Infosys Ltd on Friday denied a media report that the founders of India's second-biggest software services exporter were looking to sell their entire 12.75 percent stake in the company.

The Times of India newspaper on Friday had reported the Infosys founders were exploring such a sale, citing people familiar with the developments, although it carried a denial of such a move by one of the firm's founders, Narayana Murthy.

Infosys, India’s second-largest information technology (IT) services firm, seems to have dropped its ambitious target of increasing its revenue to $20 billion by 2020, as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Vishal Sikka, struggles to grow the business faster.

The company had set itself a long-term goal of $20 billion in revenue, 30 per cent operating margin and $80,000 revenue per employee by March 2021. Sikka’s compensation of $11 million was linked to this long-term goal.

Information technology (IT) services major Infosys on Friday said it will hire 20,000 people this year, against only 400 people being asked to leave on performance grounds and termed reports of large-scale job losses as “overstated”.

Infosys Chief Operating Officer U B Pravin Rao said the technology-driven transformation presents new opportunities for companies such as Infosys.

Amid the growing clamour in the Indian IT industry over the techies staring at mass job losses in the face of various challenges to the business, there seems to have come across a good news. Bellwether Indian IT company Infosys plans to hire 20,000 people in India this year, ET Now reported citing a wire report, which in turn cited the company COO.

However, the net hiring could be less than the figure, due to attrition and potential layoffs. Infosys had hired 6,320 employees on a net basis in the last financial year 2016-17, down from 17,000 employees it hired in the year before that.

BENGALURU: Founder Chairman of Infosys N R Narayana Murthy on Friday expressed sadness over the IT companies laying off their employees as part of their cost cutting strategy.

"...It is sad...," Murthy told in an email reply to a PTI query about recent IT layoffs. Murthy, however, did not elaborate on the matter.

Infosys Ltd, the India-based computer services giant, on Wednesday touted its new strategy to hire and train 10,000 American workers over the next two years at the company's annual leadership meeting in San Francisco.

Infosys is the largest employer of workers under the U.S. H1-B visa program for skilled workers, which has been under fire as the Trump Administration moves to tighten a range of immigration laws. Many large companies hire so-called outsourcing firms such as Infosys to manage their computer operations.

Two IT employee groups have flayed the steep hike in compensation awarded to top executives of Infosys, terming the move by the software giant as painful amid job losses in the industry.

According to the 2017 annual report of Infosys that was published on the company's website, payouts of at least four Infosys executives have increased by over 50 per cent in the previous financial year.

Infosys, the second largest information technology (IT) services firm in the country, will maintain its annual campus hiring at 20,000 this year, but is looking at engineers with new skills such as digital and analytics.

IT firms in the country have witnessed technology and business shifts in the past few years. Clients are now spending more on digital, Cloud and analytics. Maintenance and testing — services usually performed by freshers — are also getting automated.

Tech giant IBM on Wednesday clarified that the company is not firing 5,000 employees and the media reports regarding the same were factually incorrect.

Business Standard on Tuesday had said the the company was laying off 5,000 employees in India, joining the league of Cognizant, Infosys and Wipro in pruning staff as the IT sector faces technology shifts towards automation, and from manning legacy system to digital and cloud..

Just six months ago, Indian companies and policy makers were grappling with a record-low exchange rate. Now, the rupee’s unexpected rebound is causing fresh problems. While the currency’s 5.6 percent jump against the dollar so far this year will help tamp down inflation, it’s posing a challenge for the earnings of India’s exporters. For information technology and drug companies already contending with an American clampdown on working visas and a wave of unfavorable inspections by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it’s another headache.

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