INFY

Adds details

June 11 (Reuters) - India's Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS has partnered with Anthropic to launch an alliance to drive enterprise AI scaling, the country's largest software services exporter said on Thursday.

The partnership comes at a time when investors are concerned that AI tools will disrupt the traditional, labour-intensive business model of India's $315-billion IT sector. In February, Indian IT services firms lost more than $62.8 billion in market capitalization, in part, after Anthropic launched an AI agent tool.

The Tata group company will equip 50,000 associates with Anthropic's Claude and both will jointly take AI solutions to market for highly regulated sectors, it added.

TCS expects IT companies to slow down hiring, as the company moves towards having an equal number of employees and AI agents in its workforce, Chairman N Chandrasekaran said at the company's annual general meeting on Tuesday.

Last July, it cut more than 12,000 jobs, while headcount fell by more than 23,000 on a net basis in the fiscal year ended March 2026.

Rival IT services firm Infosys INFY.NS struck a similar partnership with Anthropic in February.

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Janane Venkatraman)

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The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own. Updates to add graphic.

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, June 4 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Finding a good job in India is going to get a lot harder. Headcount growth at its biggest private company, $190 billion Reliance Industries RELI.NS, is slowing sharply as an investment binge fades. But a chronic skills shortage also gives businesses a strong incentive to rapidly adopt artificial intelligence. That will turn today's hiring squeeze into a deeper, structural slump.

The energy-to-retail giant's over 419,000 headcount as of March 2026 represents 4% year-on-year growth, just one quarter of its expansion rate the previous year. Its disclosures have turned hazier too: last year Reliance discontinued a table in its annual report offering a detailed breakdown of employees across business divisions.

The hiring slowdown is partly explained by the end of a phase of higher recruitment for its fledgling renewable energy business. But the growth remains well below India's 7%-plus GDP growth—and the squeeze could soon become entrenched: Reliance says it is "building talent fluent in leveraging AI to enhance decision-making, productivity and purpose-driven work", implying that the impact of AI on hiring will become clearer next year.

The problem is pronounced at IT outsourcers like $85 billion Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, the country's second-largest company by market capitalisation, and Infosys INFY.NS, where the number of employees is now up to 5% below their respective March 2023 peaks, thanks to a slowdown in revenue growth and rise of new coding tools.

Indeed, future job growth is a bigger worry than headline-grabbing layoffs, as the government's Chief Economic Advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran warned in February. His call on the private sector to hire more and balance capital-intensive growth with labor-intensive growth has gone unanswered by industry titans. Urban youth unemployment is as high as 13.6% and it's common for college graduates to queue up for janitorial roles in the public sector.

The danger is employers – who have long complained that India's 600 million-strong workforce does not have the modern skills required for the service-oriented economy – will turn to AI as a quick fix and adopt new technologies faster. Some 65% of respondents to a World Economic Forum survey saw a skills gap in India as a challenge to business transformation, and more than one-third of them expected talent availability to worsen over the five years to 2030. Indian employers plan to outpace global adoption in computing technologies, quantum and encryption to transform their businesses, according to the WEF's Future of Jobs report for 2025.

It all threatens to tip India Inc's hiring slump into a depression.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

Reliance Industries' group headcount stood at over 419,000 at the end of March 31, 2026, the company said in its annual report for the year. The total number of employees increased by around 4% year-on-year, slower than a 16% rate of expansion in the previous financial year.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Ujjaini Dutta)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on BOSE/[email protected]))

Adds details throughout

By Vivek Kumar M and Abhirami G

June 3 (Reuters) - India's information technology stocks were headed for their worst day in four months on Wednesday as renewed concerns that artificial intelligence could disrupt traditional software services rattled investors.

The IT index .NIFTYIT was down 5.8% at 29,310.25 points. If losses hold, this would be its worst day since February 4.

Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, India's largest software exporter, slumped 9% to lead the losses, while Bengaluru-based Infosys INFY.NS and Wipro WIPR.NS dropped 4.3% and 3.7%, respectively.

Among mid-tier firms, Coforge COFO.NS and Persistent Systems PERS.NS shed 5.7% each.

The losses mark a sharp reversal from the sub-index's 7% gains seen over the last two sessions when investors bought beaten down IT stocks and bet that increasing AI spending could boost demand for IT services.

