Infosys sets up unit in US to tap government business: report

Infosys Technologies, the second-largest software services exporter in India, has set up a wholly owned unit in the United States to bid for government projects there, reports quoting a senior Infosys official said.

Infosys chief financial officer V Balakrishnan

"The subsidiary in the US has been formally set up and now we have to commit a business plan and hire people there," agency reports quoted its chief financial officer V Balakrishnan as saying.

The subsidiary, called Infosys Technologies Inc, will be based in Dallas, Texas, where the company mostly operates from in the US. Infosys has 17 centres in the US.

The Nasdaq-listed company has also hired 1,000 professionals across the US during 2009. About 250 of these have already joined the company and the rest are expected to join in 2010.

With outsourcing increasing becoming unattractive for the US administration, the Indian IT major is looking to cash in on US government spending on defence, homeland security and healthcare projects in the US itself.

The US administration, including federal, state and local governments, is expected to spend nearly $60 billion on information technology by the year 2012, according to a projection by Gartner.