Both Indian and MNC IT majors are hiring big time, expressing their confidence in the Indian economy and outsourcing/offshoring growth story.

The numbers speak for themselves. Accenture expects to reach 35,000 by the end of this financial year, a 52 per cent increase over last year. IBM already has 53,000 people in India, a 23 per cent increase over the previous year. By the end of the current financial year, Tata Consultancy Services plans to add 30,000 employees, taking its total headcount to 113,500. US-based Capgemini plans to employ 40,000 professionals by 2010.

Analysts have cautioned about the growing competition from China and the Philippines and the need to shift from voice-based services (processes like tele-banking and customer care). Change is already taking place. Most of the hiring in the recent past has been for the purpose of application development, research and development, infrastructure management and other non-voice based operations.

The most recent example of this shift was when the Tata group (primarily TCS) offloaded its 40 per cent stake in Sitel India in line with its strategy to focus on core BPO processes and move away from voice-based processes. Currently, voice-based services constitute less than 10 per cent of its operations. TCS has 83,500 employees globally and has been hiring at an average of 7,000-8,000 employees in the last three quarters.

The increasing percentage of hiring reflects industry's  increasing confidence in business models and the future growth prospects. It also reflects the demand-supply situation in the Indian market. Sudin Apte, country manager, Forrester, points out, "Companies are growing, but there is also an increase in attrition. Currently, it is between 10-15 per cent. Hence, the growth is justified."

He further stressed that Indian companies are consciously moving towards core processes and value-added voice-based services. The percentage of dilution of plain vanilla call centre operations is at least 10-12 per cent.

Pradeep Udhas, global head, sourcing advisory, KPMG, said, "One needs to understand building capacity at a short notice is very difficult and for immediate ramp-ups, organisations need to continuously recruit and train people." Despite the talks that salaries are increasing in India, Udhas believes that offshoring still provides cost arbitrage when compared to the salaries in US or Europe.

The global players operating out of India are also recruiting at a frantic pace. Accenture, which already has 27,000 employees in India, plans to add another 1,500 management consultants by August 2008. Though this increase is a part of the company's plan to double its global headcount to 13,000, it is also looking at expanding its consulting analytics centre in  Delhi. The analytics centre provides customer, marketing and data analytics, marketing automation and campaign management, and enterprise performance management to the company's global clients.