India's $300 billion IT sector has been under pressure for much of this year as investors assess whether AI will generate new revenue streams for software exporters or reduce demand for traditional outsourcing services.

"We expect new opportunities such as legacy modernization to increase, but do not expect them to compensate for the deflation enough," said Kotak Institutional Equities analysts led by Kawaljeet Saluja.

A surge in AI investments and AI tools from Anthropic has rattled software stocks globally this year. India's Nifty IT index is down 22% in 2026, after plunging 26% in 2025.

Ambit Capital said fourth-quarter IT earnings confirmed the ongoing challenges that the sector is facing.

"While we see a role for IT services in enterprise AI implementation, building guardrails/governance and vertical solutions, we believe deflation will exceed incremental demand," the brokerage said.

Rishubh Vasa, a research analyst at Indsec Securities and Finance, said the total addressable market of domestic IT companies could shrink 20%-25%.

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M; Additional reporting by Abhirami G in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

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June 2 (Reuters) - Infosys Ltd INFY.NS:

• INFOSYS EXPANDS STRATEGIC COLLABORATION WITH DNB BANK ASA TO MODERNIZE FINANCIAL CRIME OPERATIONS

Source text: ID:nCNWRhyfwa

Further company coverage: INFY.NS

(((([email protected];));))

BENGALURU, May 29 (Reuters) - Infosys INFY.NS CEO Salil Parekh's annual pay rose 2.5% to 826 million rupees ($8.69 million) in fiscal year 2026, India's second-largest IT company said in its annual report on Friday.

Parekh took home a fixed salary of 79.7 million rupees and bonuses worth 233.5 million rupees. The report did not disclose any information on whether Parekh's term as CEO would be extended, even as his current five-year stint is set to end in March next year. He is already the longest-serving non-founder CEO at the IT company.

Parekh exercising his stock options accounted for the lion's share of his compensation for the year at 507.5 million rupees.

He had earned $9.44 million in fiscal 2025 and $7.9 million in fiscal 2024. The dip in the dollar figure for fiscal 2026 is because the Indian rupee fell 9.88% versus the U.S. currency during the year.

India's $315-billion IT sector is facing another year of slowing growth as AI-linked disruption drives clients to rethink their tech spends. Earlier this month, Indian IT stocks fell to their lowest point in three years after OpenAI announced a new services-led venture.

For ‌fiscal ⁠2027, Infosys last month forecast revenue growth between 1.5% and 3.5% in constant currency terms, which was lower than analysts' estimated range of at least 2% to 4%. For fiscal 2026, Infosys reported a revenue growth of 3.1% in constant currency terms, in line with estimates of 3% to 3.5%.

K Krithivasan, CEO of Infosys' larger rival Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, earned $2.96 million for fiscal 2026, while HCLTech HCLT.NS and Wipro WIPR.NS have not released their annual reports.

($1 = 95.0000 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Sai Ishwarbharath B; Editing by Jonathan Ananda)

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Adds Standard Chartered and Intuit

May 21 (Reuters) - Concerns are deepening among investors and economists that AI adoption will upend established industries, with job losses already emerging in sectors most exposed to automation.

Goldman Sachs economists said in February that AI was responsible for 5,000 to 10,000 monthly net job losses last year in the most exposed U.S. industries.

A survey by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas linked AI to 7% of total U.S. planned layoffs announced in January.

Below is a table of AI-linked global layoffs announced since October 2025 from biggest to smallest. Entries with no specified number are placed at the bottom.

(Reporting by Romolo Tosiani and Philippe Leroy Beaulieu in Gdansk, Additional reporting by Anshuman Tripathy; Editing by Matt Scuffham, Milla Nissi-Prussak, Jonathan Ananda, Devika Syamnath and Shilpi Majumdar)

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Adds graphic

By Aditya Soni and Abhirami G

May 19 (Reuters) - Microsoft's MSFT.O biggest data center in India is on track to open by mid-2026, its country head said on Tuesday, as the tech giant spends heavily to bolster its position in one of the world's largest markets for artificial intelligence services.

There's "massive demand" for Azure cloud services and the $30-a-month Copilot 365 AI assistant in the country, Puneet Chandok, president, Microsoft India and South Asia, told Reuters.

Like rivals Alphabet GOOGL.O and Amazon AMZN.O, Microsoft sees India as a potentially profitable market for AI thanks to its more than 1 billion internet users and deep tech talent.

