IT giant TCS may ask its employees to return to office by year-end: CEO Rajesh Gopinathan

Among the many things that has changed in the last two years after how Covid-19 struck us globally, it was the once then alien concept of work from home that gradually become a norm for many of us given that the pandemic is far from over. But now that the spread of Covid has subsided considerably, top-tier IT firms are preparing to bring back their workforce to offices.

As per latest reports, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's top IT services company will ask its over half a million employees to return to office by the end of 2021.

Like others, when the pandemic hit India last year, TCS also sent thousands of its employees back, to work from home. Now, almost after a year of remote work, TCS which employs more than 5 lakh people is reportedly planning to end work from home and return to the office.

Same is confirmed by TCS CEO, Rajesh Gopinathan, when he said 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, while talking with a newspaper.

"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.

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.