Israel-Palestine war: TCS closely monitoring safety of staff

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT services firm, is closely monitoring the safety of its employees in Israel amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

“We are monitoring, and have been in touch with the HR (human resources) officials there. We are helping them with safety measures. There are some employees from India and their families,” a TCS executive said on condition of anonymity. The executive , however, did not disclose the number of employees in Israel, including those from India.

In response to Mint’s query, a spokesperson for TCS declined to comment.

The technology major is involved in several critical projects in Israel. Approximately three years ago, Israel’s first fully digital bank had partnered with TCS as its first customer for the Banking Service Bureau. “TCS was selected by Israel’s ministry of finance to transform its banking sector by building a banking service bureau that would serve as a shared, plug-and-play, digital banking operation platform powered by TCS BaNCS Global Banking Platform to help the banks launch their operations very quickly,” the company had said in April 2020.

“This initiative is seen as a bid to boost competition in the financial services sector, spark greater innovation and enhance customer experience by democratizing access to banking across Israel by making financial services accessible to the consumer,” the statement said.

Spokespeople for Wipro, Infosys and HCL Technologies did not respond to Mint’s queries.

According to reports, 15,000-18,000 Indians, including students, are residing in Israel. The IT firms will also be tracking the safety of their Indian employees who are residing in neighbouring countries as the conflict may spill over to other regions in the Middle East.

So far, Air India has managed to evacuate all its staff, including flight and cabin crews from Tel Aviv with the help of Ethiopian Airlines. Mint had reported that the rising tension in the region also forced all major airlines, including United Airlines, Delta, Lufthansa, American Airlines, Air France, Ryan Air and Aegean, to reschedule their flights, suspend operations or reduce the number of direct flights.

There are also students who are pursuing higher studies, including doctorate programmes, across prominent universities in Israel. These students are awaiting further clarity from Indian authorities.

When Mint tried to reach out to authorities at Tel Aviv University, the University of Haifa and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, which are some of the most popular destinations, they could not be reached, nor were their sites accessible.

There is a high chance that these sites would not be accessible to other countries in the wake of the war with Palestine due to security reasons, said experts.

The India government has expressed solidarity with Israel after the attack by Hamas. The ministry of external affairs has cautioned Indians in Israel “to remain vigilant and observe all safety protocols advised by local authorities”. The ministry also advised all Indian citizens residing in Israel to “avoid unnecessary movement and stay close to safety shelters”.