Tapping that market is crucial as it looks to prove to investors that its massive bet on AI will pay off.

The company announced late last year that it would invest $17.5 billion in India, its biggest outlay in Asia, on top of the $3 billion pledged at the start of 2025.

That includes a new data center in the southern tech hub of Hyderabad, where Microsoft already has a significant presence.

"We are the ones who are bringing this to life quickly, the fastest out of the gates," Chandok said of the company's data center build-out, adding that the Hyderabad facility would be its biggest in India without disclosing exact capacity.

The new capacity will serve a growing customer base for AI services in India. Microsoft counts IT giants Infosys INFY.NS, Cognizant CTSH.O and Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS among Copilot customers, with about 50,000 licenses each.

Chandok also said the India operations are contributing to AI features Microsoft is rolling out globally. The company employs more than 22,000 people in the country across cities.

Hiring staff to develop the features is getting tougher as demand exceeds supply, causing a "war for talent," Chandok said.

"The challenges in India are the same as everywhere else in the world."

(Reporting by Aditya Soni and Abhirami G in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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The hosts are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.

By Aimee Donnellan and Una Galani

DUBLIN/HONG KONG, May 14 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Follow on Apple or Spotify. Listen on the Reuters app. Read the episode transcript.

Listen to the podcast

The country’s $4 trln consumer-led economy is already seeing a slowdown in hiring and firms like Oracle are laying off staff. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists explain why India is so vulnerable and how the situation may play out elsewhere.

Follow Aimee Donnellan on LinkedIn.

Follow Una Galani on LinkedIn and X.

FURTHER READING

AI job shock risks throttling India’s consumption

Poll wins spotlight India’s next spending crisis

India IT needs new model to code past AI crunch

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(Editing by Sheryl Peña and Gregory Garner; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

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Changes dateline, adds Cisco

May 13 (Reuters) - Concerns are deepening among investors and economists that artificial intelligence will upend established industries, with job losses already emerging in sectors most exposed to automation.

Goldman Sachs economists said in February that AI was responsible for 5,000 to 10,000 monthly net job losses last year in the most exposed U.S. industries.

A survey by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas linked AI to 7% of total U.S. planned layoffs announced in January.

Below is a table of AI-linked global layoffs announced since October from biggest to smallest. Entries with no specified number are placed at the bottom.

(Reporting by Romolo Tosiani and Philippe Leroy Beaulieu in Gdansk, Additional reporting by Anshuman Tripathy; Editing by Matt Scuffham, Milla Nissi-Prussak, Jonathan Ananda, Devika Syamnath and Shilpi Majumdar)

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Adds details on sector paragraph 2 onwards

May 12 (Reuters) - India's IT shares fell to a three-year low on Tuesday as investor jitters around the threat posed by artificial intelligence to flagship IT firms flared up again, after OpenAI announced a new AI venture.

The Nifty IT index .NIFTYIT fell 3.6% to its lowest since May 2023, with Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, Infosys INFY.NS, HCL Technologies HCLT.NS and Wipro WIPR.NS falling between 2.5% and 4%.

Analysts at HSBC said in a Tuesday note that India's top-tier IT firms largely failed to meet street expectations for earnings in March quarter as well as in their outlooks for the new financial year, adding that strong spending globally on AI could be "crowding out" demand for traditional IT services.

HSBC's warning comes a day after OpenAI said it is launching a new company backed by more than $4 billion, embedding engineers into organizations to identify where AI can make the most impact. It's the latest challenge to Indian IT firms' business model from a major AI company targeting enterprise clients.

Indian IT stocks are unlikely to attract positive investor interest unless global AI activity, cloud capex growth and cloud revenue momentum slow, HSBC said.

Indian IT companies derive a significant share of their revenue from North America and are considered sensitive to U.S. economic uncertainty and corporate technology spending trends.

The industry has been under pressure for much of 2026, starting with a February rout after the roll-out of Anthropic's Claude Code and on fears rapid advances in generative AI would disrupt demand for traditional IT and professional services.

India's IT stocks have slid 25.4% so far this year, making them India's worst-performing sector, compared with a 9.7% drop in the benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI.

