British Telecom's enterprises connectivity services arm BT Global Services has drawn out an ambitious plan to expand its business in India.
Its chief executive officer Andy Green, said on Tuesday that the company has targeted a sales revenue of $250 million from its India operations within the next two years.
"India is our office of the world," Green said, adding that the company, which is present in India via strategic partnerships, is looking at increasing the number of such partnerships significantly. However, he did not give any details.
Green said that the company will need a human resource base of about 5,000 software professionals. "Out of these, 2,000 will be hired in Pune itself over the next 18 months," he informed.
Currently, the company serves IT majors such as Infosys, TCS and Wipro from its Pune centre. "BT has recently bagged contracts worth $3 billion from Reuters, which is the second-largest one after the UK army contract. We are deploying a specific team at Pune centre, to cater to our multinational clients Reuters and Prudential," said Green.
He was in Pune to open the IT training centre that it has set up in association with the Saint Crispin's school. The centre aims at providing basic IT education and vocational training to the city's underprivileged children.
The centre is looking forward at training 1,400 children within the next three years. It comprises a laboratory, computer room, audiovisual teaching aids and classroom for teaching theory.
"BT is actively involved in community investments around the world. During the last year, we had provided financial support worth euro 20.8 million towards community and charity activities worldwide, which is 1.1 percent of BT's profit before tax," said Green.
"During this financial year, we are introducing a new scheme for our employees called, 'Global Charity Matching - Payroll giving Scheme'. The scheme will enable our employees worldwide to donate to a charity of their choice with additional funding from BT," said Andy.
In India BT is working on a new community project aimed at supporting the developing countries to be a part of the digital society.
