Work From Home rules relaxation for IT-ITeS sector till July 31 – The Financial Express

The government has further extended the relaxation of work from home (WFH) rules for the IT-ITeS sector till July 31 allowing companies to enable its workforce function smoothly. The department of telecommunications (DoT) had earlier relaxed certain rules for other service providers (OSPs), which are primarily IT and IT-enabled services companies, till April 30 to facilitate WFH during the lockdown.

The IT industry had sought the relaxation in norms from government to facilitate business continuity. Communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the WFH norms will be relaxed till July 31 now. He shared data from Nasscom, which stated that 85% of India’s IT workforce is doing a good job while working from home.

Meanwhile, the government is also working towards bringing in new rules regarding WFH as going forward, it will be more prevalent. Telecom secretary Anshu Prakash told Financial Express that a meeting with industry stakeholders, including Nasscom, took place on Monday to understand about the requirements. “The new rules will be notified before July 31 after proper consultation with all stakeholders,” Prakash said.

The government has exempted the requirement of security deposit and agreement for WFH facility for OSPs. Also, the requirement of seeking prior permission for WFH facility was exempted. Another exemption includes the requirement of authorised Service Providers Provisioned secured VPN (PPVPN). “During this period, the OSPs are permitted to use secured VPN (virtual private network) configured using ‘static IP’ address by themselves for interconnection between home agent position and OSP Centre with pre-defined locations,” the government order said.

It must be mentioned that most of the IT sector companies are expected to let a majority of its workforce to WFH in the coming few months. The notification of new guidelines is necessary to provide clarity to the companies.