March quarter results have done little to soothe investor worries. Dollar revenue at industry bellwether Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS shrank 0.5% year-on-year to $30 billion for the year ended March - the first decline since the company's 2004 IPO.

Industry peers have flagged challenges of meeting targets with limited visibility on demand: HCL Tech's CEO C Vijayakumar said in the company's post-earnings investor call it took "25%-30% more effort to convert and get to the same number" in terms of total contract value.

The broader Indian market remained under pressure on Tuesday, with the rupee sliding to a record low on elevated crude oil prices with talks to end the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran finding no success.

(Reporting by Chandini Monnappa, Surbhi Misra and Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Ronojoy Mazumdar)

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Changes dateline and adds Cloudflare

May 8 (Reuters) - Concerns are deepening among investors and economists that artificial intelligence will upend established industries, with job losses already emerging in sectors most exposed to automation.

Goldman Sachs economists said in February that AI was responsible for 5,000 to 10,000 monthly net job losses last year in the most exposed U.S. industries.

A survey by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas linked AI to 7% of total U.S. planned layoffs announced in January.

Below is a table of AI-linked global layoffs announced since October from biggest to smallest. Entries with no specified number are placed at the bottom.

(Reporting by Romolo Tosiani and Philippe Leroy Beaulieu in Gdansk; Editing by Matt Scuffham, Milla Nissi-Prussak, Jonathan Ananda and Devika Syamnath)

(([email protected]))

Recasts with closing levels

BENGALURU, May 6 (Reuters) - India's Coforge COFO.NS stock added more than $500 million in market capitalisation on Wednesday, closing 9.5% higher at 1,280 rupees, after the mid-tier IT firm forecast robust earnings and its margin beat surprised analysts.

Coforge's upbeat fiscal 2027 earnings outlook, supported by strong deal wins, order-book visibility and an improvement in operating margins, sharply contrasted the outlooks of larger peers Infosys INFY.NS and HCLTech HCLT.NS, which forecast subdued growth from AI-led spending caution and geopolitical tensions.

NSE data showed that the stock's put-call ratio - a measure of bearish bets relative to bullish ones - was at 0.53, signalling bullish positioning, with call volumes running at nearly twice the pace of puts.

Meanwhile, data also showed options traders unwound their bearish positions, with the 1300 contract being the most active for the day - suggesting the market is betting that Coforge's rally may still have room to run.

The stock logged its best session in more than a year and led gains on the Nifty IT index .NIFTYIT, which rose 0.5%. It was the stock's busiest day since 2023, with about 27 million shares changing hands - almost nine times its 30-day average.

Brokerage Jefferies said the results were a "clear positive surprise", citing a 230-basis-point sequential jump in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) margin to 16.6%, driven by lower costs and operating leverage.

"Coforge remains our preferred pick in the sector," said brokerage Jefferies. It hiked its price target to 1,860 rupees from 1,620 rupees and reiterated a "buy" rating, joining Prabhudas Lilladher, which also hiked PT to 2,020 rupees from 1,870.

Coforge on Tuesday forecast EBITDA growth of more than 20.5% on a consolidated basis in FY27 and announced that its March-quarter profit more than doubled from a year ago.

Strong deal wins and order-book growth provide visibility for double-digit organic growth, the firm said, even as it trimmed its lower-margin India business.

For the year, Coforge is down 23%, trailing the sub-index's 22% decline. The company also trades at a slight premium, with its 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio at 21.47, compared with the industry average of 18.42, as per LSEG data.

($1 = 95.0750 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Abhinav Parmar, Kashish Tandon and Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Harikrishnan Nair and Janane Venkatraman)

(([email protected];))

May 5 (Reuters) - CrowdStrike Holdings Inc CRWD.O:

• CROWDSTRIKE EXPANDS PROJECT QUILTWORKS, THE CYBERSECURITY COALITION FOR SECURING FRONTIER AI RISK

• CROWDSTRIKE - ARMADIN, COGNIZANT, HCLTECH, INFOSYS, KPMG, NTT DATA, TCS, WIPRO JOIN QUILTWORKS COALITION

• CROWDSTRIKE - INTEGRATES ANTHROPIC OPUS 4.7 AI INTO FALCON PLATFORM

Source text: ID:nBw1WDjhXa

Further company coverage: CRWD.O

(([email protected];))

