With countries globally heading toward geopolitical uncertainties and potential disruptions in global trade and economic fronts, Indian corporates are increasingly opting for the route of financial prudence and optimum use of resources, and with good reason. Companies across various sectors are making non-essential travel plans lean, limiting unnecessary expenses, adopting remote working and hybrid arrangements and tightening the use of energy among other efforts.These measures have been taken not only to counter present volatilities, but also to sustain and maintain operations. In accordance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to practice fiscal prudence, consumption moderation along with high productivity and growth, companies are putting these actions in place.Promoting work from homeThe banks like IndusInd bank is strengthening its roster based work from home model while pharma major Lupin is not so easy on the approvals for travel, it has intensified its travel approval process while PwC India is making employees avoid travelling when not mandatory. HomeLane is making smart use of technology and at the same timeCapgemini, Infosys, RPG,and Hulare further bolstering their sustainability practices through renewable energy, electric mobility, virtual collaboration, and IoT-based energy management."To drive efficient resource utilization and maintain operations effectively in line with India's broad emphasis on 'work from home' and virtual collaboration, our bank is expanding its roster based 'work from home' model to several departments after successful trial across a few selected teams," Amitabh Kumar Singh, Chief Human Resources Officer, IndusInd Bank, said in an ET report. He added, "we have been taking all relevant measures over a period that focus on efficient resource utilization and operational effectiveness."Cutting down on travelApart from the existing hybrid and work-from-home flexibility at employee levels, companies are keeping a close eye on business travel. "We have strengthened our current restrictions on domestic and international travel at the pharmaceutical giant, Lupin, while not allowing travel at all unless business calls for urgent use," Yashwant Mahadik, President (Global HR), said in an ET report. RPG Group too is going extremely strict on travel.They are minimising foreign travel significantly, bringing down the domestic air travel and are discouraging or minimising intercity meetings. PwC India has also urged its employees to look at all domestic and international travel required with an all-clear for business needs. Hul, too, is propagating the use of virtual medium as and when it is suitable for meetings.Encouraging travel by railHomeLane, the home interiors company that is already quite ahead with work from home and hybrid arrangements with relevant teams has decided to bring about rationalization in the way business travel happens and is prioritizing virtual modes of communication. "For any essential travel we have strongly encouraged usage of train connectivity over the short-haul flights," Srikanth Iyer, Co-founder HomeLane, said.Apart from the fuel consumption efficiency that comes with the rail travel, there is significant saving on travel costs. We have also been decentralizing processes like opening up new stores or locations so that the senior management doesn't have to be travelling out from the state," Iyer added.Capgemini too is looking forward to electrifying its fleet rapidly by incorporating several electrical vehicles in its fleet. In an ET report, a Capgemini spokesperson stated: "We are continuously strengthening our operational efficiencies through various initiatives such as implementing an Energy Command Center (ECC) which monitors and optimizes energy usage across all our campuses through the use of IoT based methods."
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