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Such work is important — Infosys, like its Indian rivals, is keen to move up the value chain to higher-end consulting, and get more business here. Then it can really take on western rivals such as IBM and Accenture.

All of which explains why Infosys and HCL, India’s fifth-largest tech-support group, are scrapping for the firm, prepared to pay more than twice Axon’s annual revenues of £204m to get it.

Infosys has made only one overseas acquisition before — in Australia five years ago — and prefers growing organically. Its main experience of employing Europeans is an outsourcing deal with Philips that saw it take on 700 employees in Poland.

But tougher times need a shift in strategy. Infosys is not just heavily dependent on America, but also on the banking, insurance and financial-services sector — it provides over a third of its revenues. That must be taking a hit.

Was Lehman Brothers a client? Gopalakrishnan shakes his head.

“That’s confidential. All I can say is that if there is a slowdown and your clients reduce their spending, it has an impact. Last year Infosys grew at 35%. This year we are giving guidance of 19%-21%.”

Such figures still look good, given the trouble in the West. It has even been suggested that Indian firms could now buy up ailing banks’ back-office functions.

Gopalakrishnan smiles and dodges the question. “If you’re asking me if we are going to buy a bank, no.” But, he adds, we will see more functions sold off by big business. “As industries mature, you have to bring in efficiencies.”

As for the prediction of layoffs in Indian firms as western clients drop away, he is bullish.

“These companies are not going to stop spending money on technology, they still have to run data centres, maintain applications, make changes, go after new business opportunities. And if you think about where they will invest for the future and growth, it will be in Asia and emerging markets ... You lose some, but you win some too, as new companies come up and offer new opportunities.”

Gopalakrishnan has a lot riding on his handling of this shift in world power. Modest and softly spoken, he is less charismatic than his predecessor at Infosys, Nandan Nilekani, but still broadly experienced. He spent part of the 1990s in America, working with Infosys clients. Colleagues says his character fits Infosys’s consensual management style.

“Kris is a techie, but he’s approachable and people find it easy to talk to him,” says Infosys vice-president BG Srinivas. “He also connects very well with customers.”