadbase employment and make it representative, Wipro chairman Azim Premji said his firm would recruit people based only on merit.

"We compete with global companies. We are primarily in the service business in terms of the mix of our consolidated revenues", he said, adding, "Service business is highly people-dependent. People make you (the company) successful or the people make you less successful".

Wipro hungry for acquisitions

Premji pointed that close to 80 per cent of Wipro's global revenues come from the US, Europe, Japan and parts of the Middle-East.

"We have no alternative but to hire the best talent available within India and the best talent available globally to man our positions - critical positions, non-critical positions, (and) programming positions", he said.

Should there be quota in IITs, IIMs?

While responding to a question on HRD Minister Arjun Singh's announcement that 27 per cent of seats in higher educational institutions would be earmarked for Other Backward Classes, Premji said he understood the compulsions "the country is going through in terms of reservation."

However, "We (Wipro) are an organisation which requires selection on merit".