Indian IT companies, which have only a small presence in Japan, are closely monitoring the situation in Japan, which was devastated by an earthquake and a tsunami last Friday. The leading IT companies have all initiated measures to evacuate those employees who wish to return, although recent reports indicate that employees have been finding it more difficult to get airline bookings immediately. Industry sources confirmed that worries about radiation leaking from the stricken nuclear power plant at Fukushima have prompted Indian employees to head back home.
Speaking to this correspondent, S. Gopalakrishnan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Infosys Technologies, said “We have advised employees to send back their families to India. Some employees have already come back and more are likely to return.” “All Infosys employees in Japan are safe,” Mr. Gopalakrishnan said.
Infosys, which started operations in Japan in 1998, is located basically in the port city of Nagoya, which is also a leading aerospace and automobile manufacturing hub. The company employs about 500 persons, of which about 300 are Indians. Mr. Gopalakrishnan pointed out that Infosys was unlikely to be financially impacted because its Japanese operations contribute “less than one per cent” of the company's global revenues.
Mr. Gopalakrishnan said Infosys' progress in Japan had been slow. “I would not say it is a difficult market, but it is certainly a challenging one,” he said. “But we have always had a long term focus on Japan,” he added.
Saurabh Govil, Senior Vice-President, Human Resources, Wipro Technologies, said, “We are continuously monitoring the developments in Japan. All of our employees are safe and continue to work with our clients.” Wipro is also “giving an option to families of employees to return to India,” he said in a statement issued on Tuesday. Wipro employs about 400 persons in Japan. Mr. Gopalakrishnan said Infosys would continue to support its clients “locally and from offshore locations till the situation stabilises.” He emphasised that the company sees the situation arising from the tragedy as a “temporary” one. “We are committed to our clients and operations in Japan,” he added.
