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US call center firm's joint venture to employ 1,500 Indian graduates
BANGALORE, India (AFP) Sep 10, 2003
India's ITC Infotech, a fully-owned subsidiary of ITC, said Wednesday its call centre business with US-based ClientLogic will employ 1,500 English-speaking graduates within a year.

The equal joint venture, CL-I3L, was set up three months ago and currently employs 650 graduates, Y.C. Deveshwar, chairman of ITC Ltd. told reporters here.

The business handles offshore customer care in India for several of ClientLogic's Fortune 500 clients. ClientLogic has 33 call centres globally.

"The venture will break even this year as we expect it to contribute 1.5 billion rupees in turnover," Deveshwar said.

ITC Ltd., the parent firm with interests ranging from cigarettes to apparel, clocked a turnover of 120 billion rupees (2.6 billion dollars) last year.

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