Digital
Persistent sustains growth momentum, revenue up by 17.1 per cent Y-o-Y, 3.0 per cent Q-o-Q
Mumbai: The 33rd Annual General Meeting of the Company was held on 18 July, 2023. All the resolutions, including a final dividend payment of Rs 12 per share and a special dividend of Rs 10 per share on achieving $1 Billion in annual revenue, were passed with the requisite majority. This makes the total dividend for FY23 to be Rs 50 per share as compared to Rs 31 per share for FY22.
Consolidated Financial Highlights for the Quarter ended June 30, 2023:
* In Q1FY24, there was a one-time expense towards client events and employee gifts on account of achieving the $1B revenue milestone. Adjusted for this, PAT margin was 11.4% for Q1FY24, with Q-o-Q growth of 5.4% and Y-o-Y growth of 25.2%.
Persistent CEO & executive director Sandeep Kalra said, “We commenced the year by celebrating a significant milestone of surpassing $1 billion in annual revenue with our clients, partners, and team members. As we enter our new fiscal year, I’m pleased to share that we have sustained our growth momentum despite the challenging macroeconomic conditions. Our Digital Engineering leadership, extensive experience across key industries, curated partner ecosystem, and the ability to stay ahead of disruptive technology trends has led to our ongoing success.
We also want to extend our warm welcome to Dr. Ajit Ranade, a renowned academician, corporate executive, economist, and thought leader, as an Independent Director to our Board. He will bring his impressive experience of 32+ years to help guide our strategy and accelerate our growth journey.”
First Quarter FY24 Client Wins and Outcomes
The order booking for the quarter ended on 30 June, 2023, was at $380.3 million in Total Contract Value (TCV) and at $271.9 million in Annual Contract Value (ACV) terms.
Some of the key wins for the quarter include:
Software, Hi-Tech & Emerging Industries
- Establishing a software lab to engineer new products and enhance existing products for a leading SaaS provider related to customer support, sales, and other customer communications.
- Providing engineering services and support of Network Services Orchestration (NSO) platform for a multinational digital communications conglomerate.
- Developing Generative AI proofs of concept and building database connectors for serverless data integration for a multinational technology company.
Banking, Financial Services & Insurance
- Driving digital transformation for customer acquisition and service, along with sales and marketing automation platforms for the financial services arm of a Fortune 500 automobile company.
- Supporting application migration and providing managed services to ensure seamless integration of an acquired automation platform for a leading US-based financial software company.
- Developing a Data Science platform for Risk Management, Identity Access Management and Regulatory/compliance applications for a leading corporate investment banking services provider.
Healthcare & Life Sciences
- Engineering Data and Machine Learning platforms and accelerating product capabilities to drive an innovation roadmap for a multinational managed healthcare and insurance company.
- Building and managing a Unified Data Platform encompassing analytics for sales inventory, sales order pipeline etc. for a European multinational medical equipment manufacturing firm.
- Engineering platforms for data curation, analytics, and laboratory management and migrating data lake to the cloud for a leading molecular diagnostics company in the space of early-stage cancer detection.
News in the Quarter
- Persistent Expands Relationship with AWS to Adopt Amazon CodeWhisperer
- Persistent Unveils New Global Hub in Texas for Private Equity Value Creation
- Persistent Inaugurates New Office in Poland to Expand Footprint in Europe
- Forbes: Persistent Systems: Balancing Culture and Values with Rapid Growth, featuring Sandeep Kalra
- The Times of India: Persistent Systems Positive on Generative AI-led Growth, featuring Sandeep Kalra
- The Stack: Tech services firm Persistent is rolling out an AI coding companion to 16,000 engineers. Its CTO recognises the risk, featuring Pandurang Kamat
Awards and Recognitions
- Sandeep Kalra recognized as the Best CEO in the IT and ITeS category by Business Today
- Persistent named the fastest-growing IT Services brand in India in the Brand Finance India 100 2023 report
- Persistent recognized as a Leader in Everest Group’s Payments IT Services PEAK Matrix Assessment 2023
- Persistent featured in Everest Group’s 2023 PEAK Matrix Service Provider of the Year awards under the Top 10 ITS Challengers list
- Persistent named a Leader in ISG Provider Lens Digital Engineering Services Quadrants U.S. 2023
- Persistent named a Leader in the Salesforce Ecosystem Partners 2023 ISG Provider Lens Study
Digital
Ethical AI must benefit society, not dominate it, says WFEB chief Sanjay Pradhan at IAA event
At Mumbai event, ethics expert urges businesses and governments to shape AI responsibly
MUMBAI: Artificial intelligence may be racing ahead at lightning speed, but its direction must still be guided by human conscience. That was the central message delivered by Sanjay Pradhan, president of the World Forum for Ethics in Business (WFEB), during the latest edition of IAA Conversations held in Mumbai.
The session was organised by the International Advertising Association (IAA) and the Artificial Intelligence Association of India (AIAI) in association with The Free Press Journal at the Free Press House on 7 March. Addressing a packed audience, Pradhan called for stronger ethical leadership to ensure AI remains a tool that benefits humanity rather than one that governs it.
“Artificial intelligence has rapidly become one of the most powerful technologies humanity has created,” Pradhan said. “It is unlocking breakthroughs in medicine, science and creativity at a pace unimaginable just a few years ago.”
But he warned that the same technology carries serious risks. AI, he noted, can amplify disinformation faster than facts can travel, compromise privacy, deepen discrimination and disrupt millions of livelihoods. Referencing concerns raised by AI pioneers such as Geoffrey Hinton, often called the godfather of AI, Pradhan stressed that the real challenge is not whether AI will shape the world, but whether humans will shape it with ethics and wisdom.
Structuring his talk around four guiding questions, why, what, how and who, Pradhan introduced the audience to WFEB’s emerging AI Ethics Partnership, a global platform aimed at advancing responsible artificial intelligence. He outlined four priority concerns that demand urgent attention: disinformation, bias and discrimination, data privacy and job security.
To make the idea of ethical AI easier to grasp, Pradhan offered a simple metaphor. Ethical AI, he said, is like a three layered cake. The outer layer represents the visible value ethical AI creates for businesses and society. The middle layer is organisational culture that moves ethics from written codes to everyday practice. The innermost layer, however, is the most crucial, the conscience of individual leaders.
Drawing from Indian philosophical thought through WFEB co-founder Ravi Shankar, Pradhan noted that while artificial intelligence can reproduce stored knowledge, true intelligence is boundless and rooted in conscience, creativity and compassion. Practices such as breathwork and meditation, he suggested, can help leaders develop the calm clarity needed for ethical decision making.
The event also featured a discussion with Maninder Adityaraj Singh, chief of staff and head of innovation at Rediffusion Brand Solutions Pvt Ltd, and Yash Johri, lawyer, Supreme Court of India.
Opening the session, IAA India chapter president Abhishek Karnani, highlighted the need for industries to understand and engage with AI responsibly.
“AI has to be befriended and understood,” added Rediffusion managing director and AIAI national convenor Sandeep Goyal. “Its ethical use will determine whether it becomes a friend or a foe.”
As AI continues to reshape industries and societies, Pradhan ended with a simple but powerful call to action. Businesses, governments and individuals must work together to ensure that the algorithms shaping the future reflect human values rather than just cold logic.
