Infosys will increase the size of its global internship programme, as it seeks to build a culturally diverse workforce in the face of the backlash against Indian outsourcing companies witnessed in the West.

Usually, under the InStep programme, 175 students would be shortlisted from universities across the world — notably from the Americas and other developed countries — and they would work on projects in India for a couple of months.

Addressing a gathering, Infosys’ co-founder NR Narayana Murthy congratulated Salil Parekh, the CEO, and said that for the first time in many years, the scope of the project has been expanded.

“Now we will take 250 or so,” he added. Parekh took over as Infosys CEO in January 2018 and industry watchers believe that by expanding the intake and scope of InStep, Infosys is continuing with Murthy’s and other co-founder’s vision that the programme, conceptualised 20 years ago, has to be a multinational brand in itself and at the same time build a multicultural workforce for the company around the world.

“This programme will give a chance to the interns to know India’s culture and the company’s philosophy,” said Murthy.

The report card of InStep so far makes for decent reading: 2,000 interns have taken part across 200 universities. Some of the interns have joined Infosys and work at its development centres in the US, Europe and Australia.

For the programme, Infosys has partnerships with the Carnegie Mellon University, Caltech and the University of California among others.

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