Coronavirus impact: Techies allowed to work from home till July 31

The Centre on Tuesday permitted techies to work from home till July 31 in view of the lockdown. This will require the Department of Telecom to extend the relaxation of its rules which it had done only temporarily due to the lockdown.
 
Earlier this option was available till April end. Industry body NASSCOM had urged the government to come up with a stable timeline and policy rather than a month-by-month extension. Prasad also told the state ministers that work from home should become the new norm. 

The latest development holds particular significance for Karnataka, the country's tech hub which houses a significant number of IT professionals.

"Union Minister for Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad has agreed to state Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan's requisition to allow thousands of techies to work from home (WFH) till July 31, although the latter had asked to extend it up to March 2021," the official told IANS here.

Prasad also agreed to hold a separate meeting with IT honchos through video conferencing soon for discussing the problems arising out of the pandemic induced lockdown and travel suspension across the country and overseas.
"Prasad also assured Narayan to reconsider his request for extending the work for home (WFH) beyond July 31 after reviewing the situation," said the official.

Even before the Central government enforced the 21-day nationwide first phase of the lockdown since March 25 and extended it up to May 3 from April 15, the Karnataka government had directed hundreds of IT firms across the state, especially in this tech city, to allow its employees to work from home to prevent them from getting infected by the deadly disease till March 31, initially.

Prasad also said a that national strategy committee would be set up to frame guidelines and solutions to fight the pandemic crisis, which disrupted the resilient software industry working from office barring critical services.

In view of the change in the working conditions after the lockdown, Prasad said measures would be taken to strengthen the Bharat Net broadband service to provide high-speed internet service.