Wipro tops R&D chart with $800 m revenue

Wipro Technologies leads the Indian IT research & development (R&D) services revenue chart with a revenue of $800 million, a management survey said on Wednesday.

TCS, with revenues of around $700 million, closely follows Wipro, with HCL next in line with $523 million. Infosys, according to the survey, is way down with revenues of under $100 million from R&D services.

Zinnov Management Consulting, which carried out the survey, said mid-market companies such as Aricent, MindTree, Symphony Services, Global Logic and Sonata Software, which generate over $150 million from R&D services, will soon rise to the forefront. The total R&D services market in India is worth $3.5 billion.

Wipro Technologies joint CEO Girish Paranjpe told Financial Chronicle that R&D is in the company’s DNA. “We were the early birds in offering R&D services outsourcing. As a company, we pride ourselves in being the best in this space,” he said.

Paranjpe said the R&D wave started with hi-technology, moving on to telecom, and now it is flowing into aerospace and healthcare. “I am hoping that Wipro will be able to raise over $1 billion from the R&D space in a couple of years,” he added.

Karthik Ananth, engagement manager, Zinnov said, “Even though the growth of R&D service providers in India has been relatively flat over the past year, many of them have seen an improvement in their operation margins because of conscious efforts to optimise the cost of operations. Margins have improved by 6-8 per cent.”

He said a company such as Infosys has traditionally lagged in the R&D services space. “That’s not surprising. They have not been focusing on it,” said Ananth.

The survey said the impact of recession on R&D service providers has been felt across four key levers —contract re-negotiation, increase in sales cycle, bankruptcy of clients and fears of business continuity risk.