Infosys, in its 33 years of existence, has for the first time recorded negative growth in employee hiring this fiscal, said a senior official of the Telangana Government on Monday, citing the IT giant's co-founder N R Narayana Murthy.

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Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary of IT Department, quoting Murthy, said the Bengaluru-based IT bellwether had recruited about 6,000 people so far in the current fiscal as against 20,000 to 25,000 every year.

"Mr Narayana Murthy told me (recently) that in the 33 years history of Infosys, it is for the first time that they have got a negative growth of employment. Typically, they recruit about 20,000 to 25,000 people every year. This year for the first time they have recruited just 6,000 people. So recruitment of software engineers and software professionals at Infosys has dropped by 75%. And 7,000 people quit the company for various reasons during the year. So they are minus by 1,000," Ranjan said in his address at `Indiasoft-2017' conference.

He was talking about the impact of automation and digital innovations such as artificial intelligence on the IT industry.

Murthy was in the city last week to address BioAsia conference.

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Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka, during the announcement of third quarter (Q3) results, said the company had added 5,700 people during the first nine months of FY17 as against 17,000 during the same period last year.

"So I have said before, we should expect that we will continue to increase in our size but the rate at which the size increases will slowdown," Sikka had said.

Infosys officials were not available for comments.

According to a company statement released at the time of Q3 results, Infosys had employee strength of 1,99,763 as on December 31 as against 1,99,829 as on September 30 and 1,97,050 as on June 30 of the current fiscal.

Meanwhile, the 17th Edition of Indiasoft 2017, the flagship IT event of Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC), kicked off in Bengaluru at HICC.

Addressing the gathering after the inauguration, S Chowdary, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, underscored the need for greater interface among scientific community, academia and industry to take innovation ecosystem in the country to a higher pedestal.

As many as 800 delegates, including 400 from 75 countries, and 250 Indian exhibitors - 50 of them startups, and some of the top incubators in the country like IIT-Mumbai and T-Hub attended the conclave.

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