Digital Transformation Will Help Infosys Tide Over Covid-19 Crisis: Nandan Nilekani

Nandan Nilekani said significant investments made by Infosys Ltd. and its digital transformation in the past two years will help it address the “extraordinary and unprecedented” challenges due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

“We have already pivoted our resources to the new needs of our clients and strengthened our expertise in cloud, workplace transformation and smart automation to be able to help them accelerate and scale their digital endeavors,” the chairman at the software services exporter said while addressing shareholders virtually during the company’s 39th annual general meeting.

“Combining the scale, brand, and relationships of a large company with the speed, responsiveness and agility of a startup, we are confident of tiding through this global crisis,” he said. “Our robust balance sheet, steady growth momentum, digital systems, and executive team, unified in their focus on strategy execution, are advantages that are clearly working for us.”

Infosys, according to Nilekani, reported revenue worth $12.8 billion in 2019-20, a growth of 9.8% in constant currency terms. The company declared an annual dividend of Rs 9.5 apiece, which along with an earlier interim dividend resulted in a total payout of Rs 8,120 crore in the last financial year.

This comes even as the information technology company temporarily suspended revenue and margin guidance amid the uncertainties arising from the Covid-19 crisis. The novel virus outbreak upended economies across the world and stalled trade. India’s software services firms faced disruptions as they generate most of their business overseas. Their costs also rose as more employees started working from home.

Around of 93% of Infosys’ 240,000 workforce across 46 countries has been able to work from home, Nilekani said in his speech. The company’s expanded its remote access infrastructure and back-end capacity to support users who connect remotely.

Infosys continued its hiring spree throughout the last financial year. It hired more than 19,000 college graduates from campuses across India, and 10,000 American workers.

Top Brass Rejig

• Infosys’ board recommended the appointment of Uri Levine as an independent director, effective April 20.
• DN Prahlad has stepped down as an independent director to devote more time to his other business commitments.
• Earlier in February 2020, Roopa Kudva retired from the board as an independent director after the completion of her tenure.