Outsourcing Giant Fights Back

Wipro - NY Times: "TO his compatriots, Azim Premji is the Bill Gates of India. By transforming his family-owned vegetable oil business into a global technology powerhouse, Mr. Premji has become the country's richest citizen, with a net worth hovering around $8 billion. Upon the death of his father in 1966, Mr. Premji dropped out of Stanford to return to India and take care of the family's cooking oil company.

Outside India, however, Mr. Premji is not exactly Mr. Popularity these days. A British newspaper recently went so far as to describe him as 'the man who wants to take away your jobs.' But, India's technology industry employs 800,000 people, he said, while the American technology industry employs 10.2 million. And 300,000 people work in Indian call centers, compared with six million in the United States.

On one recent day, the company had 17 clients visiting at once, and a mad scramble ensued for conference rooms. Over all, the company said it expects revenue to reach $1.3 billion in the 12 months through March, up 44 percent from the previous 12-month period."