Infosys to aggressively pursue Indian projects

Infosys Technologies Ltd, India's second-largest software exporter, is pursuing 10 or more government deals to gradually raise its share of sales from the domestic market, and reduce its dependence on exports to the slump-hit US.

Reports to this effect were confirmed by senior company executives. "There are large opportunities in India. So we are definitely going to go after these kinds of businesses very aggressively in India," head of Indian business Binod Rangadore said. ''We have a very healthy pipeline right now.''

CEO S Gopalakrishnan added, ''Government deals take a long time to close, so I'm not clear on success rates or time to closure.'' He said it would be ''great'' if revenue from the Indian market tops $1 billion in two or three years, adding that the sales goal for Infosys was ''directional.''

The US market had contributed 63.2 per cent of Infosys' 2008-09 revenue of $4.4 billion, with just 1.3 per cent coming from India. Infosys joins bigger rival Tata Consultancy Services Ltd in aiming to boost sales in India to more than $1 billion after the recession forced overseas clients to pare technology spending.

The market for technology and business outsourcing services in India is expected to expand five-fold by 2020 to $90-100 billion on the back of a growing economy, according to a recent study by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) and consultancy McKinsey and Co.

Infosys, which set up its India business unit in late 2007 as part of a strategy to diversify its revenue base, has put in bids for IT services contracts from the railways and state-run telecom Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, among others, Rangadore said. He declined to set a time frame for the outcome of the bids.