The Hindu Business Line : IBM to expand academic ties in Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad, July 13 Information Technology major IBM India is planning to expand its collaboration with the educational institutes in Andhra Pradesh as part of its efforts to encourage technical talent in the women students.

“We are looking for greater collaboration in research projects and in the form of taking internees from the academic institutions in the State. This could be at multiple levels in various areas of interest for IBM such as information management projects and ‘Green IT’,” Ms Kalpana Margabandhu, Director, IBM India, told newspersons on the sidelines of IBM Technology Day celebrations at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) here.

At present, IBM has collaborations with reputed universities such as University of Hyderabad, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in the State.

On the objective behind the move to encourage IT talent in women, Ms Margabandhu said, “This is a business imperative for us. Diversity of employees is a key thing for us and we need to have a representation of women in our employees. This helps us understanding our customers in a better way.”

This, however, did not mean any preference to women in hiring as quality and merit is the only criterion for hiring, she added.

At present, about 26 per cent of 52,000 employees of IBM India are women. “Globally, however we have 29 per cent of women. So, there is lot of scope for increasing number of women in our headcount,” she said.

More Stories on : IT Training | Gender | Andhra Pradesh

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