‘Rapid digitization has paved way for better business opportunities’

Information technology (IT) and communications service provider Tech Mahindra Ltd has been instrumental in the digital transformation of several large and small organizations. Ranked 15 in the world’s top 30 digital companies list by Spectator Index, published in March, the company has been more active in India than before. In an interview, Sujit Baksi, president corporate affairs and business head, APAC, and Puneet Gupta, head, India Sales, Tech Mahindra spoke on the company’s renewed interest in India, key projects and emphasis on reskilling. Edited excerpts:

What is the size of Tech Mahindra’s overseas business, and what is the share of India market in that?

Baksi: While we do not share geo-specific number, we would like to add that India is definitely a key market for Tech Mahindra. The Indian market accounts for about 5% of the total revenue. The company’s total revenue is about $4.9 billion, and it aims to double its Indian revenue in the next few years on the back of growing IT spend by customers. This year, H1 has been specifically at a historic high for India business with 12 new logos being added. Our India business grew YoY (year-on-year) by 29% and our QoQ (quarter-on-quarter) growth in India for Q2 is 4% roughly.

What is Tech Mahindra’s strategy for India going forward?

Baksi: According to a Gartner study, the India IT market opportunity stands in excess of $85 billion, growing at 9%, which is nearly three times the global average. We believe the total pie will increase and digitization will accelerate the growth. Rapid digitization across all verticals in recent times has paved way for better business opportunities and facilitated our renewed focus in the Indian market. Tech Mahindra has set up a strategic business unit to specifically cater to the deals coming from India. We have seen great success in the past two years in India after the formation of this new business unit. While we have taken up/accomplished large government projects for modernization, opportunities for improving customer experience in the e-commerce space and IT transformation projects involving enterprise customers such as banks and telecom players, we continue to remain very selective about the projects that we work on.

In which sectors, Tech Mahindra is most active in India?

Gupta: We are working with various organizations and the government in India. With Coal India Ltd, we are working on a digital transformation project at the backdrop of an ERP (enterprise resource planning) implementation. We are also working with the government on a modernization project involving six ports and with the Indian Navy on an access control system. We have also helped in the transformation of India’s largest banks.

E-commerce is another area where we are focused and have nine major e-commerce companies as our customers. As part of our TechMNxt charter, we are also focused on leveraging emerging technology. Tech Mahindra is among the first to implement blockchain in one of the largest banks in India for money transfer and also for a telecom operator.

At the start of digital transformation, the industry found a huge gulf between the available skill sets and their needs. How much of that gulf has been addressed, and how is Tech Mahindra addressing this?

Baksi: At Tech Mahindra, our continued focus is on skill-based hiring, especially in new-age digital technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation, blockchain, 5G, internet of things, and cybersecurity. As part of our TechMNxt charter, we are dedicated to create a future-ready workforce to solve real business problems of our customers by leveraging these emerging technologies. We are also investing heavily in reskilling employees in next generation technologies like blockchain, cybersecurity, AI, machine learning, robotics, and automation, and 5G.