** India's HCLTech HCLT.NS and Infosys INFY.NS down ~9.8% and 5.4%, respectively, in April

** Stocks on track for their third straight monthly decline and biggest monthly fall since February

** During the month, Nifty IT .NIFTYIT index is up ~1.5%

** Losses after INFY and HCLT forecast weak FY27 revenue growth

** Analysts said revenue growth at country's top IT firms seen muted as AI benefits offset by cautious client spending

** Investor sentiment weakened on fears agentic AI could disrupt the $315 billion sector and cannibalize earnings

** Since fourth-quarter results, HCLT down ~16.1% and INFY down ~4.8%

** YTD, HCLTech down ~25.6%, Infosys down ~26.8% vs Nifty IT's decline of ~22.3%; benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI index down ~8.3%

(Reporting by Bipasha Dey in Bengaluru)

(([email protected];))

Updates for markets open

April 24 (Reuters) - Indian shares opened lower on Friday, heading for a third consecutive session of losses, pressured by higher oil prices on Middle East tensions and a drop in IT stocks after Infosys issued a weak revenue forecast.

The Nifty 50 .NSEI fell 0.30% to 24,100.55, and the BSE Sensex .BSESN shed 0.23% to 77,483.80, as of 9:15 a.m. IST.

Eight of the 16 major sectors declined at the open. The broader small-caps .NIFSCMP100 and mid-caps .NIFMDCP100 rose 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively.

IT index .NIFTYIT fell 1.6%, dragged down by a 3.3% drop in Infosys INFY.NS.

The country's No. 2 IT company forecast annual revenue growth below market expectations due to macroeconomic uncertainty and tepid client spending. The outlook overshadowed better-than-expected fourth-quarter results.

Brent crude LCOc1 hovered around $106 after Iran displayed its grip over the Strait of Hormuz with a video of its commandos storming a cargo ship following the collapse of peace negotiations and U.S. President Donald Trump's indefinite extension of the ceasefire.

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)

(([email protected]; +91 9769003463;))

April 23 (Reuters) - Infosys Ltd INFY.NS:

• Q4 CONSOL NET PROFIT 85.01 BILLION RUPEES; IBES EST. 74.65 BILLION RUPEES

• Q4 CONSOL REVENUE 464.02 BILLION RUPEES; IBES EST. 460.30 BILLION RUPEES

• INCORPORATION OF A STEP DOWN WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF THE COMPANY IN JAPAN

• SEES FY27 REV GROWTH OF 1.5%-3.5%

• SEES FY27 OP MARGIN OF 20%-22%

• DIVIDEND OF 25 RUPEES/SHR

• Q4 LARGE DEAL TCV AT $3.2 BLN

Further company coverage: INFY.NS

(([email protected];;))

April 22 (Reuters) - Infosys Ltd INFY.NS:

• INFOSYS - INFOSYS ANNOUNCES STRATEGIC COLLABORATION WITH OPENAI

Source text: ID:nnAZN4SS1U7

Further company coverage: INFY.NS

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India File is published every Tuesday. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also subscribe here.

By Blaine Julian Rodrigues

Top Indian information technology firms are back in the spotlight as they report fourth-quarter earnings, with analysts predicting another lacklustre quarter.

War in the Middle East and weak discretionary spending by clients are expected to affect their earnings, which will be offset to a significant extent by a weaker rupee.

And that is before the sword of Damocles - concerns around artificial intelligence - is even mentioned.

Is the Indian IT sector in trouble or is there still reason to be optimistic? That is our main focus this week. Share your views at [email protected].

Plus, the instant home-help apps that are the newest consumer craze. Scroll down for more on that.

THIS WEEK IN ASIA

*IMF warns of Asia's vulnerability to war-induced energy shock

*India fails to pass parliament expansion bill linked to quotas for women

*Iran war drives up costs, spoils the mood at China's largest trade fair

*China turns Taiwan’s own voices against it in information war

*North Korea fires ballistic missiles again, flexing muscle amid Iran war

REVENUE GROWTH UNDER STRAIN

Investors are trying to read the tea leaves of IT companies' fourth-quarter results. Brokerages predict that for the top six firms - TCS TCS.NS, Infosys INFY.NS, HCL Tech HCLT.NS, Wipro WIPR.NS, Tech Mahindra TEML.NS and LTM - revenue and profit will likely rise about 10% year-on-year but that would be based largely on a weaker rupee than on underlying growth factors.

