Information technology firm iGate said the company will focus on Government projects like Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for the domestic business.
The company that generates around 80 per cent of its revenue from the US alone, said it is building solutions for Government projects such as the UIDAI.
“UIDAI is a large focus. We are doing some work and we hope to continue to expand that. The cash subsidy or transfer system for LPG is built by us. We have done initial work with UIDAI as a pilot project, but now it will come out with tender and we will bid for it,” President and Chief Executive Officer, Phaneesh Murthy, told
He said the company will invest $120 million over the next three years to expand its centres and develop new technologies for customers in banking, financial services and insurance, mortgage, and pharmaceuticals.
It will also hire around 1,000 people by end of this year across its centres globally, including the new centre in Pensacola, US, he said. The company has around 27,000 employees right now.
It has around 250 people in the Pensacola centre done through lateral hirings. At the entry level, it will hire around 25 in the next placement season (June-July), he said.
The company is building a 50-acre campus in Mumbai and a 35-acre residential campus in Pune and expanding the Bangalore campus, Murthy said.
He said the company has a cash reserve of $600 million and would look at acquisitions and mergers as and when the company requires.
“Right now, the first thing to do is after 2014, we need to start reducing [cash] by paying off some of the debts. That will be our first strategy. We have more than $1.2 billion as total debt,” he said.
On the IT industry scenario, he said the market is still uncertain, especially companies like iGate (mid tier companies).
“In 2013, my sense is that the IT budgets are not going to do well. When we did our survey, we found that roughly about 20 per cent of the companies are going to increase their budgets, 30 per cent are actually going to decrease their business and rest 50 per cent is relatively flat. So, that to me is not the best of scenario because we would like more percentage to be increased in their budgets,” he said.
However, industry body Nasscom on Monday said the IT-business process management industry is expected to grow at double digit rate for the year financial year 2013.