After a couple of hyper-growth years for the Indian IT sector driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, things have become more sedate. The pandemic forced all industries globally to move online, which meant huge growth opportunities for the Indian IT sector. However, things like the Russia – Ukraine conflict, a new cold war brewing between Western powers and China, as well a general global economic slowdown has meant that Indian IT is facing growth challenges.

This was highlighted when one of Indian IT service companies’ poster child Infosys in its first quarter results drastically revised downwards its growth forecast for the full financial year from a band of 4-7 percent to more modest 1-3.5 percent. The broader IT index has been one of the underperformers of the Sensex in general.

In a wide-ranging conversation, Salil Parekh, CEO and MD of Infosys spoke to Venkatesha Babu on a range of these and related issues. These include whether Indian IT from now on has to resign to single digit growth rates given its size, issues regarding whether Generative AI is an opportunity or a threat which is likely to replace low end coding, future of hybrid work, newer opportunities of growth in areas of cybersecurity, IP (intellectual property), products & platforms as well as continued support extended by Infosys founders in shaping its future. Edited Excerpts from the conversation.

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