Indian outsourcer turns to China

One of India's leading home-grown IT outsourcing companies is to expand its operations in China.

Wipro, one of the top three Indian offshoring firms, said it is looking at locating the centre in the Chinese capital Beijing.

Sudip Nandy, chief strategy officer of Wipro, said: "We plan to have a software development centre in China in Beijing within the next five to six months."

The operation will be based at the Zhongguancun Software Park in Beijing, dubbed China's answer to Silicon Valley.

China has been tipped as a future competitor to India in the offshore IT services market but expansion and acquisition in China is seen by the Indian IT firms as a way of countering that threat.

Wipro's rivals Infosys, Satyam and TCS have also already opened software facilities in China

A recent report by consulting firm McKinsey showed that while revenue from information technology services is rising in China, it is still barely half of India's $12.7bn a year.