TCS spent Rs 15 bn on R&D & innovation in FY18, up 17% over last year

TCS had a consolidated total income of Rs 1.26 trillion in FY18

India's largest IT services firm TCS increased its spending on research and development and innovation initiatives by over 17 per cent to Rs 15 billion in 2017-18, compared to the previous year.

Its total R&D and innovation expenditures stood at Rs 12.78 billion in 2016-17, as per the company's annual report.

Of its expenditure in FY18, Rs 2.98 billion was spent on R&D, while Rs 12.02 billion was directed towards innovation centres, it added.

This is about 1.2 per cent of TCS' total turnover for the fiscal.

A crown jewel of the salt-to-software services conglomerate Tata Group, TCS had a consolidated total income of Rs 1.26 trillion in FY2017-18, while its profit for the fiscal was at Rs 258.80 billion. The company has a workforce of about 394,000 people.

TCS has Innovation Labs located in India and other parts of the world. The R&D centres, certified by Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (Government of India), function from Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai.

The Mumbai-based company said its research and innovation (R&I) activities and outcomes were aligned to its focus areas like personalisation, new value creation models and ecosystems leverage and are enabled by technologies like agility, cloud and automation.

The company's teams in research, incubation, innovation and the Co-Innovation Network have worked on the 'Ideas to Execution' process, and delivered value to the business and to social causes as well, the report said.

As of March 31, 2018, TCS has applied for 3,916 patents, including 522 applied during the year. It has been granted 654 patents till date.

"Digital reimagination of industry and society, and industrialisation of software and computing will both continue to be the focus of TCS R&I. Engagement with all its businesses with its Co-Innovation Network, and with society at large will continue," it said.