Chandra Misses TCS Annual Meet as Air India Crisis Escalates

• Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran missed his second consecutive AGM, TCS meeting, due to managing the Air India crash aftermath.
• Independent director Keki Mistry chaired the TCS AGM, observing a moment's silence and pledging full support.

TCS chairman N Chandrasekaran did not attend the company's 30th annual general meeting on Thursday, marking his second consecutive absence from a Tata Group shareholder meeting.

Yashaswin Sheth, the company secretary, informed shareholders that Chandrasekaran was unable to attend due to "some exigencies." The board elected Keki Mistry, an independent director, to preside over the AGM. Chandrasekaran missed the Tata Consumer Products AGM on Wednesday.

While Tata Motors' AGM is scheduled for Friday, it is unclear whether Chandrasekaran will chair the meeting. This will be the company's final AGM prior to its planned division into two separate entities.

Chandrasekaran's absence from AGMs and public appearances is due to his role in managing the aftermath of last week's Air India flight crash. Chandrasekaran was the CEO of TCS for eight years before becoming the chairman of Tata Sons.

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Mistry's introductory speech addressed global challenges such as tariffs, conflicts, and AI disruptions. "We are currently engulfed in uncertainty on several fronts. Every day, the world's economic connections are reconfigured. The world is experiencing upheaval on multiple levels, including tariffs, supply chains, regional wars and conflicts, and disruption caused by AI. "This turbulence has caused significant shocks to businesses around the world," Mistry said. As a result, organisations are reimagining their systems, processes, and technology.

According to TCS CEO K Krithivasan, clients are prioritising cost-saving initiatives such as vendor consolidation, GenAI, cloud-led operating model transformation, and run cost optimisation.

"They continue to scale AI and GenAI adoption, focusing on ROI initiatives." According to him, GenAI improves productivity in a variety of areas, including coding, testing, marketing and product design, content generation, and customer service. "Recent advances in AI, such as reasoning capabilities and agentic AI, are expected to result in higher levels of automation," Mistry stated.