"There is no possibility of a hike in the billing rates in the current market situation", he added. The current billing rate of the company hovers around $50,000 per man year.

Mr Mohapatra also ruled out the possibility of his company getting affected the by current slow down. "If the slowdown persists beyond April 2002 it may have impact on our operations. But at present I don't see any possibility of that", he added. On the contrary Mr Mohapatra hinted at the possibility of HSS bagging new business following the US companies implementing stringent cost-cutting measures. "With the cost cut most of the companies may increase outsourcing and this would open a window of opportunity for us", he added.

The company also plans to go ahead with adding 550 more software engineers to its present strength of 1400 in the current year. The company plans to have 2700 software engineers by 2,700 by March 2003.

Mr Mohapatra also said that there was no much change in the attrition level in the company following the slow down. "The average used to be around 20 to 25 per cent and we are not expecting any changes", he said adding that manpower utilization stands at 90 per cent in the company. Hughes expects also hopes realise nearly 70 per cent of its software services revenue from large clients in the next two years. At present large clients accounts for 40 per cent its software service. The company expects that software services would account for 34 per cent of its revenues in 2000-01.