TCS may call 70-80% of its over 500,000 workforce back to office by the end of the calendar year 2021 or early next year based on how impending third wave of pandemic plays out, said CEO Rajesh Gopinathan
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- TCS CEO hopes to call workers back by 2021-end or early 2022 based on impending third wave of Covid-19
- TCS contributes nearly 15% to India’s $150-billion software export market. It employs over 500,000
- CEO Gopinathan said TCS not looking to leverage its market cap for acquisitions
Bengaluru: As Covid-19 threat ebbs with increased vaccinations and a low daily count of fresh cases, companies are on their way to end work-from-home norms after nearly two years of disruption due to the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns.
India’s top IT services company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will ask its over half a million employees to return to office by the end of 2021, according to a report in Economic Times.
TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan told the newspaper that the company plans to call 70-80% of its workforce to work from office by end of the current calendar year or early next year based on how the impending third wave of the pandemic turns out.
If TCS’ return-to-office call goes as per plan it might set the trend for IT industry which quickly adopted the work from home culture in a matter of weeks as the pandemic took hold leading to localised and nationwide lockdowns.
Speaking on acquisition plans, India’s second-largest company by market capitalisation of nearly $195 billion has no plan to leverage the same in order to make large acquisitions as it is wary of current valuations. Instead, it plans to acquire companies that gives it more “capability access”, the report added.
Gopinathan said his company is cash conservative with respect to current market conditions despite high market cap.
On Infosys outperforming TCS in growth terms, the TCS CEO said it does not worry him, adding, competition helps the company keep itself agile.
TCS contributes nearly 15% to the country’s $150 billion software exports and employs 10% of the country’s 4.6 million IT workers.
Owing to a rally in TCS share prices in the current market bull run led to its market capitalization hitting the Rs 13 lakh crore mark for the first time in August 2021. It became the second listed company in India after Reliance Industries and the first information technology (IT) company to cross the milestone.
