"We are looking at India headcount to be about 50,000 in a year," Accenture chairman & CEO William D Green said. Globally, the company plans to make 60,000 gross additions to its workforce by August been consistently investing in training manpower.

"We had spent $780 million globally to train people and are not facing talent woes...we are a big human capital company and all we need is good raw material," Green said.

On business in India, he said, Accenture aspires to build a good consulting business in India and sees opportunities in financial services and government businesses. The company operates 45 delivery centres across five continents with more than 75,000 people. Its India delivery centres are located in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and Gurgaon in National Capital Region of Delhi.

It is currently servicing 350 clients, including many of the Fortune 100 companies from India. Green said that outsourcing will continue to follow the natural course of reaching to sources of expertise.

He underlined areas of merger integration, supply chain, human performance and operating models where Accenture holds a competitive edge for India business. It may be noted that the senior management of Accenture is in India for the first time to hold a board meeting

Accenture said it had not seen any cancellations or deferrals of orders from its clients as a fallout of the US subprime crisis, which has globally hit the financial sector hard.

"Certain financial sector companies have paused...(but) we had not had any cancellation or deferrals," Green said.
"Financial services contribute less than 20 per cent to our revenues and are growing at seven per cent year-on-year," Green said adding other sectors like telecom, retail were doing very well.

He said Accenture remains to be at the top of the food chain and its every process is backed by a rock solid business case. "Our job is to be relevant and have diversity in our offering," he said.

The global economy was good and the companies are dramatically in a better shape to face the economic challenges than in the past, Green added.