WIPRO

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];))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Ujjaini Dutta

BENGALURU, April 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - "AI deflation" is the new popular shorthand for an uncomfortable truth: getting paid less for doing the same amount of work. Coding tools such as those made by Anthropic's Claude are eroding pricing power of India's top IT services companies far faster than expected. For the $315 billion industry, it heralds a reset toward outcomes rather than hours-based billing.

HCL Technologies HCLT.NS on Tuesday cut its revenue guidance in constant currency terms to 1%-4% for the year to March 2027, after missing its 4%-4.5% target. Its shares fell 11% the next day, wiping out $4.5 billion in market value. The plummeting growth is a far cry from the expectation that firms would unlock more work in the short-term as clients modernise legacy code and clean up data for AI infrastructure, even if it comes at a lower cost.

Indeed, deal wins and toplines show little sign of that support. U.S. dollar revenue at the $97 billion industry leader Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS shrank 0.5% year-on-year to $30 billion for the year ended March 2026 - its first decline since the company's initial public offering in 2004. Wipro's WIPR.NS annual IT services segment revenue contracted 0.3% as well.

It is getting harder to secure contracts too: HCLTech CEO C Vijayakumar admitted in the company's post-earnings investor call that the total contract value of deals in the quarter ended March remained largely flat but it took "25%-30% more effort to convert and get to the same number." There is also margin compression: HCLTech's net profit margin stood at 12.8% in the year to March, compared to 14.9% in the previous year.

So what happens when the models keep improving and more services fall under generative AI capabilities? Anthropic's latest model, Mythos, is deemed so powerful at finding software vulnerabilities that the company is, for now, holding back releasing it to the wider public.

It points to a heavy remodelling how Indian IT functions. Charging by hour is a dead end. One option is to guarantee outcomes and agree remuneration by way of a share of revenue or cost-savings achieved by a client. Some firms, including HCLTech, already do a little bit of this but the risks are harder to manage. Revenue and earnings could become much more volatile.

Shares of Tata Consultancy -- one of India's most important white-collar employers -- are down nearly 21% since Anthropic's coding tools were released in early 2025. The country's IT sector has lived through many technology transitions, but debugging its model in the AI era may prove harder than usual.

Follow Ujjaini Dutta on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

Shares of HCLTech fell nearly 11% on April 22 after the Indian IT services firm on the prior day slashed its full year revenue guidance to 1%-4% year-on-year growth in constant currency terms for the year to March 2027, down from 4%-4.5% guided for the previous financial year.

"The business environment remains highly fluid, ​making it difficult to form a definitive view of how the ​next 12 ⁠months will unfold," said CEO C Vijayakumar in a post-earnings call.

Wipro on April 16 reported IT services segment revenue of $10.5 billion, down 0.3% year-on-year. The company announced a record share buyback of up to 150 billion rupees ($1.61 billion) and said it expects June‑quarter revenue to range from a 2% sequential decline to flat growth.

Tata Consultancy Services on April 9 reported its U.S. dollar revenue fell 0.5% year-on-year to $30 billion for the year ended March 31. In constant currency terms, revenue fell 2.4%.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

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

Rewrites throughout and updates closing levels

By Urvi Dugar and Pranav Kashyap

April 22, BENGALURU - HCLTech HCLT.NS lost $4.5 billion in market capitalisation on Wednesday after it projected fiscal 2027 revenue growth below estimates, with restrained client spending raising fresh doubts over a recovery in India's $315 billion IT industry.

The weakness points to sector-wide challenges rather than a company-specific issue, Goldman Sachs analysts said, citing subdued discretionary spending, slower project ramp‑ups and ongoing macro pressures that suggest a meaningful demand recovery may remain elusive.

Top Indian IT companies have been beset by uncertainties over the last year from U.S. tariff and immigration policies as well as geopolitical turmoil in the Middle East, with clients choosing to focus on optimising costs.

HCLTech shares ended the session down 10.7% at 1,286 rupees, losing the most in a day in more than 10 years. Its fourth‑quarter earnings also missed analyst estimates.

