Nasscom fears stir will hit Brand B'luru

Even though companies invoked business continuity management (BCM) to carry out service delivery, the IT industry body Nasscom is all the more worried about the impact of the strike on the image of Bengaluru.

In an interaction with DH, Nasscom president R Chandrashekhar said that the outbreak of violence over the issue of Cauvery doesn’t do good for the industry. “Any violence, no matter what the cause, is not a good thing for business. Even though BCM is there to take care of operation, it is not good for the industry,” he said.

Chandrashekhar said paramount importance is given to safety and security of employees. “We want the state government to ensure the safety of employees and the company premises,” he said.

When asked about what Nasscom would like to convey to the state government, he said normalcy should be brought at the earliest. “Any sort of impression that the place is not conducive for a positive working environment should be avoided altogether. It would not create a good image for the operation of the IT industry,” he said.

Talking to DH, Nasscom vice president K S Viswanathan said from the business stand point there is no loss for IT companies. “Big companies which have larger number of people do have BCM to overcome any eventualities,” he said.

IT giants TCS, Infosys and Wipro along with e-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon had kept their offices shut in the city on Tuesday. According to the companies, many of their employees have been asked to work from home.

When contacted, an Infosys spokesperson said the company is well equipped to manage its affairs as part of the BCM initiatives.  “Our office is closed today and we will work as normal tomorrow,” said the spokesperson. In an emailed statement, Wipro said, “We have declared a holiday for employees in Karnataka on Tuesday, September 13. In lieu of this holiday, Saturday September 17 will be a working day for offices of Wipro in the state.”

Ashok Soota, an IT industry veteran and executive chairman and co-founder of Happiest Minds, told DH that Bengaluru will show its resilience and will go back to normalcy tomorrow onwards. “What happened for the last two days is unfortunate and the government is taking proactive steps to contain the violence. Since we have geared up for the holidays and with work from home, our operations are not affected. We are delivering critical services to our clients with normal staff,” he said. Soota said the company will work on other days and make up for the lost days.

An Amazon India spokesperson said delivery of products has been temporarily impacted, owing to the current situation. “We will resume all deliveries at the earliest. We have advised our employees to work from home today and continue to monitor developments,” she added.

Flipkart head (supply chain operations) Neeraj Aggarwal said the company had stalled operations to ensure the safety of its delivery staff. “We are trying to mitigate all customer impact by keeping them informed about expected delays,” he added.

Besides global multinationals like Samsung Electronics, Oracle and Accenture, Bengaluru is home to major start-ups like Ola, Hike, Quickr, Paytm and Snapdeal.