Tech giant Apple has stopped accepting payments via debit and credit cards in India. Apple has stopped accepting cards for subscriptions, and purchases using credit cards issued by banks in India. Apple will also not accept payments for ad campaigns on Apple Search using credit cards issued by Indian banks. All campaigns will be put on hold from June 1.
Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest software exporter, hired 100,000 freshers in the financial year 2021-22, more than in any other year. That means an average of 8,300 trainees joining the company every month. This is not merely a mathematical calculation: hiring of freshers at the top IT companies is no longer a compressed affair confined to the campus season.
It has taken a pandemic to move the needle on the salary packages for greenhorn engineers hired by the Indian IT services sector. The country's third-largest IT services player, HCL Technologies, has decided to boost the entry-level packages from Rs 3-3.6 lakh to Rs 4.25 lakh for FY23, in a bid to attract fresh talent and keep them for longer to counter the impact of rising attrition. This new package would also be applicable to those freshers who joined the firm in FY22.
For Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) - India's largest and the world's second-largest IT services provider - the attrition rate touched an all-time high of 17.4 per cent in Q4FY22. The management, following the announcement of the Q4 results, has warned that the attrition situation could become even worse before any improvement. According to analysts, the short term, the attrition rate at TCS could even touch 20 per cent.
The results of Indian IT services players in the just-concluded fourth quarter of 2021-22 are expected to reveal continuing growth momentum as demand surges on the back of digital transformations and the cloud shift, but analysts anticipate margins to be under pressure due to supply challenges. Analysts covering the sector expect revenue commentary should be strong despite the Russia-Ukraine conflict and inflation. Top-line growth will be driven by broad-based demand with a strong uptick for cloud, digital, cybersecurity, data analytics, and artificial intelligence, among other services.
Shivani Shinde reports. The youngest member of the Tata group, the much-awaited Tata Neu, has finally been launched for people across the country. The 'super app' offers a number of services ranging from financial services to tech, travel and even groceries. The app takes off with a customer base of 120 million, with 2,500 offline stores. According to the Tata group, the app will be a one-stop destination for all consumer needs. The super app also offers a bouquet of financial offers like Unified Payments Interface (UPI), bill payments, loans and insurance. Tata Neu will also provide other services like fashion, gadgets, groceries, travel and health.
As India builds its data centre capabilities, it is imperative that it is supported by green energy. This is because data centres are guzzlers of energy.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) - the largest information technology (IT) services provider in India and the second-largest globally - recently set an ambitious goal of $50 billion in revenue by 2030. The growth required to reach this goal, however, is lower than the company's own standards. In the past decade, TCS revenues, or net sales in US dollar terms, have grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.5 per cent, from $10.2 in 2011-12, to an expected $25.3 billion during 2021-22 (FY22), based on its revenue trend in the first nine months of FY22.
IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has made changes to its leadership roles in North America. As part of the changes Suresh Muthuswami has been elevated to the role of chairman, North America, said sources in the know. This is one of the most significant leadership changes the company has announced for the region. The reason for the changes in the North American region, the largest in terms of revenue for TCS, is because Surya Kant who has been at the helm of North America for the past 16 years is stepping down by the end of the fiscal year, as he retires.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has bagged -- from the Ministry of External Affairs -- the contract for delivering electronic passports (e-passports), according to sources. This deal is in addition to the second phase of implementing the Passport Seva Program, which the company got from the ministry. Players such as Thales India and HP participated in this deal, which is expected to be of Rs 1,000-1,200 crore.
Infosys has emerged as the fastest growing IT services brand following 52 per cent brand value growth since last year and 80 per cent since 2020 to $12.8 billion, earning it third spot, the brand valuation consultancy said in its latest Global 500 IT Services Ranking report. TCS and Infosys have pushed IBM to fourth spot from second. IBM's brand value now stands at $10.6 billion, a decline of 34 per cent from last year and 50 per cent since 2020.
HCL Technologies plans to double its fresher hiring for the upcoming financial year (FY23) as attrition continues to inch up. The company said that it will hire 40,000-45,000 freshers for FY23, up from 20,000-22,000 target for FY22. The company also stated that to ease supply-side constraints and to have access to diversified skills, it was expanding into other geographies over the next three-four quarters. "Some of the geographies that we are investing in to source talent include countries like Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Guatemala, Costa Rica. We are also ramping up our presence in Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
The analyst community tracking the Indian IT services industry took special note of Accenture's first quarter (Q1) performance, which showcased the rapid growth of its consulting business that outperformed its outsourcing business. Bookings indicate that the trend will continue. Consulting bookings increased 41.6 per cent year-on-year (yoy) to $9.4 billion, higher than the 17.6 per cent growth in outsourcing to $7.4 billion. The management commentary was also more bullish on the consulting business.
Byju's, Flipkart, PharmEasy and CRED, among others, have taken the acquisition route to grow
Accenture's Q1 FY22 results have sent a wave of cheer among analysts, as the company raised its revenue guidance and said it expects double-digit growth in outsourcing, up from single digit to low double-digit growth expected earlier. Accenture's financial year ends on August 31. The company raised its revenue outlook for FY22 to 19-22 per cent in local currency, up from 12-15 per cent earlier.
The spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has made Indian companies persist with their policy of banning overseas trips and allowing only essential travel within India. The IT services firms, which had planned to ask their employees to return to the workplace, are also waiting and watching the Covid-19 situation before fully opening up their offices. Large conglomerates like the Tatas, Birla, JSW and Reliance are continuing with the mandatory social distancing and masking policies within their office premises.
'We have focused on profitable revenue, cash generating businesses, throughout our journey.'
Moving over 520,000 employees to a digital work model is no mean feat. Having done so, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is taking these learnings to help clients digitise their work models. Swiss Re is one such client. For the global information technology services firm with a headcount of 528,748 as of end-September, the shift to a single human resource (HR) platform started a few months before the pandemic started, when TCS moved its HR solutions to Microsoft's platform. Siva Ganesan, global head, Microsoft business unit, TCS, still remembers the early days when TCS embarked upon a move from an existing software platform to a digital medium for communications on a Microsoft Office platform.
'We do realise it is time to have a larger ambition.'
In March this year, when Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) unveiled a new brand statement of "Building on Belief", many wondered if it was the right strategy. When things are uncertain, wouldn't a brand statement such as "Experience Certainty" have been better? But for Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO & MD, TCS, it was all about the way the company was looking at business. As Gopinathan explained over a video call, "Today, we have over 1,000 customers and 98 per cent of our business is repeat business; our relevance to customers should continue, and to increase.