Bangalore, April 15 (IANS) Robust growth and increasing demand for outsourcing are propelling Infosys Technologies Ltd to hire an estimated 32,000 people during fiscal 2011-12, a senior official of the IT bellwether said Friday.

 
 "Keeping in view our growth projections and strategy to substantially invest in the future, we plan to hire over 32,000 engineers and skilled employees, including 14,000 laterals," Infosys' outgoing HRD head T.V. Mohandas Pai told reporters here.
 
 Recovering from the economic meltdown and growing in double digits through the quarters, the global software major hired a whopping 43,120 people during fiscal 2010-11 as against the earlier estimates of 25,000, including over 20,000 freshers from campuses, and 27,630 in fiscal 2009-10.
 
 "Though we have made 26,000 campus offers for this fiscal, we expect about 75-80 percent of them to join us. Our back-office division (business process outsourcing) will be hiring about 10,000 and attempting to retain as many to reduce attrition, which is on higher side due to surging demand for human capital in the resilient industry," Pai asserted.
 
 The company also plans to hire about 1,000 consultants for specific projects in non-linear verticals during this fiscal and ramp it up with another 1,000 in fiscal 2012-13 if the innovative model works out mutually.
 
 "Our hiring of freshers and laterals will be in the ratio of 60:40. Based on our business growth through client acquisition and expansion in emerging markets, we may have to hire a few thousands more during the latter quarters as in the last fiscal," Pai hinted.
 
 With a net addition of 3,041 employees in the fourth quarter (Jan-March), the company's total headcount has gone up to 130,820 for fiscal 2010-11 from 113,796 in 2009-10, an increase of 15 percent year-on-year.
 
 On annualised basis, attrition increased to 17 percent or 26,096 in fourth quarter and during FY 2011 from 13.4 percent or 18,693 in FY 2010 though marginally (0.5 percent) lower sequentially from third quarter (Oct-Dec).
 
 Lateral addition, including several former employees of the company shot up three fold to 15,883 in FY 2011 from 4,895 in FY 2010.
 
 "Our net addition doubled to 17,024 during FY 2011 from 8,946 in FY 2010," Pai added.