Indian firms ask staff in Japan to send families

Wednesday, 16 March 2011, 07:05 IST
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Indian firms ask staff in Japan to send families
Bangalore/Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi: Some Indian companies with operations in Japan are taking precautionary steps, asking their Indian staff there to relocate their families and offering them the option to return themselves if the situation warrants. Global software major Infosys Technologies advised its Indian employees to send their families back to India. It has also given its staff there the choice to return if the situation warrants it, a top company official said Tuesday. Another top software major, Tata Consultancy Services also said Tuesday it was ready to relocate its Indian staff and their families in Japan back to India and was looking at how best to serve their clients there. Wipro, another software major, also said it was taking similar measures. Wipro, however, said though it was also monitoring the developing situation in Japan and has set up a hotline for updates, it has not yet sent any advisory on their movement. The three companies have an estimated 700 Indians working in Japan. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the Rajya Sabha Monday that there were an estimated 25,000 Indians living in Japan, and most them were living in areas that have not been impacted that adversely by the natural disaster that struck the island country Friday. "About 70 Indians are in the shelters established by Japanese authorities in the tsunami affected areas. We are monitoring their welfare. So far, we do not have any reports of casualties." The Indian embassy in Tokyo said it has set up a control room that can be reached at 00813 32622391 to 97. The idea of relocation came after a fire broke out at another reactor in Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant Tuesday, hours after a third blast since Friday. The government said the radiation from the damaged reactors was high enough to harm human health. "We have about 350 Indian professionals at our proximity development centre in Tokyo," Infosys chief executive S. Gopalakrishnan told IANS in Bangalore. "We have advised them to first send back their families and gave them a choice to return or stay depending on the situation," Gopalakrishnan said. "We are constantly in touch with employees for regular feedback. We are informed things are coming back to normal in Tokyo, but the situation there is changing by the hour due to the fallout of the explosions in the nuclear reactor," he added. "The safety of employees is our top priority," said a TCS spokesperson. "We are in close touch with our team round the clock. We have set up a communications system to provide all employees in Japan with frequent updates and stay in touch with them." The company said it was also ready to relocate its Indian staff and their families back to India as also move the local Japanese employees and their families to other locations of safety. "We are also engaged with customers to see how they can be supported." Wipro head for Asia-Pacific region Rajat Mathur said: "We are constantly monitoring the situation and keeping in touch with all our 350 employees, including about 100 Indian assignees. Though families of about 60 of our Indian employees are also residing in Tokyo, we have not given any advisory so far, as the situation is returning back to normalcy." Noting that operations of its Japanese clients were affected in the aftermath of the quake and the devastating tsunami, Mathur said as a result, its own development centre was functioning sub-optimally. "We have set up a hotline with our Tokyo and Yokohama centres to monitor the developing situation. We are also assisting our clients in Japan to restore their operations," Mathur added. IBS Software Services, a premier IT firm with its headquarters at Technopark campus in Thiruvananthapuram, has also asked its employees to return if they feel so and 15 of them will be leaving Tokyo in the coming days, the company said. "We have 20 of our engineers working in our Tokyo company and they were asked to decide. Of these, five decided to stay back because they feel that there is no problem there," Mathew Joshua, head of Corporate Communications at IBS, told IANS. "Some families are departing later today and others are returning tomorrow and the day after. We have sent them the tickets. Those remaining have been informed the moment they want to come back, they are free to do so."
Source: IANS
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