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IBM to expand academic ties in AP
By siliconindia
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Friday, 18 July 2008, 01:39 IST
Hyderabad: Information Technology major IBM India is charged to encourage more women technical talents. As a part of this move, the company is in collaboration with the educational institutes in Andhra Pradesh.
"We are looking for greater collaboration in research projects and in the form of taking internees from the academic institutions in the State. This could be at multiple levels in various areas of interest for IBM such as information management projects and 'Green IT'," said Kalpana Margabandhu, Director, IBM India.
Currently IBM that has collaborations with reputed universities such as University of Hyderabad, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in the State, the women workforce comprise about 26 percent of 52,000 employees of IBM India.
On the objective behind the move to encourage IT talent in women, Margabandhu said, "Globally, however we
have 29 percent of women workforce. So, there is lot of scope for increasing number of women in our headcount. This is a business imperative for us. Diversity of employees is a key thing for us and we need to have a representation of women in our employees. This helps us understanding our customers in a better way."
This, however, did not mean any preference to women in hiring as quality and merit is the only criterion for hiring, she added.
