The Hindu Business Line : Wipro to cap growth in Bangalore

WIPRO Ltd said it plans to cap its expansion in infrastructurally-challenged Bangalore and invest in centres such as Kolkata and Kochi to spur further growth.

High attrition rate and rising wage cost in Bangalore, the country's technology capital, has prompted Wipro to seek other geographic pockets to drive growth, the Chairman, Mr Azim H. Premji, said.

"We believe the problem is serious," he said. The new Kolkata centre will be opened next month and the company is working out on which accounts will be handled out of that centre.

"We have not seen any material change in the last five years and we do not see a declared intent in the next five years," said teVice-Chairman, Mr Vivek Paul. If Wipro needs to park buses that ferries 60 per cent of its workforce to its Electronics City campus on the outskirts of Bangalore, "it will be a train eight kilometre long," Mr Paul said. Wipro currently employs close to 11,000 people in Bangalore out of its total staff strength of 31,517.

"We are not moving out of Bangalore. But to sustain and grow we need to go to places where there are opportunities — both manpower and infrastructure," Mr Premji said. The company's expanded facility in the Wipro campus at the Electronics City will be operational by December, Mr Premji said, wondering whether the roads to the Electronics City could handle such traffic.

"We will try to grow in areas where local talents are available and we can keep our costs under control," the Chief Financial Officer, Mr Suresh Senapaty, said.