&w=3840&q=100)
Getting people back to office was among toughest challenges: TCS' Lakkad
Shivani Shinde Mumbai
Listen to This Article
As Milind Lakkad prepares to hand over the reins to Sudeep Kunnumal after more than six years as chief human resources officer (CHRO) — and a 38-year career at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) — he looks back on a tenure defined by the pandemic, the Great Resignation, sweeping organisational shifts, and the company's evolving focus on AI. In a joint conversation following TCS' first quarter earnings in 2025-26, Lakkad and Kunnumal speak with Shivani Shinde in Mumbai about talent, technology, transition, and what's next for the IT giant's 600,000-strong workforce. Edited excerpts:
How do you look back on your 38
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Aadhaar's verification makeover; Bench jitters for TCS staff
Aadhaar's verification makeover; Bench jitters for TCS staff Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox? Also in the letter: UIDAI aims to simplify Aadhaar-linked offline KYC process Driving the news: Getting the context: In June, Meity and UIDAI cracked down on startups that were accessing Aadhaar data through unauthorised means. That sparked disruption, especially for fintechs that rely heavily on Aadhaar-based KYC. Since then, UIDAI-regulated bodies—Authentication User Agencies (AUAs) and KYC User Agencies (KUAs)—have had multiple conversations with the authority and now have a clear understanding of the process. Other players tapping in: Also Read: TCS employees on the edge as company's new benching policy completes first cycle Set atwitter: Also Read: Bigger picture: Also Read: Sponsor ETtech Top 5 & Morning Dispatch! Why it matters: The opportunity: Reach a highly engaged audience of decision-makers. Boost your brand's visibility among the tech-savvy community. Custom sponsorship options to align with your brand's goals. What's next: Indians are pouring into crypto as Bitcoin rockets to new highs Numbers game: CoinDCX's daily trading volume jumped 40% in July to 12.82 million, up from 9.17 million in June. CoinSwitch recorded a 22% week-on-week increase in spot and futures trading. Mudrex also saw a spike, with 40% of trading volume now coming from tier-II and tier-III cities. While Bitcoin and Ethereum remain dominant, meme coins like Pengu and BANANAS31 are gaining traction. What's coming: Also Read: Risk awaits: Tech Mahindra Q1 net profit rises 34%, misses Street estimates Details: Net profit for Q1: Rs 1,140.6 crore. Rs 1,140.6 crore. Revenue from operations: Rs 13,351.2 crore, up 2.65% year-on-year (YoY). Rs 13,351.2 crore, up 2.65% year-on-year (YoY). Total headcount: 148,517 as of June 30, 2025, an increase of 897 employees YoY. Commentary: Ixigo logs 73% rise in Q1 revenue: Net profit at Rs 19 crore, up 27% YoY at Rs 19 crore, up 27% YoY Operating revenue at Rs 314 crore at Rs 314 crore Total expenses increased to Rs 293 crore, up from Rs 168 crore last year. Also Read: Keeping Count Other Top Stories By Our Reporters Nazara says Nodwin Gaming to raise capital: Quick-fashion delivery startups attract fresh VC capital: Kettleborough VC launches second fund: Global Picks We Are Reading Happy Thursday! UIDAI wants to make Aadhaar verification services for citizens more user-friendly. This and more in today's ETtech Morning Dispatch.■ Crypto's bull run■ Tech Mahindra, Ixigo Q1 earnings■ Nodwin Gaming's fresh raiseThe Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is looking to simplify the offline KYC process linked to Aadhaar, hoping to drive broader adoption among financial services which oversees Aadhar, is working to make its offline identity verification service more accessible and user-friendly. The aim is to increase usage throughout the ecosystem, according to two senior bankers familiar with ongoing digital-first companies grapple with KYC challenges, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is stepping up. Its KYC offering, which began with banks, now extends to entities regulated by IRDAI, Sebi and PFRDA.K Krithivasan, CEO, TCSAnxiety is rising at TCS as the clock ticks down on its new 35-day bench policy, introduced on June 12 . The rule caps the number of days an employee can spend without an active project in a year. Missing the deadline could mean career stagnation, or worse, have taken to social media and Reddit to voice their concerns. Some say they're being pushed into unsuitable roles, while others complain about struggling to find projects in their base locations or failing client wider mood reflects broader industry pressures. TCS just posted its third straight quarter of degrowth , and the long-term impact of artificial intelligence-led automation is still about withholding pay for benched staff, CEO and MD K Krithivasan said, 'It's always been expected that associates take responsibility for their careers. While HR supports project placement, we also expect associates to proactively seek new assignments after completing existing ones.'ETtech Top 5 and Morning Dispatch are must-reads for India's tech and business leaders, including startup founders, investors, policy makers, industry insiders and Reach out to us at spotlightpartner@ to explore sponsorship Bitcoin hitting fresh highs, Indian crypto exchanges like CoinDCX, CoinSwitch, and Mudrex have clocked net inflows of $150-200 million in just the past CEO Edul Patel expects the rally to continue, with Bitcoin likely to cross $140,000. ZebPay's Harish Vatnani credits the surge to growing institutional adoption, clearer regulations, and favourable macro caution is warranted. 