Indian IT: headway in china

Indian IT firms seek to make headway in China              In the backdrop of Chinese premier Wen Jiabao's recent visit to India to beef up economic ties, software companies like TCS and Wipro are "ramping up" efforts to win business in the last Communist bastion, according to a Chinese media report. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), India's largest information technology services company by sales, is leading the effort to expand the presence of the Indian IT industry in China, state-run China Daily reported. However, cracking the Chinese market may not be an easy job, the report said. Chinese companies are still used to the traditional global brands. They have not yet seen Indian IT companies. So it is also a question of brand-building for Our Companies. Unlike their Western counterparts, large Chinese companies usually have their own IT department, and outsourcing is hardly yet a phenomenon that China witnesses. But when they start doing it and focus on their core business, then the Indian companies can bring value to China's domestic outsourcing market. With the trade deficit between the two countries expected to widen with record bilateral trade worth $60 billion in 2010, India has been pressing China to give market access for IT, pharmaceuticals, agro-products and engineering services, as they are presumed to have good scope to grow in Chinese markets. In recent years, TCS has emerged as the largest Indian software company, servicing large Chinese state-run companies. It has established a noticeable presence in China's banking industry. Four major Chinese banks, including Bank of China and Hua Xia Bank, use TCS's core banking system, the China Daily report said. TCS needs to further increase its presence in China and added the company is very keen on expanding into the sectors of government, insurance, healthcare and manufacturing. TCS currently hires more than 170,000 people in 40 countries around the world, but it only has 1,200 people in China. The company plans to increase its workforce in China to 5,000 people in the next three years.