- 6 weeks ago
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00:00First off, that news, TPG pumping a lot of money, it's not the only American company, of course, that's pumping money into India for, you know, data centers and AI, pretty much.
00:10We had the likes of Amazon. What's your take on what we're seeing right now?
00:16All the geopolitical issues which is happening around the world is causing maybe countries to start relooking at nationalism.
00:25And there's a lot more nationalism coming in to play.
00:29And when you come into nationalism, then a lot more countries wants their data and sovereignty to be residing in their own country.
00:36So that is what is probably playing out. And we ourselves see that as an opportunity.
00:42So we recently announced a sovereign secure cloud for India. It was announced around eight months back.
00:49And we look at sovereignty in a slightly different way. And that's probably what the way the government looks at it as well.
00:55So the government sees that all the data in the country has to reside in the country.
01:00So if there is an outage around the world, the country will function.
01:03The second important thing that the country looks at is whether all operational sovereignty can be maintained, which means that people who are maintaining the cloud or maintaining the applications physically live in the country.
01:16That's the second part, which is happening. And the third one, which is probably a little bit far away, is looking at digital sovereignty, which means that can I build all the chips and can I build all the hardware in the country itself so that even we are not dependent on a third country to look at this.
01:33So when you look at all the three things together, that is where DCS is looking at a sovereign secure cloud.
01:39We are already sovereign in the first and second layer, which is in the data and the operational side.
01:43The digital layer is something that we are working on. And it will take a few years for us to get there.
01:47Can India really live up to expectations? We heard from the Indian minister yesterday talking about India's own chip ambitions.
01:55It wants to be the T3, the top three, basically, in, I think, 2034.
02:01What needs to happen for India to realize that dream? And what role do you see DCS playing?
02:06As you are aware, we have a company called Tata Electronics and who is on the forefront of this, of the chip ambition.
02:12And we have been working with them very closely on seeing how we are able to help them through this particular journey.
02:18We do believe that India can achieve its ambition as long as the entire supply chain works around it.
02:25We do have the biggest advantage that we have, Selina, is our talent base that we have in the country.
02:30If you are using the talent base to our advantage and if the government is able to provide all the shops to build the infrastructure in the country,
02:38we genuinely believe there is a great opportunity for us to realize our dreams.
02:41What might hinder that goal?
02:43What could hinder is probably the whole supply chain issues.
02:47If you are unable to get the supply chain ready, that could be one problem.
02:52And the other issue would be the ecosystems.
02:55The ecosystems have to come in place.
02:56As you know, in a semiconductor industry, you need to have the entire ecosystem play.
03:00And the entire ecosystem has to come in line.
03:02We've been talking about how companies are spending trillions of dollars on CapEx to build those data centers and build the AI capabilities.
03:13I'm just wondering, with the sell-off we're seeing today, there's some doubt that those CapEx numbers are sustainable.
03:20What's your own take and what are you hearing and seeing from your own customers?
03:23If you look at India, I think India as a market has the potential because India today has only one gigawatt of data center available.
03:33So, India, if the growth trajectory continues, we will need by 2030 at least 10 gigawatts of data center availability.
03:41And that's why we have jumped into the bandwagon.
03:44And what we have said is we, as a company, have said that we want to be the largest AI-led tech services company in the world.
03:51And instead of going on the broader side, we said we will pick the depth and we will go whole hog on this.
03:58That's why we said that we will create not just we will create applications and as well as services around AI,
04:05but we will also go to the depth and create data centers in India.
04:08And that is why you'll see the investment from TPG.
04:11We formed a joint venture with them and we're putting $2 billion in that particular investment right now.
04:17And we have an opportunity to create a completely new data center in India because India needs them for the moment.
04:24And Tata is definitely the most trusted brand in the country.
04:27And we know that data centers need a lot of power.
04:32How do you secure that?
04:33So, we have Tata Power, as you know, in the ecosystem.
04:35And Tata Power will provide us with the necessary power.
04:39How will it scale?
04:41There is enough.
04:42I think there is, if you look at India's move towards renewables, there has been a significant push towards renewables in the last few years.
04:50And we genuinely believe that we have an opportunity to go the renewable route and mainly use renewables to power our data centers.
04:58Girish, of course, you're taking charge of emerging markets.
05:01What will drive your growth in the next 12 to 24 months?
05:07I do think that emerging markets has gone through these upheavals in the last few years, with Tata and all of that, through significant resilience.
05:18If you look at most emerging markets, it's doing very well.
05:20In fact, if you look at TCS's own trajectory in emerging markets, we have done phenomenally well in this space.
05:26So, we are only optimistic that we have a significant role to play in these emerging markets.
05:35And we are present in those emerging markets, Linda, in a big way.
05:37But which emerging markets are showing potential?
05:40So, for example, I look after Asia Pacific, India, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.
05:45I am very, very, if you look at my own, I'm very, very happy about performance in certain markets.