'Risks such as thinning liquidity near resistance levels, surprise macroeconomic shocks (e.g., inflation prints), and rising leverage in derivatives markets could lead to heightened short-term volatility,' added CoinDCX's Mridul Joshi, CEO, Tech MahindraIT services company Tech Mahindra on Wednesday reported a 33.9% increase in consolidated net profit for the April-June and MD Mohit Joshi said the company's performance is steadily improving. Deal wins have risen by 44% over the last twelve months (LTM), supported by broad-based momentum across various verticals and Travenues Technology, the parent company of online travel aggregator Ixigo, recorded a 73% YoY increase in its operating revenue for the quarter ended June due to growth across all lines of business, effective cross-selling and up-selling to its user base, and AI-driven Mittersain, CEO, Nazara TechnologiesNazara Technologies announced on Wednesday that it will de-subsidiarise its esports division , Nodwin Gaming, as the latter is raising additional capital from certain existing shareholders to bolster its growth in the esports and youth media momentum is increasing in the quick-fashion delivery space , as investors double down on early-stage startups focused on rapid fashion products with shorter turnaround VC, a solo general partner (GP) venture capital firm founded by early-stage investor Nisarg Shah, has launched its second fund with a target corpus of Rs 80 crore. The fund has marked its first close at Rs 35 crore, backed by family offices and entrepreneurs from India and the US.■ How social media is fueling Gen Z's sex recession ( Wired ■ OpenAI to take cut of ChatGPT shopping sales in hunt for revenues ( FT ■ Google's generative video model Veo 3 has a subtitles problem ( MIT Tech Review
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Wipro looking to become consulting-led, AI-powered company, says Rishad Premji
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills IT firm Wipro aims to sharpen its focus on becoming a consulting-led, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered organisation, its executive chairman Rishad Premji told the Bengaluru-based company's 79th annual general meeting through videoconferencing on Wednesday, the son of billionaire promoter Azim Premji said 2024-25 was a year of significant change for Wipro as well as the world.'We know the external environment may stay uncertain. But resilient businesses are built during times like these… The macro landscape kept shifting, and technologies like AI were scaling rapidly,' said Premji. 'We're sharpening our focus on becoming a consulting-led, AI-powered organization.'He highlighted that Wipro's acquisition of Capco in 2021 gave the company a strong start in financial services consulting and helped in expansion across other comments came a day ahead of Wipro's first-quarter earnings scheduled to be announced on Wednesday, Wipro's shares closed 2% higher at Rs 262.70 per share on the last week, larger rivals Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and HCLTech have reported subdued quarterly revenue and profit numbers, respectively, as US tariffs-related uncertainty continued to drive cautious spending by clients of the software service the fourth largest software services provider in the country, reported revenue of $10.5 billion for 2024-25.'Starting from FY26, we expect to return to shareholders at least 70% of the net income cumulatively over a three-year period,' Premji executive Srinivas Pallia, who completed one year at Wipro's helm in April, said as the uncertainty deepened in the fourth quarter of 2024-25 with new headwinds led by tariffs, Wipro is helping its clients define roadmaps, identify AI opportunities and align with their business goals from the start.'We also invested heavily in talent and leadership development through the Wipro Leadership Institute , we are developing high potential talent, moving top performers into critical roles, and we launched a sponsorship programme to help in their growth journey with AI first and AI everything as a guiding approach,' Pallia has built more than 200 agents in partnership with its hyperscalers, he said, adding that Agentic AI is making a tangible impact across the company's internal operations including human resources, finance and legal.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
TCS employees on the edge as co's new benching policy completes first cycle
