Infosys sees no immediate impact of Japanese crisis

Infosys CEO and Managing Director Kris Gopalakrishnan said there wouldn’t be much impact of the ongoing crisis in Japan on the company. He, however, said there could be some impact in the long-term as this could lead to an increase in demand for oil thus making its prices going up further and fuelling the inflation.

Japan contributes less than 1% of Infosys’ overall revenue. “The direct business impact from the Japan crisis is going to be minimal as the country contributes less than 1% of our overall revenue. But there are some concerns over inflation and there are some concerns over the disruption of economic activity in the long-run,” Gopalakrishnan told reporters on the sidelines of an event organised by the confederation of Indian industry (CII) on Friday. He said since the situation was still unfolding, “we have to wait and watch.”

Infosys employs about 500 people in Japan, including 350 Indians across three locations – Tokyo, Nagoya and Fukuoka. Of the 350 Indian employees, the company has already shifted about 200 along with their family members to India. Gopalakrishnan, however, said the company had no plan to shut down its Japanese operations.

“Many of our Indian employees are still located there, and we have also given an option to our Japanese employees to either work from home or from the relatively safer region of Osaka. We would continue to support our Japanese clients from our centres in India or from Shanghai and Singapore,” he said. Japan currently accounts for about 2% of India’s annual software exports worth about $59 billion.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the ongoing political crisis in Egypt, Libya and Bahrain, Infosys has brought back its employees to India. The company had about 13 employees in Egypt and 20 in Bahrain.