The gloom spilled across the IT pack, dragging larger peers Infosys INFY.NS and Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS down 3.4% and 3%, respectively, and the sub-index .NIFTYIT down 3.9%.

HCLTech's trading volumes surged as panic selling gripped investors, with 33.06 million shares changing hands—the busiest session since November 2012, and nearly 10 times the 30-day average. Meanwhile, at least six brokerages cut their price target, with Jefferies also downgrading the stock to "Underperform" from "Hold".

NSE data for HCLTech's May 26 expiry contracts showed a jump in put-buying at the 1,200‑rupee strike, with open interest swelling to 6,863 contracts by market close, and heavy call writing at 1,300.

The former implies investors are betting on the stock falling further by around 7% while the latter suggests limited scope for a near‑term rebound.

"The business environment remains highly fluid, making it difficult to form a definitive view of how the next 12 months will unfold," said CEO C Vijayakumar in a post-earnings call.

He also called out specific project scaledowns from two clients in the Americas region, which could shave about 0.5% off annual growth.

Tech Mahindra TEML.NS staged a partial comeback to close 2.5% down, after sliding nearly 6%, following a fourth-quarter revenue beat.

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar and Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Ronojoy Mazumdar and Janane Venkatraman)

(([email protected]; +91 9558725583;))

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];))

Updates for markets open

April 17 (Reuters) - India's equity benchmarks opened little changed on Friday as a weak first-quarter forecast by IT company Wipro offset broader optimism over a potential peace deal to end the Iran war.

The Nifty 50 .NSEI fell 0.13% to 24,165.90 and the Sensex .BSESN shed 0.02% to 77,976.13 as of 9:15 a.m. IST.

Seven of the 16 major sectors declined at open. The broader small-caps .NIFSMCP100 and mid-caps .NIFMDCP100 added 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively.

IT index fell 0.5%, dragged by a 2.5% drop in Wipro WIPR.NS after it posted lackluster quarterly results and forecast muted demand for the first quarter, citing spending curbs by its U.S. banking and financial clients.

Asian markets .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 1% as fuel supply concerns and doubts over whether upcoming U.S.-Iran peace talks would help ease disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz weighed on risk sentiment. MKTS/GLOB

A 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect on Thursday and President Donald Trump said the next U.S.-Iran meeting may take place over the weekend.

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Mrigank Dhaniwala)

(([email protected];))

April 15 (Reuters) - Wipro Ltd WIPR.NS:

• WIPRO - SIGNS DEFINITIVE AGREEMENT TO BUY ALPHA NET CONSULTING LLC CUSTOMER CONTRACTS

• WIPRO - PURCHASE CONSIDERATION UP TO $70.8 MILLION FOR ACQUISITION

Source text: ID:nBSE4th0Gh

Further company coverage: WIPR.NS

(([email protected];;))

Recasts throughout; adds CEO, COO and analyst comments

By Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B

BENGALURU, April 9 (Reuters) - Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS reported better-than-expected quarterly results on Thursday and said that new artificial intelligence models and tools in the market did not hurt demand for its offerings.

The comments from India's top software-services exporter offered some relief to the $315 billion sector, which has been grappling with investor concerns that AI could disrupt its traditional, labour-intensive business model.

"FY26 was a pivotal year for enterprise AI adoption across industries. For the first time since the advent of generative AI in late 2022, the shift from experimentation to scaled AI deployment showed a marked improvement," TCS Chief Operating Officer Aarthi Subramanian said.

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.

Some analysts were, however, not impressed with the number. "It is pretty minuscule," said Anshul Jethi, analyst at LKP Securities, comparing it to the size at which TCS is currently operating right now and its future AI plans. Others said TCS still had ground to cover on the AI front.

"TCS is not behind, but it is not yet leading. The next 12 to 24 months will depend on whether it can move from AI capability to AI-led business models that scale beyond pilots and into core client operations," said Phil Fersht, CEO of IT advisory firm HFS Research.

It is the first major Indian IT company to report fourth-quarter results. Rivals Infosys INFY.NS, Wipro WIPR.NS and HCLTech HCLT.NS are set to report later this month.

