NTT Data to boost India headcount by 5,000 this year, exec says

Feb 27 (Reuters) – Japanese technology firm NTT Data plans to raise its India headcount by 5,000 employees this year across software programming, consulting and IT support, a senior executive told Reuters.        

Large IT contracts of more than $100 million have doubled in the last 12 months, with deals stemming from manufacturing, logistics and public sector, Sudhir Chaturvedi, chief growth officer and CEO of North America, said on Tuesday. “North America is back to growth, and we expect strong growth next financial year.”      

The company, a subsidiary of telecom giant NTT Group, is building out four data centers in India as part of a $1.5 billion investment and currently employs 40,000 in the country.

Global and local firms are increasingly looking to boost data center capacities in Asia’s third-largest economy.

India hosts 20% of the world’s data but has less than 6% of global data center capacity, according to ratings agency ICRA, making investments in the sector an attractive bet. The government has granted a tax holiday for foreign companies using local data centers.

Chaturvedi said clients’ tech budgets are expected to rise 7% to 9% this year on account of investments beyond AI compared to 6% to 7% last year. 

(Reporting by Sai Ishwarbharath B in Mumbai and Abhirami G in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)