2013's Major Turning Points In Indian IT

By siliconindia | Monday, 06 January 2014, 12:56 Hrs

Business matters

The global economic meltdown following the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy worked to India’s advantage. This pushed Indian IT companies to increases their efforts to grow beyond the U.S. and Britain and was further helped by the uncertainty that gripped Europe even as U.S. started to recover from its financial crisis. Companies in Europe started offshoring by handing out contracts to TCS, Cognizant and HCL Technologies. This even turned out to be more economical for Infosys and it is expected that even some of the smaller Indian companies are likely to step up their efforts to go after European business.

Visa issue

The year 2013 also saw one of the largest counter measures launched against outsourcing at a time of economic instability. New visa proposals that could adversely affect the onsite-offshore model of Indian companies were passed by the U.S. Senate. The Indian companies are now in talks with U.S. lawmakers and hoping that the final set of rules after the U.S. House of Representatives debates its own version will be a little more liberal. Irrespective of the final verdict, Indians are feeling the need for being more local.

CEO Returns and Exits

Infosys’ Chairman Emeritus, Narayana Murthy is now the Executive Chairman of the board and will stay so for the next five years, a period during which he intends to restore the IT firm back to its former glory. But the iconic founder’s return seems to have opened the floodgates; the firm has since witnessed as much as eight high-profile exits including that of V Balakrishnan, one of two other CEO candidates. Despite all the exits Infosys’ stocks are up by 50 percent since June.