Indian IT services company, HCL Technologies Ltd is expanding its presence in Australia with the opening of a new office in Canberra.

The company is hoping to ramp up its "transformational services" in the government sector with its outsourcing services, remote infrastructure management and BPO offering. HCL Asia Pacific president, Somnath Mallick, said the government sector is an expanding and important part of its business in this region.

"We have been experiencing over 80 percent growth year on year in ANZ," he said. "Based on our experience in other markets in the Asia Pacific, we expect the growth from the government sector to contribute to our overall market position." The Canberra office will augment 600 plus staff from its wholly owned subsidiaries in Australia and New Zealand.

The company also has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Auckland and Wellington. As part of the expansion HCL is recruiting a number of graduates and post-graduates which will receive training at the company's headquarters in India and work in-house with HCL's customers in the finance, business and government sectors locally. HCL leverages a global network of offices in 16 countries with over 40,000 staff.

Only last month another Indian outsourcing giant Satyam Computer Services increased local operations by opening a 150-seat development centre in North Sydney.

With some 40,000 staff in 55 countries, Satyam executives claim its local offices now comprise the second largest development centre outside India with about 450 people in Melbourne and 250 now in Sydney.

Indian outsourcing providers have enjoyed healthy growth in Australia and globally.

For example, Infosys Technologies, India's second largest software and services outsourcer, announced last week its revenue is expected to grow by 28 to 30 percent to about $US4 billion in its current fiscal year ending March 31 next year.

The company also reported revenue of $US3.1 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31 this year, a 44 percent increase over revenue in the previous year.

The company's profit for the year was $US850 million, up by 53 percent from the previous year.

Rivals Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have also reported strong results.

Tata began the year by claiming it is the first Indian IT company to net $1 billion in revenues in one financial quarter (Q3 ending December 31, 2006) and post a 40 percent revenue increase year on year.

India's National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) in Delhi released estimates showing that India's software and services exports are likely to have grown by 32.6 percent to over $US31 billion in the Indian fiscal year to March 31, 2007.