H-1B Visa Worries Have Changed Nothing For TCS On Ground
Chandrasekaran chairs his first AGM since taking over as Tata Sons chairman.
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. remains one of the top recruiters of workers outside India and visa restrictions in the U.S. has had no impact on India’s largest software services provider, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran said.
"On the ground, nothing has changed” and the information technology major continues to operate "successfully" globally, including its largest market the U.S., Chandrasekaran said at the annual general meeting of TCS, his first at a group company after taking over the top job.
The company added 79,000 employees in the year ended March and its female workforce grew to 34 percent of total employees. Retention was also not a concern, with TCS boasting of one of the lowest attrition rates in the industry at 11.7 percent, he said.
In keeping with his campaign promise, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a review of the H-1B visa program, which is used by a majority of Indian IT companies to send workers to the U.S. Trump wants them to hire more Americans, usually at higher salaries. TCS cut its H-1B visa applications by a third this year compared to 2015, Ajoy Mukherjee, its executive vice president-human resources, had said earlier this month.
Focus On Digital
Chandrasekaran, the CEO of TCS till being elevated as Tata Sons chairman in February, said the global business environment is increasingly adopting digital technology, forcing all companies to walk down that road.
Whether its mainframe to client-server systems, to enterprise resource planning systems, to internet systems, in any of these transitions, TCS managed to stay ahead of the curve.N Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Sons
The IT major’s revenue from digital technology services rose 28 percent annually to $3 billion in the year ended March.
The company has re-trained more than half of its employees in newer technologies on expectation that future business will be driven by a double-digit growth in digital services.
“We strive to be the digital re-imagination partner for the world, with acute focus on giving back to shareholders and skilling and retaining employees”, said chief executive officer Rajesh Gopinathan, who too was attending his first AGM as the head of TCS.