The $315 billion sector is a major contributor to India's economic growth and a top driver of its export earnings. It

last reported double-digit revenue growth in the March 2023 quarter.

What will also interest investors is what the top firms forecast for the year.

Last week, Wipro forecast a weak current quarter citing muted demand as its U.S. banking and financial clients cut spending.

That forecast by India's fourth-largest IT firm overshadowed a record share buyback of up to $1.61 billion and wiped out $670 million in its market capitalisation.

Meanwhile, India's top software-services exporter TCS reported better-than-expected quarterly results including $12 billion in deal wins. However, analysts were disappointed with the 2.4% drop in full-year dollar revenue.

Jefferies analysts said ⁠the results offered limited evidence of any meaningful uptick in demand and that an uncertain growth outlook could drive underperformance in the stock.

You can read more in this analysis on how foreign investors have grown wary of India and the cascading effect it is having on earnings and equities.

THE AI QUESTION

If this were a gameshow the multibillion-dollar question would be - what is the impact of generative AI on the Indian IT sector?

Investor concerns about AI disrupting the Indian IT sector's traditional labour-heavy operating model wiped off about $68.6 billion in market value in February.

Comments from TCS management would seem to show no cause for concern at the moment. They said new artificial intelligence models and ​tools in the market did not hurt demand for its offerings.

TCS and Wipro have also sought to assure investors. In February TCS CEO K Krithivasan told a forum that they were encouraging employees to use AI and not to resist the change that it brings even if it cannibalises revenue.

TCS, which also provides AI services to its clients, said its annualised AI revenue crossed $2.3 billion ​in the fourth quarter, driven by accelerated deployments across industries, up from $1.8 billion in the third quarter.

Analysts, however, say that TCS still has some ground to cover on the AI front.

In February, Wipro also maintained that they expect rapid AI adoption to boost rather than shrink demand for software service providers.

Brokerages predict that Infosys and HCL Tech, which are reporting this week, are likely to provide revenue forecasts of a rise between 2%-4% and 4%-6%, respectively, for the fiscal year 2027.

HSBC analysts say that even a modest revenue forecast could support stock prices, noting valuations currently reflect only low-single-digit growth.

MARKET MATTERS

Equity investors have sold about $38 billion of Indian shares since the start of 2025. Foreign outflows stood at $12.7 billion in March alone.

The Iran war has hit earnings, adding fresh pressure on equities and has amplified concerns among equity investors.

Brokerages have begun cutting earnings forecasts with Goldman Sachs lowering its earnings forecast for India by a cumulative 9 percentage points over the next two years.

Nomura has cut its December 2026 target for the Nifty 50 by 15% to 24,600.

THIS WEEK'S MUST READ

India has a new obsession: a domestic helper at your door in minutes for just $1 an hour. Companies are training thousands of workers and fighting for a slice of a $9 billion market where customers are booking maids to peel potatoes and sort LEGO blocks by colour.

The catch? The startups fuelling the frenzy are losing $4 on every order, leaving both worker safety and profitability as problems no one has cracked yet.

Read here for more on that.

(Reporting By Blaine Julian Rodrigues; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

(([email protected];))

Adds Snap in the table

April 15 (Reuters) - Investors' and economists' concerns that artificial intelligence will upend established industries are deepening, with job losses already emerging in sectors most exposed to automation.

Goldman Sachs economists said in February that AI was responsible for 5,000 to 10,000 monthly net job losses last year in the most exposed U.S. industries.

A survey by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas linked AI to 7% of total U.S. planned layoffs announced in January.

Below is a table of AI-linked global layoffs announced since October from biggest to smallest. Entries with no specified number are placed at the bottom.

(Reporting by Romolo Tosiani and Philippe Leroy Beaulieu in Gdansk; Editing by Matt Scuffham and Milla Nissi-Prussak)

(([email protected];))

April 9 (Reuters) - Australia's Bendigo and Adelaide Bank BEN.AX posted a 12.8% rise in third-quarter earnings on Thursday, buoyed by wider margins and strong lending growth, and announced job cuts tied to new strategic partnerships with Infosys and Genpact.

The lender posted cash earnings after tax of A$137.9 million ($97.1 million) for the quarter ended March 31, compared with cash earnings of A$122.2 million a year earlier.

