BENGALURU - India's giant IT firms in Bengaluru and other cities have set up COVID-19 "war-rooms" as they scramble to source oxygen, medicine and hospital beds for infected workers and maintain backroom operations for the world's biggest financial firms.
They play down any threat of a collapse in operations - but at stake if the surge continues is the infrastructure put in place by the world's biggest financial companies in cost-cutting drives that have left them deeply reliant on the big Indian offices. Wipro said about 3 percent of its 197,000-odd employees are currently working from office on critical projects and expects more of those employees to work from home going forward. For the employees working on those projects, Wipro said it has made living arrangements at the company's guest houses and hotels close to its offices.
India's second wave of infections has seen at least 300,000 people test positive each day for the past week, overwhelming healthcare facilities and crematoriums and driving an increasingly urgent international response. They are paid a fraction of Western salaries and had largely ridden out the COVID-19 pandemic working from home until the relaxing of restrictions in recent months spurred companies to call more employees back to the office.
The company quickly U-turned, sending all but essential employees home on March 27 as cases began to rise.