TCS reported a 9.7% rise in sales to 706.98 billion rupees ($7.63 billion), and a 12.2% jump in net profit to 137.18 billion rupees ($1.48 billion) in the quarter.

Analysts had expected sales of 694.94 billion rupees and a net profit of 136.46 billion rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG.

"Every revenue band saw a healthy addition this quarter after a gap of about two years. This speaks to the early signs of stability and growth returning to our mid-size and large accounts," TCS CEO K Krithivasan said.

Revenue from North America, which accounts for nearly half of TCS's revenue, grew 2.5% in the fourth quarter.

The company's quarterly order book stood at $12 billion, compared with $9.3 billion in the third quarter and $12.2 billion a year earlier.

($1 = 92.6575 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee, Dhanya Skariachan and Shinjini Ganguli)

(([email protected]))

April 5 (Reuters) - Wipro Ltd WIPR.NS:

• WIPRO - TO ACQUIRE 100% SHAREHOLDING IN MINDSPRINT PTE. LTD. AND ITS SUBSIDIARIES

Source text: ID:nPLX20C717

Further company coverage: WIPR.NS

(([email protected];))

Corrects typographical error in media packaging code

April 1 (Reuters) - Indian IT services firm Wipro WIPR.NS on Wednesday named insider Nagendra Bandaru as the CEO of its AI segment.

(Reporting by Nishit Navin; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

(([email protected];))

March 31 (Reuters) - Wipro Ltd WIPR.NS:

• WIPRO - MERGER OF RIZING CONSULTING USA WITH RIZING LLC IS COMPLETED

Source text: ID:nnAZN4SOAMI

Further company coverage: WIPR.NS

(([email protected];))

March 23 (Reuters) - Wipro Ltd WIPR.NS:

• WIPRO - EXPANDS STRATEGIC PRESENCE IN SOUTH KOREA, LAUNCHES INNOVATION LAB IN SEOUL

Source text: ID:nnAZN4SMMR2

Further company coverage: WIPR.NS

(([email protected];))

March 17 (Reuters) - Wipro Ltd WIPR.NS:

• WIPRO AND HARNESS ANNOUNCE STRATEGIC COLLABORATION TO ACCELERATE AI-NATIVE SOFTWARE DELIVERY FOR GLOBAL ENTERPRISES

Source text: ID:nPn7jlQvTa

Further company coverage: WIPR.NS

(([email protected];))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Una Galani

HONG KONG, March 4 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Is the global selloff in enterprise software and services stocks an overreaction? Maybe not in India. New tools released by Anthropic point towards increasing automation of work that "once required armies of consultants spending years mapping workflows", according to the owner of Claude large language models. The stakes are higher for the world's fourth-largest economy, where a reduction of IT services exports by Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, Infosys INFY.NS, Wipro WIPR.NS and others or a cut in the size of foreign firms' global capability centres could upend the macroeconomic stability the country has enjoyed.

Providing services to global companies including JPMorgan JPM.N, Goldman Sachs GS.N and Exxon Mobil XOM.N created massive wealth, spurred the rise of major cities like Hyderabad and Bengaluru and created a wall of money that has propelled the stock market, property prices and well-heeled Indians' spending power. Moreover, it also generates foreign exchange earnings that help slow the depreciation of the Indian rupee, which, in turn, keeps a check on imported inflation for the energy-hungry country.

An analysis of Reserve Bank of India data by Samiran Chakraborty, an economist at Citigroup, is sobering. It concludes growth in India's exports of software and other services has, in the recent past, more than offset the widening trade deficit in goods. With further support from remittances of Indians overseas, the current account deficit fell to 0.7% of GDP in the fiscal year to the end of March 2025.

In a scenario of no growth in software exports in fiscal year 2027, Chakraborty estimates most of India's projected surplus in services, roughly $20 billion, would be wiped out. That would weigh on an already weak rupee: in 2025, it declined 5% against the U.S. dollar and was the worst-performing major currency in Asia.

True, India's software services exports have grown 9.5% annually over the past decade – three times the rate of its goods exports – and Citi forecasts 8% for the year to March 2027. What's more, IT firms typically have contracts that last between three to seven years, and so AI disruption – in this case, clients renegotiating terms – ought to be gradual.

