Monday, March 7 2005 10:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Despite challenges from China, the Philippines and Eastern Europe, India still has an overwhelming advantage in IT off shoring, according to Wipro chairman Azim Premji.

"Areas such as China, Eastern Europe and the Philippines are becoming major players in IT off shoring but India still has an overwhelming advantage because of the support of the Government and the country's huge talent pool," Premji said in an interview published in The Independent yesterday (Mar 6, 2005).

Wipro benefits from being able to recruit from the top 50,000 engineering graduates turned out from Indian universities and colleges each year, he said.

"In a land of so much poverty, IT jobs are very sought after. Software has so much credibility and visibility that the first choice of a village parent is for their child to be an engineer. We get the choice of the best of the best."

With clients as diverse as Prudential, Friends Provident, National Grid Transco, Nokia, Microsoft and the Scottish Parliament, Wipro is in the business of installing, running and sorting out organisations' IT systems.

Referring to increasingly tough stance being taken by the US Department of Homeland Security on visas for IT workers, Premji said, "It is unfortunate, because you can't have one-way traffic in liberalisation."

"The Western world is looking for the developing world to liberalise all the time, to stop restrictive practices, and then it wants to put its own restrictions on business coming out of the developing world. If the West wants emerging markets to open up, they have to be open," he said.