Kalam to interact with budding Infoscians at Mysore
Bangalore, April 7 (IANS) President A.P.J Abdul Kalam will visit the Infosys Technologies campus in Mysore Sunday to interact with its trainee employees and get a firsthand account of the IT bellwether's activities at the facility.
"Kalam's visit to Infosys campus will be a first by an Indian president. During an hour-long sojourn, he will tour the various facilities and address about 2,500 trainee employees, including a batch from Malaysia," a company spokesperson told IANS here.
Besides founder-chairman and chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy and CEO Nandan M. Nilekani, the company's top brass will brief the president on the Infosys' offerings, domain expertise and its unique global delivery model.
Visits by heads of states, presidents and prime ministers from the world over to the Infosys campus in India's tech hub Bangalore have been a regular feature over the years.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaurugated the company's Mysore campus, about 140 km from here, in February 2005.
As the firm's biggest facility in the country, the 335-acre Mysore campus houses the world's largest corporate institute (Infosys Leadership Institute), the world's largest global education centre (GEC) and major software development centre.
With a cumulative investment of Rs.12 billion over the last two years, the campus has a built up area of 6.2 million square feet, with four software development blocks to seat about 6,400 techies when completed.
According to Infosys director T.V. Mohandas Pai, the Rs.3 billion firm will be spending $100 million on training about 20,000 engineering graduates, who will be hired over a period of time.
The entire facility, including the extended campus, will have a capacity to train 35,000-40,000 graduates each year. "We spend about $5,000 on training each graduate selected for the global training programme (GTP)," Pai said.
During the company's silver jubilee celebrations last year, 126 graduates from various universities in the US joined the facility.
Graduates chosen for GTP through a customised education and orientation programme are trained in tech skills, client-facing skills and live project exposure in the global delivery model.
"In FY 2008, we plan to hire about 300 students from the US and 25 from the best universities in Britain. In due course, the talent search will be extended to Australia, Thailand and other countries," Pai added.
The company's game plan is to increase the percentage of foreigners gradually from 3 percent of the total current workforce and turn it into a multi-ethnic, multi cultural community.