Japan earthquake: Indian employees safe

Indians in Japan safe

Following 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan, there are no reports of any Indians in Japan affected by the worst earthquake in the country’s history.

Indian employers, mostly IT companies, with staff in Japan have said that none of their employees have been affected by the earthquake in Japan. These employers are also taking steps to evacuate their employees in Japan.

There are reportedly 25,000 Indians in Japan.

Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Mind Tree are some of the major Indian IT companies with offices and staff in Japan. Wipro and Infosys Technologies reportedly employ 400 staff in Japan. TCS has stationed 100 employees in the quake-affected country.

Wipro has a development centre, a BPO centre and a sales and marketing department in Japan. “Japan Earthquake – Employees safe, have been evacuated. Monitoring the situation,” said Wipro on its Twitter account.

“None of our facilities are in the Northern part of Japan, which has been impacted,” Wipro’s marketing head Rajan Kholi told a news agency. “All our employees have been evacuated and are safe. Security precautions have been taken. There is no damage to facilities,” he confirmed.

A similar confirmation came from a spokesperson from TCS who said that all TCS employees in Yokohama are safe.

Similarly, Mahindra Satyam, with 100 staff in Tokyo, is monitoring the situation.

Unlikely to impact the Indian IT industry

The earthquake is likely to impact the global IT industry adversely since Japan is the second largest IT services market in the world after the United States. However, it only accounts of 2 percent of Indian IT exports.

The earthquake is bringing in not just physical damage, but could ensue financial crisis for the Japanese economy which is desperately trying to improve growth prospects. Major stock exchanges have reacted negatively to the earthquake news.

Rising insurance costs

The global insurance industry is facing losses of up to $10B following Friday’s devastating earthquake in Japan, a report in The Guardian said.

Japanese industry severely affected

So far, the quake has claimed more than 500 lives, and has shut down operations of Nissan Motor Co. and Toshiba Corp.

Japan’s second-largest carmaker, Nissan told Bloomberg 2,300 new vehicles were damaged by tsunami surges. Toshiba has reportedly closed a plant that makes sensors for the cameras in its mobile phones.

Nuclear radiation concerns

The earthquake also caused nuclear radiation concerns.

While the initial concerns were for one reactor in northeastern Japan, the Japanese government declared emergency at four more reactors.

According to the Business Week, the quake knocked out power at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and because a backup generator failed, the cooling system was unable to supply water to cool the 460-megawatt No. 1 reactor. Although a backup cooling system is being used, Japan’s nuclear safety agency said pressure inside the reactor had risen to 1.5 times the level considered normal, the news report said. The government has already evacuated thousands of residents from the areas with potential radiation threat.

How to help

International aid agencies have set up channels to receive donations for the earthquake victims. Visit the following charity websites to donate:

The Red Cross

Save the Children