GERMAN cos KEEN on investing in K’taka

Neenu Abraham, Munich
The Economic Times (Bangalore edition)

There is rising interest within the German workforce — hit by recession and facing job losses — to work for Indian companies based out of here. This is mainly because not much attrition has been reported from Indian conglomerates like Wipro, which has five offices in Germany and Infosys, which has three units here, besides a host of other Indian companies, which have operations here. On the other hand, 10% of Bavaria’s workforce is facing job losses or short-term employment.

“There are 123 Indian companies in Germany and 167 firms in joint ventures with German companies,” explained John Kottayil, executive director, state of Bavaria’s India unit.” Over 20,000 jobs have been created by Indian companies in Germany, he said.

Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan says: “Our German operations have been impacted by the slowdown but there have been no lay-offs. The recession impact has been slow to hit European countries and hence the recovery may also be slow.”

“Only deep specialisation will give a cutting edge to software industries,” explained Girish S Paranpje, joint CEO (IT business), Wipro. Meanwhile, Karnataka’s minister for large and medium industries Murugesh Nirani says “around 15-20 German industries have evinced interest to invest in Karnataka.”

To facilitate better relations between the two regions, an action plan has been signed by minister Nirani and the Bavarian government in Munich to help foreign industries invest better in India and for the promotion of education, trade fair participation, inter-school exchange programmes and innovations. “Wipro chairman Azim Premji has announced that the company would shortly announce a German head to oversee their operations here, said Rahul Kadavakolu, director, global branding, Wipro. “Around 80% of our workforce are locals and only less than 20% are Indians at the German operations of Wipro,” he explained.