TCS may bring employees back to office by year-end: CEO Rajesh Gopinathan

Companies are planning to roll back the work from home policy due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. Mumbai-based multinational firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will ask its workforce to come back to office by 2021-end with majority of them likely to be get both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. The multinational IT firm expects 70-80 per cent of people to return to office based on how the third wave pans out.

“We expect that sometime towards the end of the calendar year or early next year, and depending on how this third wave turns out, we will get back to 70-80 per cent (of the people) in the office,” TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan told the Economic Times.

If TCS’ planned return to office goes as planned, it could set a trend in the IT industry. During the COVID-19 pandemic, TCS shifted its workforce to remote work in a matter of weeks last year.

Gopinathan added that TCS has no plans to utilise its market cap of around $195 billion for acquisitions. Market capitalisation of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) went up by RS 44,832.5 crore to Rs 14, 20,935.10 crore. As of September 5, TCS is the most-valued firm after Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries.

TCS has nearly 15 per cent share in India’s $150 billion software exports and employs approximately one-tenth of India’s 4.6 million IT workforce. “We’re just too conservative for today’s market. So our market cap might be high. But still, when it comes to paying out cash, we’re conservative. We like to play like Dravid,” Gopianthan further told the publication.

Edited by Mehak Agarwal

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