IT services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on April 24 launched a slew of AI-powered data sovereignty focused offerings including TCS SovereignSecure Cloud, low-code no-code platform TCS DigiBolt and TCS Cyber Defense Suite.
To build these solutions, TCS has been closely working with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) of India to understand the government's needs and looks forward to deploying it into India’s future digital public infrastructure initiatives, while it will be open for private companies too. These solutions will align with India's data localisation requirements.
Speaking at the company’s Accelerating India event in New Delhi, TCS CEO and MD K Krithivasan said, “With all the announcements we've made, we stand at a very new moment in the journey for TCS, and how we can help India. This is a moment where globally India is leading the change. The whole world is also looking at what India is doing in terms of technology. Across industries, communities, every corner of the country, there's a new energy, new ambition, new aspiration to lead from the front.”
“With the world at the inflection point amidst several shifts in the macroeconomic environment, in fact, last time we had a press conference, we kept talking about the uncertainty and shift all the time…But at this moment, it's important that we have to be very adaptive. To emerge stronger, we believe enterprises must be agile, resilient, and ready for the future, ready for the change,” he added.
Krithvasan called this TCS' strengthen India focus strategy. "A strategy that puts the power of AI to the service of our nation and at the edge of excess innovation," he said.
Girish Ramachandran, President - Growth Markets, TCS added, “We are doubling on our focus on India and strengthening this presence using these three offerings. We want to dedicate ourselves to supporting this vision of building robust technology led solutions in India and ready for the world.”
S Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY said, "I must emphasize how significant this event is for all that we are attempting to do in the digital space in India. Atmanirbhar Bharat is one of the goals that has been set for India, and we need to have the capacity to address the various requirements we have for the country."
"As a country, we have millions and millions of terabytes of data that is stored in multiple places not just in India but across the world. Eventually when we have to have a resilient ecosystem within the country, it's important that the most crucial data is stored within the country itself," he added.
Over the past couple of quarters, the TCS management had spoken on increasing focus on emerging markets as part of its long-term growth strategy, at a time when demand from its largest market –North America remains muted.
These regions include India, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa, as the company believes these markets will become sustainable drivers of long-term growth.
"A scalable presence in these markets is likely to provide the muscle for growth in TCS' overall business over the next couple of decades," the management had said during Q2 earnings conference in October.
The three offerings
TCS SovereignSecure Cloud is an indigenous and secure cloud built and managed entirely
by TCS. It comes with integrated AI capabilities to support government institutions, public sector
enterprises, and regulated industries.
TCS DigiBolt complements the cloud offering. It is a comprehensive low-code platform
coupled with the power of AI that empowers enterprises to accelerate and scale their end-to-end digital innovation journeys.
TCS Cyber Defense Suite is a security-as-a-service platform, in India, thereby strengthening the cybersecurity framework of enterprises with advanced AI-driven protection
TCS' government project approach
Among its tier-I IT services players, TCS has had the highest exposure to government projects in India. Irrespective of the margin gains, TCS' approach towards government projects has been slightly different from its peers including Infosys.
It has been an outlier and has seen better success rate in the industry when it comes to running public-facing government services portals.
TCS sees Indian government projects as a training ground to learn from the complexity and replicate this in the way they architect projects for various countries. The focus is on understanding the scale and not alone on profit margins.
It already runs India's passport project, the Indian Railways’ IRCTC site, and India Post’s digital project among others.
Overall for the IT services sector which count the US and Europe markets as their biggest revenue contributors, India is relatively a smaller market accounting for less than 5 percent of the top IT firms' revenue.
TCS earnings
Earlier this month, TCS reported its Q4FY25 earnings. The company's consolidated net profit for the quarter fell nearly 2 percent year-on-year to Rs 12,224 crore, amid the ongoing macroeconomic headwinds for the IT sector.
TCS’ consolidated revenue from operations rose 5.3 percent year-on-year to Rs 64,479 crore in quarter ending March, as against Rs 61,237 crore in the same quarter a year ago.
The IT behemoth’s earnings missed expectations. A Moneycontrol poll of four brokerages pegged TCS’ January-March net profit at Rs 12,554 crore, and revenue at Rs 64,840 crore.
On a sequential basis, the IT major's net profit declined 1.3%. For the full year of FY25, revenue grew by 6 percent YoY to Rs 2,55,324 crore. Net profit for the year was at Rs 48,553 crore.
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