India's largest software services firm TCS today said its shareholders have approved a Rs 16,000 crore share buyback plan.

The buyback programme, which was passed through a special resolution, saw 99.81% of the total number of valid votes being cast in favour of the proposal, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Tata Sons’ chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran has said the Indian IT major is committed to encourage millions of children across the globe to pursue careers in subjects related to science and technology. “TCS fully recognises the importance of what we call a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) here in the US. Our effort in this country and around the world, for the last several years has been to promote talent, skill development, whether in math or computer science or any related discipline at schools, colleges and also at an advanced level,” Chandrasekaran told PTI.

The January-March quarter, a seasonally weak one for the Indian IT sector, may not show TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Technologies in good light, with the appreciating rupee against the US dollar denting their operating profit margins by 40-50 basis points.

The Street expectation is that the Big Four of Indian IT may end up reflecting a sequential revenue growth in the range of 1.5-3.5% with HCL Technologies expected to post the highest rise while TCS is likely to maintain its momentum as the leader. For the fourth quarter of FY17, the rupee appreciated by 2% against the dollar, throwing a spanner into the works.

India's top software services exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will step up local hiring in the United States (US) and has no plans to cut investments there as it continues to expect robust growth from its biggest overseas market.

"In the last four or five years, we have been recruiting heavily in the US," Girish Ramachandran, head of Asia Pacific region of TCS, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia in China's Hainan province.

60-80 per cent of organisations use artificial intelligence (AI) for IT functions, but 70 per cent believe AIs greatest impact by 2020 will be in marketing, customer service, finance and HR, a new study said on Wednesday.

According to global IT consulting firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), organisations with the greatest financial improvements from AI investments expect three times as many new AI-related roles by 2020 as compared to companies with smallest improvements.

The temporary suspension of premium H1-B visa processing by the US administration would delay their issue to the Indian IT firms too but is not a major imperdiment, said industry's representative body Nasscom on Sunday.

"The temporary suspension of premium H-1B processing will create some process delays for the companies - Indian and American -- but is not a significant impediment," said the National Association of Software Services and Companies (Nasscom) in a statement.

Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), which is planning a Rs16,000 crore share buyback, said on Wednesday that founder group of the company intended to participate in the proposed buyback.

TCS, is part of the salt-to-software Tata conglomerate, whose holding company is Tata Sons Ltd.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rajesh Gopinathan is not “overtly perturbed” by the proposed overhaul of visa regime in the US but has sought a “level playing field” with similar policies for everyone. Gopinathan, who took charge as CEO this week, acknowledged there are political ramifications that need to be dealt with given the shift in demographics and political elements.

“All that we can ask for is a level playing field. As long as the rules of the game are similar, we are quite confident in our competitiveness that we can take on the best in the world...as long as we don’t see discriminatory policies,” Gopinathan told PTI in an interview.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), today announced that it has broken into the list of the Top 3 most valuable brands in the IT Services industry, in an assessment done by Brand Finance, the world's leading brand valuation firm.

"Just five years ago the TCS brand had achieved a major milestone, emerging as one of the big four brands in the IT Services sector. Through sustained growth in their brand value, they have now moved up one spot and consolidated their place along with IBM and Accenture at the top of the sector's foodchain," said David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance.

Ratings agency S&P expects IT services major TCS to remain net cash positive even if its Rs 16,000 crore-buyback offer gets fully subscribed.

The ratings and outlook on Tata Consultancy Services are not affected by the company's Rs 16,000 crore offer for share repurchases, Standard & Poor's said in a statement.

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