But there is widespread fear that automation tools like those from Anthropic could hollow out these industries faster. This fear is reflected in the 20% drop in India's benchmark Nifty IT index since the start of the year. Several executives at top global firms have also told Breakingviews they expect to have fewer people working in their India-based global capability centres in the coming years. Given India's heavy reliance on services in its external accounts, the software apocalypse spells trouble for returns on all rupee-denominated assets. That justifies selling the rumour and buying the fact.

Follow Una Galani on Linkedin and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

India’s Nifty IT Index has fallen 20% so far this year. The Indian rupee has declined 1.3% against the U.S. dollar over the same period.

(Editing by Robyn Mak; Production by Ujjaini Dutta)

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

By Haripriya Suresh

MUMBAI, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Fears that new artificial intelligence tools could replace large IT services firms are "overblown" as clients still need help deploying and scaling the technology, Babak Hodjat, chief AI officer at Cognizant CTSH.O, told Reuters in an interview.

Automated AI tools from startups such as Anthropic have stirred concerns about disruption in the business models of software and services firms globally, including India's traditionally labour-intensive IT services industry.

Enterprises are far from being able to rely on a single, all-purpose AI agent, said Hodjat, adding that most clients still need help engineering, integrating, and governing AI systems.

"That mapping is our job, it does not come just automatically out of the box," said Hodjat, whose work helped power Apple's AAPL.O Siri voice assistant.

Nasdaq-listed Cognizant, which has more than 70% of its workforce operating out of India, forecast annual revenue above Wall Street estimates on the back of strong demand as businesses adopt AI into their workflows.

Rivals Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS and Wipro WIPR.NS have also maintained that rapid AI adoption will boost, rather than shrink, demand for software service providers.

Hodjat's vote of confidence in the role of services companies comes despite AI-related job cuts already underway.

Shipping and logistics management software company WiseTech Global WTC.AX said it would lay off nearly a third of its workforce as it integrates AI into its customer software and internal operations. TCS announced 12,000 job cuts last year, but has since denied to local media that the layoffs were AI-related.

Cognizant, which generates about 30% of its code through AI and aims to reach 50%, is not worried about automation eliminating entry-level jobs. CEO Ravi Kumar S said during the company's earnings call earlier this month that it hired 25,000 fresh graduates in 2025, and expects to exceed that in 2026.

Almost all of Cognizant's clients have already tried to work with AI agents, Hodjat said, but have acknowledged that they need us to deploy it within their systems for returns.

(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh in Mumbai; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

(([email protected]))

By Bharath Rajeswaran

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Indian shares have lagged their Asian and emerging market peers so far in February, pressured by a $68.6 billion rout in the market value of information technology stocks, as investors fretted over disruptions linked to artificial intelligence.

The Nifty 50 index .NSEI has risen 0.4% so far this month, while the Sensex .BSESN edged 0.1% lower, underperforming both the MSCI Asia ex-Japan and MSCI Emerging Markets indexes.

The 10 Nifty IT constituents .NIFTYIT have lost a combined $68.6 billion in market capitalisation in February, as of the last close, with the index down 21% and on course for its worst monthly performance in nearly 23 years.

All 10 index members have fallen between 16.8% and 27% in February to date. Coforge COFO.NS is the steepest percentage decliner, down 26.8%, while Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS and Infosys INFY.NS have led the value erosion, losing about $21.9 billion and $16.3 billion in market value, respectively.

The selloff reflects growing concerns that rapidly advancing automation tools could compress project timelines and disrupt the labour-intensive delivery model underpinning India's roughly $300-billion IT services industry.

Investors have zeroed in on the AI-driven automation push from U.S. firms such as Anthropic and Palantir, heightening concerns over faster project execution, pricing pressure and reduced billable hours.

Brokerages warn the Indian IT sector could face further pressure if AI starts to eat into application services revenue, which typically accounts for 40% to 70% of total revenue for these companies.

"There are no easy answers to whether AI eventually renders IT services obsolete over the long term," said analysts led by Abhishek Pathak of Motilal Oswal.

