Infosys to Spend$100 Million on Training

NEW DELHI - India's leading software exporter, Infosys Technologies Ltd., plans to spend $100 million this fiscal year on training as the outsourcing industry prepares for a shortage of skilled people, a company official said Tuesday.

"The limiting factor to growth going forward will be the (lack of) availability of trained manpower, not infrastructure," Dow Jones Newswires quoted T.V. Mohandas Pai, head of human resources at Infosys, as saying.

"There is war for talent," Pai said.

He said India's information technology sector will need to hire at least 1 million people over the next three years.

India is the world's outsourcing leader, accounting for about half of the global business. Scores of multinational companies farm out software development, engineering design and back-office services to countries such as India, where wages are low.

Pai didn't provide specifics on how the company would use the money for training.

Earlier this year, the Nasdaq-listed company said it will add 25,000 employees during the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2007. The company also plans to hire at least 300 undergraduates in the United States to support its operations there.

"We are also accelerating our hiring at our other global centers," Pai said. The company has said it plans to double its staff in China to 1,000 this year.

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