Bengaluru, Jan 13 (IANS): IT major Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka on Friday said the company is looking at increased local hiring in the long term and will aim for a blend of global talent.

"In the long term and deeper shift, we are working towards much more local hiring, much more local talent," Sikka told BTVi in an interview.

"I believe, anywhere, regardless of policy, a rich mix between local talent and global best is a good idea. So we're focussed on that," Sikka said.

"In terms of policy changes, we expect that as the changes are put into place, we will address them as we understand them better."

Sikka said both the US and Europe have significant opportunities for the company's long term target of shifting towards a digital world.

"The deeper change that is happening in the world around us is the technological change, the disruption because of software and because of AI (artificial intelligence).

"And I think that over the long run, it is a huge opportunity for us and that's what we should be focussed on," Sikka said.

He further mentioned that the company was making huge progress on both automation and innovation front.

"In this last quarter, we saved 2,650 full time equivalent jobs. Despite downward pressure in pricing, our revenue per employee has gone up," Sikka said.

"So we had 1.1 per cent decline in pricing in Q-o-Q and 1.7 per cent decline over the year. This is because of automation," he added.

"Our innovation focuses to bring zero distance in a very deep and wide way across the organisation as well as to build new services which are next generation platforms. We had the best quarter ever in these platforms."

Infosys on Friday reported a net profit of Rs 3,708 crore for the third quarter (October-December) of fiscal 2016-17, registering 7 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth.

In a regulatory filing to the BSE, the IT firm said revenue for the quarter under review (Q3) rose 8.6 per cent YoY to Rs 17,273 crore, as per the Indian accounting standard.

Under the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS), net income grew 4.4 per cent YoY to $547 million and gross revenue 6 per cent YoY to $2,551 million for Q3.