Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: India’s top five information technology services firms have reduced research and development (R&D) expenses as a percentage of their revenue in the past five years. Experts said this move is driven by a strategic effort to trim discretionary spending and bolster profitability.
In FY23, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Wipro Ltd, and Tech Mahindra allocated less than 0.5% of their revenue to innovation, while Infosys Ltd and HCL Technologies Ltd spent 0.71% and 0.54% of their revenue on innovation, respectively.
The IT giants’ modest R&D investment is in stark contrast to Accenture Plc, which allocated around 2% of its revenue, totalling $1.3 billion, for research and development in 2023.
In fact, Accenture’s Rs10,700 crore R&D expenses were more than four times the cumulative innovation spending of the five companies in the last five years, totalling Rs 2,361 crore, according to a Mint analysis.