Ashwin Yardi says Covid-19 validated and boosted the offshoring model, and India's IT services industry is expanding faster into tier II and tier III locations
Ashwin Yardi, CEO, Capgemini Technology Services India
Image: Nishant Ratnakar for Forbes India
With India’s IT industry responding strongly to the Covid-19 pandemic, hardly missing a beat, even European customers are stepping up offshoring plans, while short-term macroeconomic circumstances will mandate cost savings as a priority, says Ashwin Yardi, CEO of Capgemini Technology Services India. On the other hand, there is now pressure to deliver experts from India, certified on the very latest technologies almost immediately, Yardi tells Forbes India in an interview. Edited excerpts.
Q. Beyond the hybrid office model, what other lasting changes do you see?
On the future-of-work front, except for the very manufacturing-intensive clients, our customers expect us to align with the hybrid model. Another change relevant for India is around talent: How we recruit, and where we hire talent from. Definitely, there will be more hiring from Tier II and III cities and towns.
Even in mature markets, you will see trends like clients having newer locations. For example, you see some talent moving out of the Bay area [in California, US]. And finally, there will also be a talent pool comprising people who work from home 100 percent of the time. With such workers, you will see new contractual models emerge; not just gig workers, but long-term relationships with people who aren’t employees.
Some of them can even be experienced specialists, for example, former nuclear physicists and engineers from, say, India’s Bhabha Atomic Research Centre or scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, and so on.
(This story appears in the 21 April, 2023 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)