Employment situation will improve; there's plenty of opportunity: N. Chandrasekaran

N. Chandrasekaran, CEO and managing director, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, spoke to NDTV's Namrata Brar on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Here's the transcript of the interview:

Namrata: We are sitting here with Mr. N. Chandrasekaran, CEO and managing director of TCS... It's sunny bright here, Mr. Chandrasekaran, and things are even looking bright for Indian IT.

Chandrasekaran: Definitely, the current environment technology is playing a very important role. I got an opportunity to meet a lot of people here... Obviously, it's the first day but so far have met quite a lot of people. Technology has an important role to play in the agenda they have...so it does look better.

Namrata: This is very important in 2012. There is this entire conversation about the US turning protectionist... Things not looking good for Indian company particularly when it comes to outsourcing... Is that thing seen changed?

Chandrasekaran: I think there are two angles to it... First is demand, second one is how to execute it. The demand point of view: definitely it's going to be better in 2013 than 2012. There are a lot of things that are driving the efficiency... Teams are on driving digitization...whether it is mobility or cloud...the whole articulation is around the customer experience, consumer experience. That's getting a lot of traction. Then in terms of execution, definitely getting people on board and executing is important... And the whole visa situation, etc...it does continue to have issues but we are able to execute.

Namrata: In a certain way TCS was a big star in 2012 because you did well despite competitors Infosys and Wipro struggling. Now you have a different landscape, the likes of Infosys are coming back. They are playing the same game that you have been playing.

Chandrasekaran: I think that's not the way to look at it. I think the market is large...we have strategy...we are executing well on strategy...so far and we are only accelerating...we are making more investment and we continue to see a lot of traction in the current customers that we have and also in the markets that we operate... also we are going to the market with a lot of solution... Around consumer experience around digitalization...around driving efficiency...I think there is plenty of opportunity.

Namrata: Okay I just want to come back to US. The fact that Barack Obama is reelected there is always a sticking point to Indian IT in terms of outsourcing and the attitude towards it...What do you think is next in the IT jobs field?

Chandrasekaran: I think there are some data points that we need to watch for. As long as the unemployment situation doesn't improve there always will be issue around visas...but I think that the employment situation will get better as we move along. Also really there is a dearth of IT skills especially in the new areas so I don't think it is a big problem in terms of our sector.

Namrata: What about the competition from the likes of Accenture and the global giants and the fact that these companies say that we want local operations versus outsourced operations?

Chandrasekaran: See there are many good companies and they all are important with clients...and as far as TCS is concerned we are a global company... We operate in every part of the world and we got local centres. At the end of the day how you stay relevant to the customer in their agenda.

Namrata: Alright, good luck with that and good luck with the meetings. We know you have got several lined up, including some of the big global banks here... Thank you...

Chandrasekaran: Thank you, Namrata.