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Business News/ News / India/  Bengaluru floods: IT sector faces chaos, some companies impose work from home
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Bengaluru floods: IT sector faces chaos, some companies impose work from home

Bengaluru is unlikely to get any respite from the incessant rains for the next couple of days as the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said heavy rainfall activity will continue for the better part of the week.

A general view shows flooding after torrential rains slammed Bengaluru (via REUTERS)Premium
A general view shows flooding after torrential rains slammed Bengaluru (via REUTERS)

Bengaluru is unlikely to get any respite from the incessant rains for the next couple of days as the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said heavy rainfall activity will continue for the better part of the week.

Widespread rains for next 5 days in coastal & North interior Karnataka, 3 days widespread rains followed by fairly widespread rains in the next 2 days in South interior Karnataka, Dr Geeta Agnihotri, Scientist, Meteorological Department said. 

On September 6, Bengaluru experienced traffic bottlenecks, power outages, flooded houses, submerged vehicles, inundated roads and streets, many IT employees in Bengaluru used tractors to go to work. India's silicon valley had major waterlogging as a result of ongoing, torrential rains. On September 5, a large number of regional workers for IT businesses commuted by tractor. We cannot take so many leaves from the office, our work is getting affected. We are awaiting tractors to drop us for 50," a woman working in an IT firm had told ANI. 

Also Read: Bengaluru floods: Inundated cars biggest issue among owners, here's what to do

The business operations on the city’s key Outer Ring Road (ORR), an area where big name international firms such as Microsoft Corp, Intel Corp, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley have offices was affected. It’s also caused tens of millions in productivity losses locally, Bloomberg has reported citing an industry group. 

A cluster of chrome-and-glass towers on the ORR, as well as office parks nearby have become home to about a million software coders and support workers. They handle such vital operations as risk management, customer support and financial compliance. 

Also Read: Explained: Why is Bengaluru flooded? Who is responsible for this man-made disaster?

The poor infrastructure in the city’s technology corridor is “bringing down the efficiency and productivity of the companies and putting employees’ safety and wellbeing at risk," members of the Outer Ring Road Companies’ Association, which includes Wall Street banks and global tech behemoths, complained in a strongly-worded letter to the chief minister of Karnataka state. Flooding led to a five-hour traffic jam where workers were stuck leading to a loss of about $30 million, the group said in the letter.

Companies had to trigger emergency business continuity plans, allow work from home or pass on critical work to locations outside of Bangalore, causing reputational damage and economic losses, the group said.

According to chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, some areas in the state capital have received 150 per cent more rains than normal between September 1 and 5. Mahadevapura, Bommanahalli and K R Puram have recorded 307 per cent excess rain. "This was the highest rainfall in the last 42 years. All the 164 tanks in Bengaluru are filled to the brim," he said. He also faulted the 'maladministration' of the previous Congress governments for the present situation of the city, known as India's IT hub, and insisted only two zones bore the brunt of rains although a picture was being painted as if entire Bengaluru was struggling. 

The ORR stretch generates about $22 billion in annual revenues, a third of the city’s technology revenues, but “the lack of focus on the development of infrastructure in this corridor is appalling," said the association whose members also include Wells Fargo & Co, Dell Technologies Inc and Capgemini SE besides a host of Wall Street banks and Silicon Valley corporations.

Also Read: Bengaluru floods: Primary, high schools to remain closed on 7 September

While parts of the city that houses several global companies and home-grown startups, were underwater, operations in IT firms and startups were largely unaffected as most of them had power backup and a hybrid work environment where some employees logged in from home.

E-commerce firm Flipkart said it has been closely monitoring the situation and all its corporate employees have been advised to continue to work from home. "We are taking steps to support any employees and families affected by rains. For first-hand information, we send a regular advisory to our employees, with helpline numbers to reach for any emergency," a Flipkart spokesperson said. "For our delivery staff and hubs in affected areas, we have maintained a helpline number and there are SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) in place for their safety, including security training, SOS Awareness, Loss Prevention Awareness, and response protocols etc," the Flipkart spokesperson said.

"Things are bad. Please take care," Gaurav Munjal, founder of the Softbank-backed education technology firm Unacademy said on Twitter after his family and dog were rescued by a tractor.

Wipro has advised its employees to work from home on Tuesday and said business continuity plans have been invoked. "Due to heavy rainfall in Bengaluru, Wipro has advised its employees to work from home today. Business Continuity Plans have been invoked and there has been no disruption to business," Wipro said in response to an e-mail query by PTI.

“The scale of disruption is unbelievable," said Pradeep Kar, chairman of Microland Ltd. a technology provider which specializes in managing digital infrastructure such as cloud networks and data centers for clients like Microsoft Corp. and the London borough of Ealing. “Our customers expect us to provide 24x7 uninterrupted services; thankfully we were equipped for work-from-home because of the pandemic and could continue to manage our clients’ infrastructure," said Kar. Microland has three facilities on ORR stretch that house about 5,000 employees.

Meanwhile, weddings and school lessons went back online, citizens complained on social media of miles-long traffic jams because of water-logging, residents of upscale communities were marooned inside their homes, international flights were diverted and drinking water supply and power cut off in several neighborhoods. Local TV channels streamed videos of fire brigades deploying boats to rescue stranded people. The chief executive officer of prominent edtech startup UpGrad said he had to reach his office riding on a tractor as his home faced a power cut.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)

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Published: 07 Sep 2022, 07:21 AM IST
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