HCL Infosystems Limited, an information enabling company, plans to set up 100 career development centres (CDC) across the country in the next 12 to 15 months. 
 
Addressing the media here, STM Eswar, associate vice-president (technical support and services) of the company, said 20 centres were already operational in seven cities and the company planned to set up similar centres in India as well as overseas. 
 
The company plans to roll out at least 50,000 skilled IT professionals over a period of three years.Of the 100 centres, 20 would be company-owned and the remaining would be on a franchisee basis. A franchisee is expected to invest between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1.5 crore depending upon the city. 
 
The company currently has three CDCs in Tamil Nadu, one each at Chennai, Coimbatore and Trichy. It would open similar centres at Madurai, Salem, Erode, and Tirunelveli besides ramping up its presence in Chennai and Coimbatore. So far, the CDCs, which were introduced in August last year, have produced about 1,500 students. 
 
The CDCs were set up with an objective to produce industry-ready professionals in the IT and ICT fields.