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How Wipro plans to take on number one and two IT giant.

Azeem Prem Ji

Wipro said it expects bigger software contracts and increased spending by clients in continental Europe, a market India's tier-1 software vendors have identified as the next growth-engine.

India's No.3 software services vendor, whose clients include Cisco Sytems and Citigroup, on Friday reported a 27% growth in net profit to Rs 2014.7 crore from Rs 1589.5 crore last year. Its revenues from Europe grew 5.4% aided by a revival in demand for technology services.

"Customers in there (continental Europe) are giving big contracts in infrastructure segment. Large customers like Shell and Philips have big deals," Ulrich Meister, senior vice president, continental Europe and managing director of Wipro GmbH told ET.

Meister, who joined Wipro in November last year from German information technology firm T-Systems, said enterprises in continental Europe are now looking to work with offshore software providers due to better pricing and higher automation.

Analysts and companies expect higher demand for IT services from Europe this year as the macroeconomic situation improves.

Meister said Wipro will expand its sales and delivery team in continental Europe markets to expand its client base.

"We have to change our business model there by getting a local flavor. We will expand the headcount. It may hit us on the margins, but not so much."

"Business in pure English won't do there, so we are increasing the number of people in sales and delivery to reach out to local clients," he said.

IT to create maximum jobs in 2014: Assocham

Information technology, banking and agriculture-related businesses are going to be among the key job creating sectors in 2014, according to a study by industry body Assocham.

"Information Technology (IT), pharmaceuticals, banking and agri-related industries such as farm equipment, fertilisers and seeds, will remain the largest employment generation sectors in 2014," the chamber said in its study.

All these sectors will stand out despite the present state of the economy where net employment is being lost and not created in a large majority of sectors.

IT will remain the net aggregator of jobs in 2014 due to recovery in the US economy, it said.

"The US economy is showing signs of improvement... A large number of American firms are expected to increase their IT spend as consumer sales pick up there," it added.

Continuous pressure on rupee will help increase the net income of IT companies and they will keep hiring, it pointed out.

"Since our economy still remains a good mix of organised and unorganised, large corporate and small enterprises, a large number of people in rural India are dependent on agriculture and tertiary industries; there are inherent and inbuilt strengths which come handy when the chips are down," Assocham President Rana Kapoor said.

Pharma sector will continue to hire in 2014. But because of some setbacks and tightening of regulations in the US and some other markets, the companies will have to invest more in improving their manufacturing and Research & Development.

Further, the study said that agri-based industries are expected to do better in 2014 on the back of a good rabi crop.

"The positive spin off would be evident in a whole lot of industries which are directly linked such as tractor and farm equipment manufacturers, irrigation firms and those involved in developing and selling seeds and fertilisers", it said.

On banking, the study said that 2014 is expected to be a better year for the sector.

"The NPAs would be reduced since the focus is very much there on the issue and there are signs of recovery in some segments of the economy. Besides, a huge number of backlog vacancies have to be filled up in public sector banks."

For the private banking sector, new licenses, which are likely to be given before April, will throw up new job opportunities.

While the new banks will leverage technology, job opportunities will arise both in brick and mortar as also in development and implementation of technology solutions, the study added.