NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday said it has extended connectivity norms for work from home for IT and BPO companies till December 31.
The time period for work from home was expiring on July 31.
"DoT has further extended the relaxations in the terms and conditions for other service providers up to 31st December 2020 to facilitate work from home in view of the ongoing concern due to COVID-19," the Department of Telecommunications said in a late night tweet.
Currently, around 85 per cent of the IT workforce is working from home and only those performing critical functions are going to offices.
In March, the DoT relaxed certain norms for OSPs till April 30 to facilitate work from home (WFH) amid the coronavirus pandemic which was further extended till July 31.
Confirmed cases of coronavirus in India has crossed 11.55 lakh with 28,084 people losing their lives till Tuesday.
Reacting to the news, industry executives said that the government's decision will help ensure business continuity and employee safety, .
The move will also help the industry increase its talent pool to tier II and III cities, they said.
Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh tweeted that the decision "will ensure business continuity and employee safety" and also "increase our talent pool to tier 2 and 3 cities".
The relaxations announced in March included exemptions in requirement of security deposit and agreement for WFH facility for OSPs (primarily IT and IT-enabled services companies).
Earlier, companies were not allowed to connect office Virtual Private Network to home infrastructure, a rule that was subsequently relaxed in view of coronavirus pandemic.
Currently, over 90 per cent of the workforce of Indian IT companies continue to work from home.
Companies are gradually bringing employees back to work premises while practising social distancing norms and undertaking safety measures.
NV Tyagarajan, Chief Executive Officer of Genpact, tweeted that this move will "solidify" client relationships globally, ensure business continuity and employee safety.
"Thank you to the government for their tremendous support on the new ways of working from day 1. This has helped tremendously in further elevating our standing and responsiveness globally," Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji said in a tweet.
WNS Group CEO Keshav R Murugesh and RPG Group Chairman Harsh Goenka also lauded the government's efforts saying steps like these have helped position Indian IT as a world leader.