K Krithivasan Affirms Resilience of Indian IT Industry Amidst Challenges
TCS CEO K Krithivasan has expressed confidence that the Indian IT services industry will not become obsolete by 2030, despite facing significant challenges. This optimism comes in light of TCS’s first annual revenue decline since its public listing in 2004, which saw a decrease of 2.4% in FY26.
In a recent statement, Krithivasan remarked, “We have been writing its obituary every 10 years but I think Indian IT services have proven to be very resilient.” This resilience is underscored by TCS’s achievement of its highest-ever total contract value (TCV) of $40.7 billion in the same fiscal year.
Despite the revenue dip, TCS has been proactive in its hiring strategy, bringing on board 44,000 trainees in FY26 and extending 25,000 offers for the next hiring cycle. This commitment to workforce development highlights the company’s focus on adapting to the evolving landscape of technology.
In a significant move, TCS completed its largest acquisition in over a decade by purchasing Coastal Cloud for $700 million. This acquisition is part of TCS’s strategy to pivot towards AI-led roles and services, which Krithivasan notes will require a shift in skill sets, stating, “We will need a lesser proportion of programmers. We require model trainers, context/prompt engineers, people who can test models and agent developers.”
As the industry adapts, TCS is also making strides in infrastructure development with its HyperVault data centre, expected to go live in 2028 with a target capacity of 1 GW. The company has already established two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) for the data centre and is in discussions for additional partnerships.
Aarthi Subramanian, a key figure at TCS, highlighted the potential of Generative AI in modernizing legacy systems, particularly those that have been in place for decades. She stated, “GenAI has unlocked a significant opportunity in legacy modernization, particularly for large, decades-old systems such as mainframes.”
As TCS navigates these changes, Krithivasan remains optimistic about the future, noting, “Definitely, we are more optimistic. I think some of the headwinds are behind us. So, that’s the opportunity.” This perspective reflects a broader confidence in the Indian IT sector’s ability to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing technological environment.
With these developments, the community watches closely to see how TCS and the Indian IT industry will continue to evolve and respond to both challenges and opportunities in the coming years.
