Global technology giants with offices in Israel may decide to relocate their operations to India or other countries if the Israel-Hamas conflict intensifies. According to the experts, Indian businesses like TCS and Wipro might activate business contingency plans and move operations there.Over 100,000 people are employed by the more than 500 international corporations with offices in Israel, some of which are global competence centres (GCCs) and research and development (R&D) centres, including Intel, Microsoft, and Google.According to the experts, they may relocate business operations as part of a business continuity plan to places with comparable time zones and resource capacities, if the conflict between both the countries intensifies. These businesses could also consider locations like the Middle East or Eastern Europe in addition to India.According to Peter Bendor-Samuel, CEO of IT research firm Everest Group, tech services may be impacted in the short to medium term since the conflict raises safety concerns and many of the people employed in Israel may be called up to fight.In terms of security, R&D, and automotive innovation, Israel serves as a strategic base.Noteworthy is that Israel declared war after Hamas conducted a surprise attack on Israel over the weekend and stated it might call up to 300,000 reservists from its citizenry, essentially to take part in combat operations if necessary. Many of these individuals work in the technology industry.Meanwhile, Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Tuesday tweeted on the micro-blogging platform X that the company has over 2,000 employees in Israel split across two offices. “Our immediate focus since Saturday has been on employee safety. Weve now made contact with all of our local employees, and will continue supporting them.”Deeply saddened by the terrorist attacks in Israel this weekend and the escalating conflict underway. Google has 2 offices and over 2,000 employees in Israel. Its unimaginable what theyre experiencing. Our immediate focus since Saturday has been on employee safety. Weve now… https://t.co/VCiboq9oN8— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) October 10, 2023Apart from this, TCS has an estimated count of approximately 250 employees, largely locals, based in Israel while Wipro has about 80 employees, all of whom are Israeli nationals.N Ganapathy Subramaniam, chief operating officer and executive director of TCS, said the company is “monitoring the situation” and trying to ensure employee safety and have advise them to work from home until further notice.Besides TCS and Wipro, firms like Infosys, HCLTech and Tech Mahindra also operates in Israel.
