Hinduja TMT is planning to set up a call centre each in Hyderabad and Chennai with an investment of around $7-8 million. The company also intends to recruit over 1,000 people for these centres.

"An increase in service demand from customers and an expected addition in clientele have resulted in a necessity to increase our operational presence across the country," said K Thiagarajan, managing director and chief executive officer.

The company would recruit 1,000 personnel. "We will start by recruiting around 500 people and scale it up to 1,000 in due course of time," he said.

At present, HTMT has over 4,500 employees across India, Canada, US and the Philipines, of which 2,700 are in India. The company has a centre each at Mumbai and Bangalore.

Meanwhile, the company is also scouting for acquisitions both locally and overseas. Even though, it had not shortlisted any companies for a "probable takeover", the company intends to use the proceeds from the sales of its 3.45 per cent held in Hutch.

"Funding is not a problem as we have around $40 million in cash reserves and would mobilise another $15-20 million, if the acquisition is worth it," he said.

The company would also raise the additional amount required, either through equity or debt, if needed, he said.

One of the leading call centres, HTMT provides backoffice services for healthcare, insurance, consumer electronics, banking, financial services and insurance, utilities and energy.