Bangalore: Indian IT major Wipro Limited on May 30 said that the recent US Department of State travel notice asking its citizens to defer travel plans to India would have no impact on its business in the short run.

"It does not affect us in the short run," Wipro Technologies CEO Vivek said.

Paul, who joined a company organised press conference by telephone from the US, indicated that some of Wipro's customers might do some outsourcing work internally, given the present volatile situation in India, and "put us off", he added.

He said client visits to India in the last two months had remained in the same pattern, as witnessed in the last several months. One client, he noted, has deferred travel plans to India. He expressed hope that the situation (normalcy) settles down quickly. "Nation (India) comes first," Paul observed.

Asked what impact a possible Indo-Pak war would have on Wipro, Paul said it would be difficult to say. "September 11 incident in the US had a different impact and Indo-Pak war would have a different impact," he commented.

Paul said Wipro has, "a well defined business continuity structure", for its customers, which indicated that clients would largely remain unaffected in the event of a war.

Paul said that the present business environment is sending out mixed signals. He said that while Wipro's customers want to increase their work with the company, price pressure on it also continues.

Asked if salary increase at Wipro meant that price pressure is easing, he said, "We feel that there is going to be great demand for talented people in specialised field in India. We don't want to be the last people to increase salary."

Paul declined to comment on reports, which claimed that Wipro was planning to quadruple its software sales by 2005 and surpass Tata Consultancy Services. "We have our own goals," he said.

PTI