The Hindu Business Line : ‘Clients could delay biz visits in short term’

Bangalore, Nov. 27 The terrorist attacks on Mumbai will add to the short-term woes of the Indian IT industry that’s already reeling under the impact of the global economic meltdown as risk-averse clients could delay business visits to the country.

“Such incidents will have an adverse impact on the travel plans of our clients and prospects, which in turn could affect the business,” said a spokesperson at MindTree Ltd, a Bangalore-based IT firm.

Following the attack, countries such as Australia, Britain and US have advised their citizens to be extremely cautious while visiting India and avoid travel to the financial capital.

Mr Vinu Kartha, principal at Tholons Inc, an offshore advisory firm, said client visits could be delayed in the short-term. About 500 large clients visit India for evaluation of business opportunities, and definitely they would be more wary now, he said.

The October-December quarter is traditionally the slowest quarter for Indian IT firms and not many clients visit the country during the holiday season. As a result, the impact of the terror strike on client visit would be less, he said. But clients do come back over time, he added.

The attacks have forced companies such as Infosys Technologies to increase security across all its campuses, though there was no impact on the business operations of the second largest exporter.

However, Hewlett Packard closed its Mumbai operations on Thursday considering the safety of its employees and boosted security at all its facilities in the country.

HP said work at its Mumbai operations would resume only after it gets a clear signal that things were back to normal.

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‘Clients could delay biz visits in short term’