"The narrative that AI is coming for not just IT but large swathes of the economy could be too strong to shake, at least in the short term," Motilal Oswal analysts said.

A slowdown or contraction in India's IT sector, whether through layoffs or reduced hiring, can have immediate consequences on both residential and commercial real estate demand. The Nifty Realty index .NIFTYREAL has risen roughly 2% in February, following a nearly 18% decline over the past three months.

Concerns over Indian IT companies have also accelerated foreign selling in the sector in 2026 so far.

While FPIs have turned buyers of Indian stocks in February on an overall basis, they pulled out about 110 billion rupees ($1.21 billion) from IT stocks in the first half of February, following a record 750 billion rupees of net selling in 2025.

($1 = 90.8980 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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

Rewrites, adds details, background, quotes

By Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B

MUMBAI, Feb 24 (Reuters) - India's information technology sector is forecast to surpass $300 billion in revenue for the first time in the current fiscal year, an industry body said on Tuesday, amid challenges and opportunities arising from artificial intelligence.

Indian IT stocks have slumped in recent weeks, tracking global peers as investors worry that advanced AI tools would disrupt the traditional business models of software firms, shaving billions off their market value.

Nasscom, the Indian IT industry body, expects the sector to grow 6.1% year-on-year to $315 billion in the fiscal ending on March 31, as global IT services pick up pace, driven by easing tariff and trade tensions and rising AI investments. Revenue growth will be similar in the next fiscal year, it said.

"AI is compressing traditional work but expanding other areas of work," said Srikanth Velamakanni, vice chairperson of Nasscom.

"The net balance is what you're seeing... There is not a single proposal in any tech company anywhere in the world that's going without AI in it. It is now an inevitable, fundamental part of every proposal in every company."

Nasscom projects fiscal 2026 AI revenue from services firms around $10 billion to $12 billion, but clarified that this does not include AI-specific revenues for all firms and revenues are set to rise "significantly" in the next few years.

India's leading IT service providers, including Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, Infosys INFY.NS, and HCLTech HCLT.NS, are hopeful about better demand in the next fiscal year.

Overall, the country's IT industry is expected to add a net 135,000 jobs in the fiscal year, taking the total headcount to 5.95 million, Nasscom said.

(Reporting by Sai Ishwarbharath B and Haripriya Suresh; Writing by Kashish Tandon; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

((mailto: [email protected];))

Corrects to "executive" from "CTO" in headline, adds designation in paragraph 3

By Haripriya Suresh

BENGALURU, Feb 23 (Reuters) - India's Wipro WIPR.NS expects rapid AI adoption to boost rather than shrink demand for software service providers, a top executive said, countering concerns that the technology threatens the industry's outsourcing model.

The $283 billion sector has been hit by a sharp market selloff amid investor fears that AI tools could upend its traditional, labour-intensive operating model.

"When you look at the entire gamut of things that's possible, it really appears like a large opportunity for us," Chief Strategist and Technology Officer Hari Shetty said in an interview, adding that he expected AI to create more jobs than it displaces.

"What you're seeing today is basically task automation. What we are really talking about is autonomous enterprise, which is a completely different ball game that will require IT services companies to work deeply with clients to actually convert them."

Calling AI "probably the single biggest opportunity" for the industry and comparable to the discovery of electricity or the internet, he said current debates focus too narrowly on automation while missing a broader structural shift.

Citing World Economic Forum estimates, he said AI could create 170 million jobs globally while disrupting roughly 92 million, adding that India's IT sector will see strong demand for skills such as model training, data curation, and responsible AI.

"The primary differentiation here is people who know AI and people who do not know AI," he said.

Shetty argued that, much like cloud computing, AI will broaden rather than diminish the responsibilities of service providers.

Wipro continues to see strong demand for younger, "AI literate" engineers, he said, countering predictions that the industry's traditional staffing pyramid will hollow out.

What companies need are partners who understand their domain processes deeply enough to help them transition to "autonomous enterprises," a shift he expects will shape the next decade of technology spending.

