Infosys Vacates IIPM Building In Bengaluru Over Coronavirus Scare

Infosys, India’s IT bellwether firm, on Saturday vacated one of the buildings in Karnataka’s capital city Bengaluru over coronavirus scare. According to latest media reports, one of the team members working inside the building was suspected to be infected with COVID-19 disease. “To ensure preparedness, we are evacuating only the IIPM building as a precautionary measure on receiving information that a team member from the building may have been in proximity to COVID-19 suspect,” Infosys’ development centre head Gururaj Deshpande reportedly told the staff members in an email. According to the IANS report, the IIMP building is part of the 81-acre campus where over 30,000 software personnel work. (Coronavirus Live Updates)   

Infosys evacuating the building in India’s IT capital comes a day after a Google India staff was tested positive for coronavirus at its Bengaluru office. "We can confirm that an employee from our Bengaluru office has been diagnosed with COVID-19. He was in one of our Bengaluru offices for a few hours before developing any symptoms. The employee has been on quarantine since then,” Google India had said in a statement. The company further added that, “Out of an abundance of caution, we are asking employees in that Bengaluru office to work from home from tomorrow. We have taken and will continue to take necessary precautionary measures, following the advice of public health officials.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has relaxed certain norms for Other Service Providers (OSPs) till April 30 to facilitate work from home (WFH) amid the coronavirus outbreak. These include exemptions in requirement of security deposit and agreement for WFH facility for OSPs (IT and IT-enabled services companies), as well as the need for prior permission for offering the facility. Industry body Nasscom and leaders of the IT industry had requested the government to relax the norms to facilitate business continuity that is posing to be a major challenge for the sector.

Nasscom, in a tweet on Friday, thanked Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and his team for "the much-needed relaxation". "The industry is extremely grateful for this," it said while sharing the government order.

(With agency inputs)