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills As the first 35-day cycle under Tata Consultancy Services ' ( TCS ) new bench policy ends on Thursday, thousands of benched employees are staring at uncertainty, with many taking to social platforms to voice their policy, implemented on June 12, caps the maximum bench period — that is, time without any project allocation — at just 35 days a year, after which they risk career degrowth or even forums like Reddit are flooded with posts from TCS employees expressing their several employees have been scrambling for projects, others allege that they are being forced into projects that don't suit their skill sets. Some are getting rejected in client interviews while others are unable to find projects in their home locations, going by various posts on Reddit.'This is the first step towards employment rationalisation based on utilisation. Brace for layoffs,' one anxious Reddit user fresher claimed, 'I have recently joined TCS and training was conducted in Java. Now, it's not even a month on bench and RMG is pressuring me to join a *** support project, far from Java and Python.'ET could not independently verify the veracity of any of these number of people likely to be impacted is also unclear. According to industry estimates, on an average, 15-18% employees in leading Indian information technology (IT) firms are usually on the bench. TCS, India's largest IT company, has a workforce of about 613,000 an employee welfare body on Wednesday urged Union labour minister Mansukh Mandaviya to take urgent action against TCS for the enforced bench policy that it called 'inhumane,' 'exploitative' and psychologically distressing for IT a letter to the minister, Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate ( NITES ) alleged that the IT giant is coercing employees on the bench with repeated threats of termination and denial of experience letters if they fail to meet unrealistic deployment timelines.'These are not non-performing employees, but skilled professionals who find themselves temporarily without allocation… Instead of support, they are met with suspicion, coercion, and threats,' NITES president Harpreet Singh Saluja said in the some employees are supporting TCS' move, saying that several employees have remained on the bench for years, rejecting projects offered to them with some of them utilising the time to go for higher studies and generally not perform at the company.'This may help TCS trimming some seriously underperforming resources, those stuck on TCS like a leech,' a Reddit user did not respond to ET's requests for comment until the time of publishing this the new bench policy, TCS chief executive and managing director K Krithivasan told Times of India: 'It's always been expected that associates take responsibility for their careers. While HR supports project placement, we also expect associates to proactively seek new assignments after completing existing ones. What you're seeing now is simply a more structured version of what's long been in practice. We aim to minimise bench time.'He noted that the company invests heavily in upskilling. 'Once we've made that investment, we work to ensure associates are deployed,' he said. 'While preferences are considered, projects are driven by client needs, not personal choice. We deploy based on training, demand, and skill alignment. If gaps exist, we work to close them before deployment.'Krithivasan did not directly respond to a question on whether TCS has started withholding salaries for employees benched for extended like other IT companies, has been reeling under the impact of macroeconomic uncertainty and reported a third consecutive quarter of degrowth last IT industry is also bracing for the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) automating most of its repetitive tasks.'We expect IT companies to become stricter with their bench policies due to the soft business environment and AI-led demand for advanced skill sets,' Pareekh Jain, founder and CEO of IT consulting firm EIIRTrend, said. Employee costs are significantly impacting companies' margins, he decision to make its bench policy strict could have downstream impact among other industry peers with bench strength increasingly becoming a problem for IT companies as AI-led productivity gains have made entry-level engineers difficult to redeploy, experts said.'Tech companies must continuously align their employees' skill sets with evolving client needs. By revisiting their bench policies, organisations are encouraging employees to reskill and stay relevant in high-demand areas such as AI, cybersecurity, and digital engineering,' said Nitin Bhatt, technology sector leader at EY India.'Going forward, tenure and grade-based promotions and merit increases will likely be replaced by assessments of skills proficiency and competencies required to take on new roles,' he contraction in IT services had impacted TCS' employee utilisation, which took a hit last quarter and also affected the company's margins, its CFO Samir Seksaria had said last company's employee cost reached an all-time high of Rs 37,715 crore in the first quarter ended June. It now constitutes 59.45% of its revenue, even as attrition remains high at 13.8%, data country's third-largest IT player HCL Technologies, too, took an unexpected hit on its margins because its employee utilisation went down during the June dropped 'due to a delay in ramp up for a specific program, (while) we encountered ramp downs in specific areas, which resulted in a larger bench due to also productivity benefits that we brought about, and it was also due to demand supply mismatch between skills and locations,' HCL Technologies MD and CEO C Vijayakumar said during the company's earnings call on Monday.
