India's TCS reports 48.2% surge in Q4 profit

India's biggest outsourcing firm Tata Consultancy Services Wednesday reported a 48.2 percent surge in quarterly net profit from a year ago, led by new European and emerging market contracts. The Mumbai-based company, known as TCS, also declared it was "upbeat" about its prospects for the coming year. TCS said net profit for the fourth financial quarter ended March 31 climbed to 53.57 billion rupees ($888 million) from 36.15 billion rupees a year earlier. "We have delivered strong growth and strengthened our competitive positioning in the market," TCS chief executive N. Chandrasekaran said in a statement. "We are upbeat that the next 12 months will bring many more opportunities for growth across multiple industries and markets," Chandrasekaran added. Reflecting the bullishness, TCS global human resources executive vice president Ajoy Mukherjee said: "With business demand continuing, we have made almost 25,000 fresh offers on engineering campuses for trainees." TCS already employs some 300,464 workers from 118 nations. India has become a back office to the world as companies, especially in developed nations, have subcontracted work to firms such as TCS, taking advantage of the country's skilled English-speaking workforce. The flagship industry has made India a top business destination by offering software development and information technology, engineering and design and other services. On Tuesday, Infosys, India's second-largest software services exporter after TCS, reported fourth-quarter net profit jumped 25 percent to 29.9 billion rupees from a year earlier. It forecast a seven-to-nine percent rise in revenues in the 2014-15 financial year but cautioned it was still encountering market headwinds as customers pulled back on technology budgets.