It's Time To Make Hay

DESPITE A WOBBLY OUTSOURCING INDUSTRY, A STRONGER AMERICAN MARKET HAS HELPED TECH FIRMS GROW, AND HAS PUSHED TWO SOFTWARE BILLIONAIRES UP THE RANKS. BUT INFOSYS CO-FOUNDERS MISS OUT AS STOCKS TUMBLED OVER THE MURTHY-SIKKA SPAT

- Harichandan Arakali

The wealth of IT billionaires, much of which is derived from the value of their stocks in the companies they founded, is under threat in the long run as outsourcing, the job that built their wealth, is fast becoming obsolete. But the year under consideration for the 2017 Forbes India Rich List has revealed a contrarian trend in which the fortunes and the ranks of IT czars have gone up.

HCL Technologies’ Shiv Nadar has moved up a spot to No 7 this year, while his wealth has increased almost by a fifth to $13.4 billion, helped by a nearly 10 percent increase in HCL’s stock price in the 12 months through the September quarter. His Bengaluru rival Azim Premji has climbed two spots to No 2, behind Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries (Reliance Industries owns Network 18, the publishers of Forbes India). Premji, who owns close to three-quarters of Wipro, India’s third-biggest software services company, saw his wealth rise by 26 percent to $19 billion in roughly the 12 months since last year’s ranking.

This near-term turnaround in fortunes has been triggered by a broader rally in top Indian IT stocks this year as well as a strong growth in the American economy, the largest market for Indian IT. The latest report released by the US’s Institute of Supply Management shows that manufacturing activity in the US has surged to a 13-year high in September.