The Hindu Business Line : Slowdown? Grit your teeth for a quarter or two

Ask Mr N. Krishnakumar, CEO, Mindtree Consulting, if he is seeing any budget cuts among clients and he says, “Among our top 30 clients, not one has an IT budget cut-back.” The worst they are saying is that budgets would stay flat this year compared to 2007, he says.

Over a 12 month scenario, comparatively, the demand is not softening. According to him, “The problem this time, compared to 2001, is that it is localised to the financial services industry. I expect this problem to be short-term, for a quarter or two probably. People then have to get on with work.”

Likewise, Mr Atul Nishar, founder and chairman of Hexaware, feels that a slowdown in the US, while having an impact on Indian IT services providers, may not last long. He says, “We don’t yet know how much of an impact there would be. How long it would last is also difficult to predict. But it would certainly be over by September 2008.”

Asked where from he gets that kind of confidence in the environment, he says, “Based on feedback from customers.” He also predicted that offshore growth would be higher than ever before when the slowdown ends and things come back to normal.

Interestingly, news of the slowdown has not stopped the company from going ahead with its investments in development centres. The centre in Chennai that it is building, with a capacity to house 5000 people, should be ready in June this year, he said.

It may be recalled that Hexaware had also acquired 14 acres of land in Navi Mumbai, 25 acres in Pune and 10 acres in Nagpur. “Work on these centres would start in a few months,” he said.

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