Wipro

From its humble beginnings as a vegetable oil distributor and later PC maker, to the current day high-profile IT services contender, Wipro has come a long way.

Today, the IT services company has presence in 35 countries and established 10 nearshore development centers. Wipro employs 10,000 staff, of which 2,000 have specific domain expertise and more than 500 are technology consultants specializing in e-business and package applications.

At the helm of the company for the last 37 years is Azim Premji, Wipro's chairman and managing director. Premji, one of India's richest businessmen, maintains vigilant of the developments in the IT services industry. One of his biggest concerns is the rise of China as a formidable player in the IT services space.

Outside of Asia, Wipro has been making headway in Europe, where its operations have seen more than 50 percent year-on-year growth. It opened its third development center in Germany in March this year.

Eastern Europe also holds promise for Wipro, ranked among the likes of fellow Indian IT services players Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys. In August, Premji announced that Wipro was in the process of setting up two development and service centers, likely to be located in Bulgaria, Romania or Hungary