05:52For example, Brazil is doing very well.
05:54In Latin America, Brazil, Mexico is doing very well.
05:58We recently opened our AI-led centers in both these markets.
06:02The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is doing very well.
06:04UAE is doing very well.
06:06Similarly, South Africa, we think, can flip and can turn around.
06:10India is obviously a big bet for us.
06:13We do genuinely believe that India can do very well.
06:16And in Asia Pacific, almost all the ASEAN countries, as well as Australia, is doing very, very well.
06:23Can you quantify what very well means?
06:26And can you quantify the kind of growth you're anticipating?
06:29So, we've been having double-digit growth even last year.
06:32That's about, what, 50%?
06:33No, no.
06:34I mean, in India, we grew 60%, over 60% last year.
06:38So, these markets offer tremendous opportunities.
06:43And the good thing is, not many SIs are present in these markets.
06:46They don't believe that they always look towards the West.
06:50Whereas, we've always been looking at the world holistically.
06:52And we believe that we can make a significant inroad into these markets.
06:58Well, it is an uncertain environment right now with trade uncertainties.
07:02Of course, the U.S. and India are still negotiating that trade deal.
07:06How much is that playing into decisions made by investors and companies?
07:10So, U.S. is obviously a very large market.
07:15U.S. is almost 50% of our market.
07:18So, obviously, there is a significant portion of play in that market.
07:22But if you look at the opportunity that exists for us, we have clearly called out that we are not heavily reliant on H1Bs any longer.
07:30So, our experience in Latin America has taught us how to become more and more localized in every market.
07:37And last year, we hired almost 19,000-plus people in the U.S.
07:41So, if required, we are even open to saying that we don't need any H1Bs.
07:45And we can operate without H1Bs.
07:47At this point in time, you can operate without H1B visas.
07:50That's what we have openly called out as well, that we have enough talent in the country.
07:55And we see this as an opportunity to grow talent in the U.S. as well.
07:59So, we do genuinely believe that we have an opportunity to grow that.
08:02But it is about having the ecosystem.
08:04Some may argue that India still doesn't have that ecosystem to build the talent and also the industry the way that the U.S. can.
08:12How are you looking at that?
08:13You are talking about the hardware side.
08:15But in the services space, we are probably one of the largest talent provider for the whole world.
08:21But you need both to coexist.
08:23We need both to coexist.
08:24And so, we have enough talent in the U.S. who can work with the U.S. ecosystem to build that in the country.
08:31Still looking at the tension between the U.S. and China, how do you think that might impact sentiment in terms of investments into India?
08:40I think India can look at it as an opportunity because there is a significant supply chain realignment going on.
08:51And India could start building this talent pipe.
08:53You see the number of GCCs coming into the country as well as number of Western companies looking at India much more holistically.
09:00It was not that in the services world, China was never a huge competition for India in that way.
09:07But this gives us an impetus to start building talent much more holistically in the country.
09:12You touched on the Middle East and how optimistic you are about that market.
09:15What are you seeing in terms of the trends emerging from the Middle East?
09:19If you look at the transformation of some of these countries, like Saudi Arabia, for example, in the last 10 years has been phenomenal.
09:27We play a significant role with the government in Saudi.
09:31We have been involved in most of the large programs in the kingdom.
09:36Similarly, in UAE.
09:38And we do believe that what we build in India, which is the digital public infrastructure,
09:43is a significant opportunity for us to take it overseas and play in these markets.
09:48So, almost 35% of the world's payment rate goes through our platforms, retail payments.
09:57So, I think there are opportunities.
09:58And most of the banks in the Middle East are our customers.
10:03So, we have a significant opportunity to play not only in the banking space,
10:07but also in the public sector space as well.
10:10But it is in the AI space, data center space, that is most competitive.
10:16And it is no secret that Saudi Arabia, the likes of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East want to play a critical role.
10:22They want to be the hub for it.
10:24When you take a look at the competition among the regions, who might win?
10:27And what does that depend on?
10:29Look, there are two parts of the AI.
10:31One is creating the physical infrastructure, which is what a lot of countries are today doing.
10:36Once you start building that, you need to start somebody to support in terms of talent.
10:41And these countries don't have the talent today to get to their ambition.
10:47And India has the largest amount of talent available today.
10:52So, this is an opportunity for us to work closely with some of these countries
10:55to see how we are able to bring some of this talent to the country and help realize their own vision.
11:01So, how are you thinking and looking at your headcount in the next 12 to 24 months?
11:05We do still believe that we will be a net headcount.
11:10We will still keep adding a net headcount rather than reducing headcount.
11:16Is there a number?
11:17No, we are not looking at any numbers.
11:19But we do still believe that we continue to take talent from the domestic market,
11:25from all the domestic markets.
11:26In fact, even in Singapore, we recently achieved almost 70% localization.
11:30So, we continue to use this opportunity to localize our workforce across these markets.
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