"We clearly think AI is a dominant force, at least for the next decade to two decades, in terms of the kind of business that it will drive," he said.

(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Skariachan and Ronojoy Mazumdar)

(([email protected]))

Updates with analyst commentary in paragraphs 6 and 7, parent results in paragraph 9

By Praveen Paramasivam and Komal Salecha

Feb 12 (Reuters) - Hindustan Unilever HLL.NS reported a 15% decline in quarterly profit on Thursday, pressured by thinner margins as the consumer goods major cut some product prices to counter rising competition, sending shares lower.

The local subsidiary of UK's Unilever ULVR.L, home to Dove and Surf Excel brands, said its profit from continuing operations fell to 25.90 billion rupees ($286.05 million) for the quarter ended December 31.

Shares fell as much as 4.6% after the results.

Total expenses climbed 5%, with EBITDA margins shrinking by 70 basis points from a year earlier to 23.3%, after Hindustan Unilever cut prices in its tea business and home care portfolios, partly to stave off competition.

Hindustan Unilever has grappled with stiff competition in fabric care from startups as well as Ariel detergent maker Procter & Gamble PG.N and India's Godrej Consumer Products GOCP.NS.

Three analysts said Hindustan Unilever's margins missed their estimates. Akshay D'Souza, an independent consumer goods consultant, said the company's focus on distribution-led growth, a slower pace of launches and acquisition spending have squeezed margins.

However, its sales growth improved, rising 4% from a year earlier to 156.14 billion rupees. A 4% increase in sales volume growth is "a bright spot," said Ajay Thakur, research analyst at Anand Rathi Institutional Equities.

Consumer goods makers, including Britannia Industries BRIT.NS and Hindustan Unilever, expect demand to pick up after several subdued quarters, supported by tax cuts and easing inflation that have bolstered urban spending.

Hindustan Unilever expects the fiscal year starting April to be better than the current year. But its parent firm expects 2026 sales growth to be at the lower end of its forecast after a slowdown in the U.S. and Europe.

Hindustan Unilever on Thursday also said it would buy the remaining 49% stake in plant-based food brand Oziva for 8.24 billion rupees.

($1 = 90.5450 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Komal Salecha in Bengaluru and Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

(([email protected];))

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.

Feb 10 - By Nidhi C Sai, Editor Online Production, with global Reuters staff

A global selloff in software stocks sparked by rapid advances in artificial intelligence has rippled to India's shores.

For its $283 billion IT industry built on labour-intensive outsourcing, the ramifications could be substantial. Is this just a bout of AI anxiety that will pass or does the industry need to evolve structurally? That's our focus this week.

Plus, India has scrapped proposed concessions for small cars in upcoming fuel-emissions rules to level the playing field. Scroll down for more on that.

THIS WEEK IN ASIA

China critic Jimmy Lai sentenced to 20 years in jail after landmark Hong Kong trial

As Japan's Takaichi creates election history, only markets stand in her way

China set to widen footprint in Bangladesh as India's ties decline

Thai PM Anutin's poll win calms turmoil but hard economic test awaits

Bangladesh votes in world's first Gen Z-inspired election

A 30-YEAR LEGACY UNDER PRESSURE

Indian IT stocks are facing a moment of reckoning. The launch of plug-ins for Anthropic's Claude Cowork agent, designed to automate tasks across legal, sales, marketing and data analysis, has rattled investors and triggered a sharp selloff last week in what has long been one of India's most reliable growth engines.

Indian software exporters lost $22.5 billion in market value last week, with the Nifty IT index .NIFTYIT falling about 7%, marking its steepest weekly fall in more than four months. The rout mirrored a brutal global selloff. Roughly $800 billion was wiped off the S&P 500 software and services index .SPLRCIS before a rebound, its worst performance against the broader market in 25 years, according to SocGen.

Some analysts warn that the IT sector, the flagship for India's exports since the 1990s, could be vulnerable to rapid advances in AI.

"The market fears (the AI tools) may replace IT services that are currently outsourced. What the real impact will be remains to be seen," said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments.

