Yogi govt tasks officials with getting TCS to stay on in Lucknow
Taken aback by the decision of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to wind up its operations in Lucknow, the state government has tasked two senior officials of principal secretary rank with persuading the company to stay on in the UP capital.
To solve the problem of higher rent, the government assured the company of an alternative place for its office, said a senior government official on condition of anonymity.
However, TCS officials are not ready to reveal whether they have been approached by state government or not.
They say that a larger business plan, not rent or losses, was the reason for the decision to shift base to Noida.
In a statement, Tata Consultancy Services said: “Consolidation of Noida has nothing to do with the rent agreement, building or landlord, we wanted to consolidate our operations in a bigger growth centre like Noida. At the same time, we wanted to give our employees in Lucknow better scope to grow. This is a business decision the company has taken, it is not based on premises rent or anything.”
For the second day in a row, some employees of TCS wore masks and tried to protest in front of their office but were evicted by guards.
The TCS’ decision to leave Lucknow has come as a blow to the Yogi Adityanath government, which has decided to set up information technology parks in other districts too.
During the Akhilesh Yadav regime, Lucknow was touted as being on way to becoming the next information technology (IT) hub in UP after Noida.
Besides the presence of TCS in Vibhuti Khand, Gomti Nagar, the country’s fourth largest IT services company HCL Technologies pumped Rs 1,500 crore into a 100-acre area of CG City in the state capital.
The presence of TCS and HCL in Lucknow had given new hope to the state capital’s IT graduates who otherwise had to migrate to Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune and Ahmedabad for jobs.
The plan to shift TCS office was floated in January this year and some employees were told about the decision.
Disappointing financial results for the quarter ending June 2017 seems to have trig- gered the move for the closure of Lucknow office sooner than expected.
During this quarter, the company’s profit fell 10% and revenue declined 0.2%, compared with the previous quarter.
Global consultancy firm McKinsey had earlier warned about heavy layoffs by companies due to changed requirements.
“The reasons for the layoffs are automation, artificial intelligence and cloud computing. These professionals will be required to learn new skills soon or they would have to face hard times,” said Kundan Srivastava, an IT professional.
AP Tewari, professor of economics at the Shakuntala Mishra National Rehabilitation University, said: “The IT industry is being jolted by the impact of the global meltdown, especially after Trump won the presidency in the USA. Today, TCS leaving Lucknow is not just goodbye to 1500 skilled professionals but 1500 families. These professionals were earning more than Rs 1 lakh per month. This means, the state capital will lose around Rs 15 crore per month.”
He added, “A downturn has put pressure on companies to take such decisions to reduce costs. That could be why TCS has decided to leave Lucknow.”