Wipro Infotech bags Rs. 11.8 billion software outsourcing deal

BANGALORE - Wipro Infotech has bagged a Rs.11.82-billion (Rs.1,182-crore) IT outsourcing contract from the state-run Employees State Insurance Corp (ESIC), the company said Friday.

In bagging the deal, Wipro outbid India’s other two IT bellwethers Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys Technologies in a global tender floated in November 2008 for ESIC’s ‘Project Panchdeep’.

The over six-year contract involves implementing an ambitious project to improve healthcare services to its beneficiaries by providing online facilities to employers and insured people for registration, payment of premium and disbursement of cash benefits.

ESIC, a statutory corporation under the ministry of labour and employment, is the implementing agency for the social security scheme in the country.

Other modules will provide human resources, finance and general administration programmes for increasing the corporation’s efficiency.

The project was mandated by the ESI Act 1948, with a focus on creating a medicare backbone for the marginalised sections of society.

‘It is an honour to be awarded one of the prestigious e-governance projects in the country. As a strategic relationship for us, we are committed to making it a showcase in the e-governance domain,’ Wipro Infotech vice-president Anand Sankaran said.

‘The ministry has been supportive and keen on ensuring a quick roll-out of the project as it directly benefits the citizens,’ he added.

The five parts of the project are termed as Pehchan, Milap, Pashan, Dhanwantri and Pragati.

The project includes identification of 10 million subscribers and their family members covered under ESIC and connecting all its locations - the head office, 51 regional, sub-regional and divisional offices, 620 branches, 144 hospitals, 1,388 dispensaries and state directorates.

It is heartening to see Indian outsourcing majors doing well inspite of Obama’s policies and the worldwide recession.