With an exponential increase in the number of affected people as indicated by 1 lakh active cases and more than 3000 deaths in India by the coronavirus, the pandemic does not seem to come to an end. Industries have come to a halt in order to curb the spread. However, with our life revolving around the need of telecommunication and technological services, the IT sector cannot be put to a halt completely. After the positive cases in Dell Inc., Infosys Ltd. and Google Inc., things got pretty serious and ‘work from home’ was a necessary mandate required.
The regulations were even relaxed for IT and Business Processing Outsourcing firms by Ravi Shankar Prasad (Electronics and IT Minister) in order to make the ‘work from home’ advisory possible. Just a few checks are needed before setting up a ‘work from home’ facility like a security deposit and authorised VPN and one is good to go.
About 90% of the IT employees are currently working from home and only the required ones are called to the workplace. With the employees embracing themselves with the ‘work from home’ facility, it is an inflection point for the Indian IT Industry. Shridhar Mitta, founder of NextWealth Entrepreneurs, in his statement concluded that if the employees work from home for a few more months, then 20-30% of the IT workforce can accomplish their work at home itself. This will not only save daily commuting hours for the employees but also help the company cut down on their office rent.
Companies like TCS, Accenture and Clix Capital have already asked 50-80% of their workforce to work remotely. Looking at the positive side, if ‘work from home’ becomes an option in the future, new windows will open up for women who couldn’t leave their house earlier. According to IT industry veteran Senapathy (Kris) Gopalakrishnan, the relaxation in the ‘work from home’ norms will make companies aggressive who will try to make the best out of it. In fact, it is a good decision for start-ups as they can cut down on the office rent and make effective use of the opportunity cost.
With the pandemic around, employees who could not give their families sufficient time earlier, are now getting to spend the best of their time together. However, the economy has taken vigorous damage and Moody’s has already cut down India’s GDP growth rate for FY 2020-21 to 0.2%. Aviation and Tourism and Hospitality sectors have taken the hardest hit and will show significant salary and job cuts in the near future. Several liquidity measures have been adopted by the RBI to help various sectors cope up with the lockdown. However, things are not expected to return to the standard normal and new innovative measures will have to be adopted.
Retailers, in order to push the sales, have already begun implementing innovative measures like appointment based entries to shop and contact-less shopping. Dominos has recently launched delivery of essential goods in collaboration with ITC. Sumit Sehgal, CMO at Sheela Foam Ltd, producer of Sleepwell mattress, stated that 95% of the business comes from offline stores and it is quite necessary to shift the potential customers to the online medium at present to survive the pandemic.
Well, the ‘work from home’ advisory has clearly worked out for the IT Industry as we see no job cuts in the field. However, companies will be reluctant for the upcoming 12-18 months to hire new candidates because of no growth.
Online communication has clearly become the new way of interaction in every field that we place our fingers on. Online classes have become the medium for students and teachers to interact in order to continue with the skills development in every other institute around the country.
Things are obviously not meant to return to normal until a vaccine has been found for the same. It is expected that the COVID-19 pandemic will be as big a disaster as the US Credit Crisis 2008. However, with so much hatred towards China due to the spread of the virus, it is a big opportunity for India to use their labour force and make a mark across the globe. With the right move made by our Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi to shut down the economy in the first stage of spread itself, the move has developed a sense of faith in the governing body of India. Companies will be happy to prefer India over China for their new global expansion.
News Update: GiLead Sciences Inc. in US revealed an antiviral which can effectively cure severe COVID-19 patients in 5 days. The antiviral being Remdesivir is still under observation until the final reports are out. However, the normal course of treatment was followed along with the doses of Remdesivir. With the final reports being out, it will depend on the countries across the globe on whether to legalise the medicine or not.
By Krishna Saraogi
Literary Sourcea – Livemint, Economic Times, Money Control, GiLead.com, The Hindu.
Image Sources – c-store.com.au, clipart-library.
Written on- 29th April, 2020.
Statistics of cases edited on – 19th May, 2020.