Net interest margin rose 1.98% for the period, up 6 basis points from the previous quarter.

At the same time, the bank announced partnerships with Infosys INFY.NS and Genpact G.N, moves that it said will lead to changes in its technology and business operations teams.

"Decisions that impact our people are never easy. We acknowledge this will be a challenging time for our people and we are committed to lead these changes with care and respect," said CEO and Managing Director Richard Fennell.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank expects the changes to deliver annual run rate expense benefit of approximately A$65 million-A$75 million to be realised by fiscal 2028, while incurring upfront transition costs of roughly A$85 million-A$95 million.

Under the arrangements, the bank's seven-year technology services deal with Infosys will provide access to artificial intelligence and digital talent, while its six-year tie-up with Genpact will "bring deep expertise in process optimisation and delivery", the bank said in a statement.

Shares of the lender jumped as much as 5.4% to A$11.02, their highest level since February 23. The stock was the top percentage gainer on the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 .AXJO index.

($1 = A$1.4198)

(Reporting by Nichiket Sunil in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)

(([email protected];))

By Haripriya Suresh and Bharath Rajeswaran

BENGALURU, April 6 (Reuters) - Top Indian information technology firms are set to report another lacklustre quarter, with revenue and profit seen rising around 10% year-on-year largely on a weaker rupee rather than underlying growth, seven brokerages said.

Uncertainties due to wars, weak discretionary spending and concerns around artificial intelligence will keep weighing on client budgets, making the revenue forecast for the next fiscal year a key focus for investors, they added.

Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, Infosys INFY.NS, HCLTech HCLT.NS and other software services exporters are due to report fourth quarter results starting April 9.

"We expect limited deal win surprises, patchy ex-BFSI growth and slow start to (the first half of 2027) on macro/gen AI uncertainty," Ambit Capital analysts said in a preview note.

The Indian rupee fell 4% against the U.S. dollar during the March quarter, and slid to record low levels.

Software services companies typically benefit as they bill in foreign currencies while incurring most costs in rupees, inflating profits when dollar revenues are converted.

The $315 billion sector, employing about 5.9 million people, last reported double-digit revenue growth in the March 2023 quarter. Since then, demand has softened as clients cut discretionary spending, deal cycles lengthened, and spending shifted towards cost optimisation and AI-led projects.

Infosys and HCLTech are likely to provide annual revenue forecasts of a rise between 2%-4% and 4%-6% respectively for the fiscal year 2027, the brokerages said.

Revenue for the top six firms -- TCS, Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro WIPR.NS, Tech Mahindra TEML.NS, and LTM LTIM.NS -- is expected to grow about 10.9% year-on-year in the March quarter, with net profit rising 10.3%.

On a constant currency basis, or stripping out exchange-rate effects, the top four IT firms are more likely to see revenue rise only 1.8% for the year, Ambit said.

Analysts at Yes Securities said performance was likely to be uneven, with relative resilience in banking and financial services, while retail, healthcare, and hi-tech segments could face pressure due to higher exposure to discretionary spending.

"Our recent interactions suggest that overall client budgets have not increased materially and discretionary spending remains at bay," analysts at Jefferies said in a preview note.

However, even a modest revenue forecast could support stock prices, HSBC analysts said, noting valuations currently reflect only low-single-digit growth.

While the fears around the impact due to AI are "difficult to validate or falsify, the burden of proof now sits with IT companies. Re-rating, thus, depends on proof of surviving and thriving," said analysts at Motilal Oswal.

Shares of IT companies .NIFTYIT are down 20% so far this year, on investor worries that advanced AI tools launched by Anthropic and Palantir could disrupt IT's traditional business models and cannibalise business. The Nifty 50 .NSEI is down 13%.

(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh and Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)

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March 31 (Reuters) - Infosys Ltd INFY.NS:

• INFOSYS - EXPECTS CUMULATIVE TAX REFUND OF 17.45 BILLION RUPEES INCLUDING INTEREST

Source text: ID:nNSEc3vV50

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March 25 (Reuters) - Infosys Ltd INFY.NS:

• INFOSYS FINACLE TO POWER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FOR PRODUCERS SAVINGS BANK CORPORATION IN PHILIPPINE

Source text: ID:nNSE1bC7DN

Further company coverage: INFY.NS

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