New Delhi: In wake of pandemic, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Tuesday extended till 31 December the relaxation in work from home (WFH) norms for other service providers (OSPs), including the IT sector. This is the second extension given to OSPs, primarily IT and IT-enabled services firms, to facilitate WFH amid the coronavirus-led restrictions.
DoT had first announced relaxation in WFH rules in April, when India was under a strict lockdown to contain the spread of covid-19, and later extended the date till 31 July.
“DoT has further extended the relaxations in the terms and conditions for other service providers (OSPs) up to 31 December, 2020, to facilitate work from home in view of the ongoing concerns due to #COVID19,” the DoT said in a Twitter post.
Industry leaders lauded the DoT’s decision that will enable IT companies to allow their employees to work from home till the end of 2020.
“Thank you to the government for their tremendous support on the new ways of working from day one. This has helped tremendously in further elevating our standing and responsiveness globally,” IT major Wipro chairman Rishad Premji said on Twitter.
Major Indian IT companies, including Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Wipro Ltd and Infosys Ltd, had shifted 90% of their workforce to work from home, according to data released in April by industry body National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom). The industry average stood at 70%, Nasscom said.
Nasscom president Debjani Ghosh thanked the DoT and telecom and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for their “strong support for Indian IT”. This will ensure business continuity, employee safety and increase the sector’s talent pool in tier-two and -three cities, she said on Twitter.
The trend of work from home is likely to continue even after the pandemic ends as companies see this as a viable and cost-effective future model, which requires lesser office space, Nasscom said in April.
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