There is something about an election that excites and disturbs businesses. Businesses are jittery about formulating a forward looking plan and their clients are less than willing to loosen their purse strings. Restrained optimism is a camouflage for hidden pessimism. And when a candidate vows to roll back policies formulated by his opponents when in government, the fears of businesses get further amplified. Two of India’s top IT companies – TCS and Infosys - seem to have been caught in such electoral crosswinds blowing in the US.

Mumbai, Oct. 14: Infosys today slashed its annual revenue growth forecast for the second time this year amid cautious client behaviour and pricing pressures, signalling that the scenario continues to remain lacklustre for the domestic IT services industry at least for the next six months.

The Bangalore-based company, however, beat analyst estimates to post a 6 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 3,606 crore during the second quarter ended September 30 compared with Rs 3,398 crore in the year-ago period.

Infosys Ltd, India’s second largest software exporter cut its annual forecast for the second time to 8-9 per cent growth this year, suggesting that the IT industry struggles in an uncertain business environment is far from over.

In July, it had reduced its earlier guidance to grow at 10.5 to 12 per cent, while it saw the impact of Britain’s exit of Europe, project cuts and delayed decisions by banking clients to implement projects has pushed the company to lower its guidance second time in as many quarters.

Infosys was trading higher by 2.4% at Rs 1,054, while Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was down 2.3% at Rs 2,326 on the BSE, ahead of their July- September (Q2F17) earnings. The S&P BSE Sensex was down 1.7% or 487 points at 27,594.

TCS is scheduled to announce its Q217 results on Thursday, October 13, 2016, after market hours. Infosys will announce the results for its second quarter ended September 30, 2016 on Friday, October 14, 2016 around 8.45 a.m.

In an attempt to reiterate that its goal of becoming a $20 billion (Rs 1.33 lakh crore) firm is a target and not just an aspiration, software giant Infosys has its linked its chief executive, Vishal Sikka's annual compensation to the progress the company towards the goal, the chairman of its board said.

Sikka had earlier announced that the company has set a target of becoming a $20 billion firm with average revenue per employee of $80,000 and an opening margin of 30%, reported Mint.

Software major Infosys Ltd on Wednesday unveiled a mobile first and modular platform to drive e-commerce programmes across retail channels.

The platform has been developed by Skava, a Silicon Valley-based e-commerce start-up that the IT major acquired in June 2015 for $120 million, to enable businesses leverage cloud-based micro-services and white label applications to launch new offerings and improve conversion rates of digital channels.

Infosys Ltd has stopped the remaining instalments of the severance payment of Rs17.38 crore promised to former chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal after some of the company’s founders expressed their unhappiness with the decision, three people familiar with the matter said.

The move raises questions about the independence of the board of the country’s second-largest software services firm. None of the founders is on the board or in an executive position. The move also reopens the issue of why the board felt the need to give Bansal a generous severance payment in the first place.

MUMBAI: Infosys is putting in place incentives for project managers to start monetising 'Zero Distance' programme in a bid to generate more business from clients and increase productivity of its bench. Zero Distance was one of the first initiatives started by CEO Vishal Sikka when he joined the IT company in August 2014.

The idea was to develop new ideas and improvements on every project Infosys works on to create a culture of innovation and to prove to clients the company was truly their partner, not just a vendor.

Infosys executive vice-president (EVP) and the former global head of consulting Sanjay Purohit has resigned from the company , making it the seventh EVP exit since Vishal Sikka took over as CEO two years ago.Purohit, who was previously the head of the products & platforms subsidiary EdgeVerve, moved to the US last year as the head of consulting, but was replaced within 18 months and was asked to relocate to India to work on strategic initiatives alongside COO U B Pravin Rao.

BENGALURU: In a massive reorganization, Infosys is splitting itself into 12-15 smaller business units, each with revenue of $500-$700 million, its own sales heads and P&L (profit & loss) responsibilities. Currently, the organization is divided into four large verticals — banking & financial services and insurance, with $3 billion in revenue; retail & life sciences, with $2.3 billion; manufacturing & hi-tech, with $2.2 billion; and energy & utilities, communications and services, with $1.9 billion. Each of these will be split into smaller units.

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