Bangalore: Global technology slowdown not with standing, Asia's largest software and services company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) planned to recruit around 4,000 software professionals in the next one year, a top company executive said on December 23.

"We are 21,000 now. We should be 25,000 by December 2003", vice-president and head - banking practice, N G Subramaniam, told reporters.

Subramaniam said the company is also looking to set up new facilities in Bangalore, where it currently has 2,300 employees, including 1,800 catering to the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) segment.

Meanwhile, the company, which was the second fastest growing consultancy company in the world for 2001 and clocked revenues in excess of $ 880 million for 2001-02, would open a development centre in Chile, officials said.

Subramaniam said Chile operations would be started with a small number of local software engineers, whose number is expected to grow to 100 over the next 18 months.

According to TCS' regional director-Asia Pacific, Girija Pande, head count in the company's development centre near Shanghai in China would be ramped up from the current level of 25 Chinese software engineers to 150 by June.

Subramaniam said banking practice (BFSI segment), which currently contributes around 40 per cent of TCS's total revenue, would be the main driver for growth for the company.

According to him, the company clearly sees a convergence of financial services in terms of new players entering banking business and banks entering into other areas.

Banking business is a focus area for TCS in Bangalore and it is evolving as TCS' Banking Innovation Centre, he said.

Meanwhile, on TCS' proposal to come out with its maiden public issue, company sources said, "It's only a matter of time before it kicked off the initial public offerings (IPO). There are several issues involved, with market conditions being a key one."

On the outlook regarding the company's expected revenue in the current financial year, Subramaniam said the growth would be better than the industry average.

"TCS has consistently doubled its revenue once in two to three years," he said.

PTI