Indian firms eye British IT companies

14:33 23rd July 2008

Indian IT firms are increasingly sizing up European IT services companies as potential acquisitions, due to a lack of sufficiently qualified graduates in the country.

India's IT services association NASSCOM revealed in its annual survey that over 50 cent of India's engineering graduates and up to 85 per cent of other graduates are not suitable for employment - leaving a gap in the country's skills market.

This coupled with the continuing growth of India's software and services exports, which increased by 29 per cent in last year alone, has led to the acquisition of western IT service companies by Indian organisations such as Wipro, Infosys and Tata.

Nick Langley, writing for contractoruk.com, said: "The answer would be to acquire ready-made staff closer to the markets where the outsourcing services are provided.

"As budgets tighten and the value of our (UK) IT services companies falls, expect to hear of more acquisition plans by the Indian giants."

NASSCOM is the premier trade body that represents and sets the tone for public policy for the Indian software industry.