Bengaluru IT hubs look empty as executives work from home
BENGALURU: RMZ Ecospace, a business park that houses many technology firms such as Accenture and Intel, wore a deserted look on Monday morning.
Traffic movement in perhaps Bengaluru’s most congested stretch was seamless, most shops were closed or empty and the usual bustling crowds were missing.
Embassy Golf Links (EGL), another tech park that has offices of IBM India, Goldman Sachs Services Pvt. Ltd and Dell International Services India Pvt. Ltd was no different.
Several of these IT parks that house some of the biggest technology firms were near-empty, with skeletal staff at work. “I have never seen this place so empty,” said one IT professional from the Accenture office at Ecospace, requesting not to be named.
Traffic movement was brisk at 11 am on a Monday morning on Outer Ring Road (ORR), where sometimes a kilometrelong drive can take 45 minutes or longer, as a significant section of office goers, it appears, have stayed away due to the coronavirus (which causes Covid-19) scare.
The Accenture executive said there are very few people who have showed up to work but the company is yet to make an official announcement about working from home.
Her friend, an IT professional from Tata Elxsi in International Technology Park in Whitefield also said that no such option has been given to employees yet.
The Karnataka government issued a strict advisory to Bengaluru-based IT companies over the weekend to extend work from home as air-conditioned office spaces with high footfalls have the potential to spread the virus.
Five out of the seven people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Karnataka are related to the IT sector.
Of the five, one person each from Dell India, Mindtree Ltd and Google Inc. with travel histories to US and Europe tested positive.
The wife and daughter of the
Dell executive also tested positive.
The Google employee’s wife has also tested positive and is quarantined in a medical facility in Agra.
Walmart-owned Flipkart and Infosys Ltd along with other technology firms have extended work-from-home option to all those who needn’t be in office.
Experts and IT companies have said that a section of the workforce in roles like administration, voice-based support systems, hardware, maintenance and security may still have to be present in offices to ensure that the business functions continue and enable support to those working from home.