Jefferies struck a darker tone. "There is more pain ahead for Indian IT," it said, adding that Anthropic's and Palantir's PLTR.O claims highlight how AI could potentially erode application-service revenues. "With application services accounting for 40%–70% of revenues, firms face growth pressures, and consensus growth estimates do not fully reflect this, posing downside risks to valuations," Jefferies said.

Brokerage Motilal Oswal estimates that 9%-12% of industry revenues could be eliminated over the next four years due to AI-led disruption.

The timing is particularly relevant. India's IT industry is otherwise benefiting from geopolitical tailwinds, with trade deals struck with the United States and the European Union expected to support cross-border services exports and reinforce India's position as a trusted technology partner.

But those policy positives offer little insulation from technological shock. While trade deals can help expand the volume of outsourced work, AI-led automation threatens to compress project timelines and reduce billable hours, striking at the labour-intensive model that has underpinned India's IT boom for decades.

PANIC OR EARLY WARNING?

Not everyone feels this is an existential threat. Some analysts see a classic case of markets running ahead of fundamentals.

Centrum Broking's Piyush Pandey called the selloff a “knee-jerk” reaction. "AI tools have been in the works, and this is how the industry is now shaping up. However, they are not expected to materially disrupt the industry as of now," he said.

JPMorgan said it was "illogical to extrapolate the launch of some tools to an expectation that companies will replace every layer of mission-critical enterprise software," while Kotak Institutional Equities described the decline as "plenty of panic over a little flutter".

That view is echoed at the very top of the AI value chain. Nvidia NVDA.O CEO Jensen Huang dismissed fears that AI will replace software as "the most illogical thing in the world". "If you were a human or robot… would you use tools or reinvent tools? The answer, obviously, is to use tools," he said.

Still, others remain cautious. "Surely, there would be other tools in the making… we don't foresee the glory days of the IT sector… returning soon," CapGrow Capital's Arun Malhotra said.

It is not that India's IT behemoths - TCS TCS.NS, Infosys INFY.NS and Wipro WIPR.NS - are sitting quietly. Infosys is forming new AI-led partnerships, TCS is embedding AI more deeply into its services, and Wipro is saying AI now underpins many of the deals it is chasing globally.

But can they adapt fast enough, or is AI rewriting the rules of outsourcing? Write to me at [email protected].

MARKET MATTERS

The U.S.–India trade deal has lifted the cloud over an unloved Indian rupee and may be enough to pause relentless foreign selling in stocks. But investors say a durable turnaround will require a rebound in earnings growth and stronger fundamentals.

The long-awaited agreement, announced first by President Donald Trump last week, sparked a market rally and the rupee's best gain in seven years, signalling improving diplomatic and trade ties with Washington.

Read this analysis on how India's markets are getting tariff relief but are not a buy yet, by Reuters journalists Jaspreet Kalra, Ankur Banerjee and Karin Strohecker.

Read more on how the India-U.S. trade deal is giving tariff-free access to Harley bikes, but no reprieve for Tesla TSLA.O.

THIS WEEK'S MUST READ

India has dropped a proposed fuel-efficiency concession for small cars after rival automakers argued it would disproportionately benefit market leader Maruti Suzuki MRTI.NS.

The revised draft tightens emissions rules across the board, removes weight-based leniency and introduces a steeper reduction pathway, increasing pressure on all car makers to accelerate electric and hybrid vehicle sales.

Read this exclusive report by Reuters journalist Aditi Shah.

(Reporting by Nidhi C Sai; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

(([email protected]; +91 70456 55251))

Feb 6 (Reuters) - Indian software exporters shares .NIFTYIT fell about 2% on Friday and were headed for their worst week in over four months, as rapid advances in artificial intelligence deepened worries that high-margin application-services revenues for Indian IT firms could come under pressure.

The sub-index was the biggest sectoral loser on the day, with all 10 constituents trading in the red. Coforge COFO.NS led losses with its 3.8% drop.

TCS TCS.NS and Infosys INFY.NS fell nearly 2% each. Nifty 50 .NSEI was down 0.3%.

The IT index has dropped 6.8% so far this week and was set for its biggest drop since September 2025.

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

(([email protected]; 8800437922;))