Mumbai, October 23, 2007: Patni Computer Systems (BSE: PATNI COMPUT, NSE: PATNI, NYSE: PTI) has forged a strategic alliance with Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani for a two-year masters level degree in Embedded Systems for Patni employees, beginning September 2007. This will give Patni employees a platform to further their educational aspirations while continuing with their professional pursuits.
Patni signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BITS Pilani through the ‘BITS Off-Campus Distance Learning & Collaborative Programmes’ scheme to hone the skills of Patni employees for the growing Product Engineering Services (PES) division of the company.
Revenues of Indian IT companies from engineering services are growing exponentially with NASSCOM estimating engineering services offshoring to be a US$ 55 billion opportunity by 2020.
Commenting on the alliance, Mr. Ajay Chamania, Senior Vice President and Head – PES said, “Patni is a learning organisation, and we strongly believe in giving our employees an opportunity to enhance their abilities from both an academic and practical perspective. Advance courses in Real-time Systems, Digital Signal Processing, Embedded Systems Design, Data Storage Technologies, and Wireless/Mobile communication offered through this collaboration, will enable our engineering team to meet the challenges of globalization of innovation and hi-tech engineering activities. Patni has already seen excellent results from our collaborations with BITS for the masters in Software Engineering, and are confident that this association will benefit us immensely.”
Prof. Natarajan, BITS Pilani remarked, “BITS Pilani is one of the select universities offering a masters level program in Embedded Systems. Over the last three decades, we have built some strong industry-academia collaborations and are glad to extend our relations with Patni. The company has been instrumental in creating milestones in educational endeavours, and is the first company that we have tied-up with for Hi-tech Industries – Medical Devices, Telecom, Consumer Electronics, Storage, and Automotive.”
The program has been customised to Patni’s needs, but would contain the same rigor and standards associated with the on-campus and corresponding degree offerings by BITS. Under the agreement, the employees would be deemed as BITS, Pilani students and trained by a combined faculty from Patni and BITS. The program would be available to all Patni employees, and the company would further aid the students with financial support, course material and infrastructure. Virtual classrooms would be organised over the weekends for the participating students.
Patni also offers its employees an off-campus masters program in Software Engineering from BITS Pilani, with over 170 employees currently enrolled in the program.
About Patni Computer Systems
Patni Computer Systems Limited (BSE: PATNI COMPUT, NSE: PATNI, NYSE: PTI) is a global provider of IT Services and business solutions, servicing Global 2000 clients. Patni caters to its clients through its industry-focused practices, including insurance, financial services, manufacturing, life sciences, telecommunications and media & entertainment, and its technology-focused practices.
With an employee strength of over 14,000; multiple global delivery centres spread across 12 cities worldwide; 21 international offices across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific; Patni has registered revenues of US$ 579 million for the year 2006.
Patni’s service offerings include application development and maintenance, enterprise application solutions, business and technology consulting, product engineering services, infrastructure management services, business process outsourcing, quality assurance and engineering services.
Committed to quality, Patni adds value to its client's businesses through well-established and structured methodologies, tools and techniques. Patni is an ISO 9001: 2000 certified and SEI-CMMI Level 5 organization, assessed enterprise wide at P-CMM Level 3. In keeping with its focus on continuous process improvements, Patni adopts Six Sigma practices as an integral part of its quality and process frameworks.
For more information on Patni, visit www.patni.com
Safe Harbor:
Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Patni has made strategic investments, withdrawal of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company.
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