T-unrest will make biz crash: Nasscom
Jan. 7: The political developments in Andhra Pradesh could end up damaging the IT sector, which is a major employer in the state. Software industry body Nasscom says that such disruptions could lead to jobs being shipped out of Andhra Pradesh to other rival centres.
IT sector is a major employer in Hyderabad with over 1.5 lakh people employed directly just in the Hitec City. The warning comes in the wake of a two-day strike called by pro-Telangana agitators against the Justice Srikrishna Committee report.
“We have nothing to do with Andhra Pradesh being one state or split into many — it’s a political decision. All that we want is that there should not be any disruption of our work,” said the Nasscom president, Mr Som Mittal.
He mentioned that Andhra Pradesh has invested a lot in developing the infrastructure of Hyderabad and building its image as an information technology hub and cautioned that demonstrations and shutdowns could damage the goodwill earned over all these years.
Mr Mittal said, “Agitations should not mean that people can’t commute to their offices. Our customers can get wary about any disruption because we (IT companies) handle their 24X7 mission critical work. The IT industry has created jobs for the state and politicians should realise that companies have options to move jobs to other states.”
He recalled that some jobs were moved out of Vizag because of bandhs in 2009. Though there were some instances in 2009, where some employees could not reach office due to bandhs, Mr Mittal said there were no reports of agitation affecting the employees of IT companies and hoped that such mature behaviour would continue.
Companies, however, have their contingency plans ready. They have asked employees to work from home or stay in offices’ rest area, if required.