A FUTURE READY INDIA

IN A JAM-PACKED DAY OF STIMULATING CONVERSATIONS AND SCINTILLATING REPARTEE AT BUSINESS TODAY'S INDIA@100 EVENT, SOME OF THE LEADING PERSONALITIES FROM INDIA’S BUSINESS AND POLITICAL CIRCLES HELD FORTH ON THE CHALLENGES AND POSITIVES THAT LIE AHEAD FOR INDIA WHEN IT REACHES ITS 100TH YEAR OF ACHIEVING INDEPENDENCE

- PRANAY PRAKASH

THE MOONLIGHTING DEBATE

AMID THE RAGING debate on ‘moonlighting’ that has taken the Indian IT sector by storm, leading tech titans held forth on the topic at the recently concluded BT India@100 event. In a fireside chat with BT Editor Sourav Majumdar, titled ‘The power journey from services to products to consulting, N. Ganapathy Subramaniam, COO Executive Director at TCS, said that moonlighting is an ethical issue. Describing the hunt for finding and retaining talent as a war, he said that while India has abundant talent, it is vital to communicate the value of being ethical and right among employees. He further added that people need to be educated about the value systems and ethics of how the Indian IT sector has grown its business, and by looking for short-term gains employees are compromising their long-term growth.

Disagreeing, C.P. Gurnani, MD CEO of Tech Mahindra, said in a different chat titled ‘Harnessing technology to unlock infinite possibilities, that in light of the productivity targets that most IT majors have for employees, the instances of moonlighting are not that rampant. This chat also included Anant Maheshwari, President of Microsoft India and Piyush N. Singh, Senior MD and India Business Lead of Accenture, with Aayush Ailawadi, Technology Editor of BT TV. Gurnani further said that if somebody meets the productivity and efficiency norms, and they still want to make an extra buck without committing a fraud or compromising the values and ethics of the company, then it is not a problem. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Maheshwari said that technology can create additional growth in a slowing economy.

Further, empathising with today’s workforce, Singh of Accenture said that while it has not been easy for employees to deal with the pandemic’s fallout, they have delivered the most rapid transformation that the world has ever seen.