In India Hybrid is the New Back to Work
January 3, 2022
In India, COVID-19 was nothing short of a humanitarian crisis disrupting lives, business and the ways in which people worked. As the pandemic set in, much like other parts of the world, tens of millions of employees adjusted to working from home (WFH). Daily tasks such as meetings, customer interactions and conferences were conducted from bedrooms, living rooms or dining room tables as traditional offices were closed for months. Initially, India’s public and private sectors offered WFH options for only a small fraction of their workforces, but this changed rapidly. While companies focused on ensuring business continuity and launching initiatives to enable remote work, the government played a critical role by being more flexible in implementing regulations to facilitate WFH.
The Department of Telecommunications (DOT) modified its licensing requirements for a category of companies called Other Service Providers (OSPs), enabling India’s 4.5 million workers in software development, business process outsourcing and call centers to WFH almost overnight.