The New Normal at An Indian Outsourcer

HCL has started bringing its 150,000 workers back to the office. It’s not business as usual

- Saritha Rai

It’s Day 3 at the office for work-from-home returnee Krupa Shree. The 28-year-old engineer at HCL Technologies Ltd., India’s third-largest IT outsourcer, usually travels to the company’s Jigani campus in the bustling tech hub of Bengaluru inside a packed company bus. But post-lockdown pandemic precautions have changed that, switching her commute to a sanitized company cab.

When she arrives at 9 a.m. at the gates of the complex, she’s thermally scanned, then answers 14 questions on the company’s app on her smartphone to determine if she’s recently come in contact with an infected person. She then waits to be greenlighted by yet another app, the Indian government-mandated tracking program called Aarogya Setu, which uses GPS and Bluetooth data to determine whether a person has been within 6 feet of someone known to have the coronavirus. Finally her laptop and bag are sanitized. When she’s offered a new mask, she declines, pointing to the one already covering half her face.