Govt extends work from home norms for IT, ITes companies till December 31

Bengaluru: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT)on Tuesday extended the relaxation in terms and conditions to facilitate work from home till December 31, 2020, in a move that was welcomed by leaders of the Indian IT industry.  

This means companies can ask their employees to continue to work from home till the end of the year. Earlier, the Govt had extended this till the end of July.

The relaxation in the terms and conditions for other service providers was initially done in the wake of the Covid19 pandemic in April this year. Welcoming the move, software lobby Nasscom’s President Debjani Ghosh tweeted thanking Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and the DoT secretary. 

Wipro chairman Rishad Premji too welcomed the move tweeting, “Thank you to the government for their tremendous support on the new ways of working from day 1. This has helped tremendously in further elevating our standing and responsiveness globally.” 

The IT industry however sought permanent relaxations in these norms, even as the six month extension helps address immediate priorities. 

Most companies have said they will move to a blended working model where a percentage of employees will permanently work from home. India’s largest IT company TCS, in fact, has said they intend to have only 25% of their workforce working from offices by 2025. Most of India’s top IT companies said over 90% of their employees continue to work remotely