‘Salt to software’: India’s largest tech firm widens NZ footprint

Saturday, 26 April 2025

Tata Consultancy Services chief executive K Krithivasan and Air NZ chief executive Greg Foran signed a partnership deal in Mumbai last month.

From running the NZX securities trading platform to digitising India’s entire passport network, a tech company little-known in Aotearoa is on the hunt to partner with more Kiwi businesses after inking a deal with Air NZ.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is an Indian National Stock Exchange-listed company and India’s biggest IT business. The company posted net profit of US$5.7 billion (NZ$9.6b) for the year ending in March, while revenue hit a US$30b revenue milestone in the full-year.

While analysts reported domestic growth for TCS was slowing, business from outside of India is on the up.

The Air NZ and Tata Consultancy Services teams in Mumbai last month.

Last month, the company signed a five-year deal with Air NZ as the airline’s digital partner during Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s trade mission to India to support the airline’s “very ambitious agenda” to upgrade its customer services, software engineering and AI capabilities.

Why New Zealand?

Auckland Business Chamber board member Priti Ambani was brought in to lead TCS’s New Zealand operations in 2020, when it invested in building its New Zealand growth strategy.

“Air NZ is a very ambitious company. They are on track to become the world's leading digital airline,” Ambani tells The Post.

The agenda includes changes from fleet management, Air NZ’s loyalty programme, cargo management and customer experiences like in-flight entertainment.

TCS chief executive K Krithivasan and departing Air NZ chief executive Greg Foran in Mumbai during last month's trade mission to India.

Departing Air NZ chief executive Greg Foran said last month that the company had been working with TCS since September 2024.

“In just a few short months, we've seen the benefits of tapping into the depth and breadth of talent and expertise they have when it comes to digital solutions,” Foran said.

He said TCS' expertise in “cutting-edge technologies” would support the airline’s customer experience and reinforce its commitment to cybersecurity and data protection. “This collaboration aligns with our vision to be a digitally enabled airline of the future.”

Ambani says TCS’ industry leadership positions the company as a key partner for the Kiwi airline: “We work with almost every major Asia Pacific airline, so we have very deep domain knowledge and capability in this area.

TCS New Zealand head Priti Ambani says the company has invested in growing its NZ operations in the last five years.

“But as we learn and work with more [New Zealand] customers like Air New Zealand, we add to our own richness.”

Ambani says TCS has made strategic investments in bringing those rich New Zealand insights to the business. “For about five years or so, we've invested in growing the New Zealand business. That's probably why you haven't heard too much about what we’re doing.”

The company has been working to digitise Aotearoa companies since the 1980s but mainly out of Australia until the 1990s.

Although Aotearoa is a smaller market than the likes of Australia and the US, it offers a “microcosm” of business opportunities from complex business planning software, data sovereignty, customer-relationship management, IT infrastructure, cloud services, she says.

Today, Ambani says, “We are in retail, local government, media, the energy sector, banks, construction.”

“We are gungho about all of these sectors. There is a huge opportunity for New Zealand companies to partner with us and vice versa, especially in times like this where there is economic uncertainty.”

Former Tata Group chair Ratan Tata passed away last year which Ambani says was like losing a father figure for the company.

Industry expertise

Ambani says the Tata Group offers its global business partners expertise from around the world and industry: “We do everything from tea to technology, and salt to software.”

The business was set up by Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata in the late 1800s who started out in cotton manufacturing and establishing the Taj Hotel Bombay,

The Tata family is still at the helm of the company, with former group chair Ratan Tata passing away last October. The business leader and philanthropist was responsible for acquiring British tea company Tetley and car group Jaguar Land Rover.

Ambani says Tata Group has been essential in developing an industrial India and remains committed to supporting the community.

As a group, Tata established and owns Air India, owns luxury hotel chains Taj and Vivanta, generates electricity, and manufactures steel, cars and trucks, food and tech hardware and software, to name a few.

“A lot of our work has been around building the country. Tata Group set the foundation for an industrialised India, whether that's steel manufacturing, the national airline, and issuing passports for the whole country,” Ambani says.

TCS rolled out its Passport Seva Programme in India to digitise the nation’s passport issue scheme that was previously under pressure. That was rolled out for the 1.4 billion-strong population as well as 35 million overseas residents.

The company also worked alongside India’s national telecom entity Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to set up critical 4G telecom infrastructure networks across the country.

Christopher Luxon sounds the gong at the stock exchange in India.

“That is the ethos of the company, and something we are very proud of,” Ambani says. “We are a business that serves the community.”

Supporting New Zealand

Ambani says the company’s proven track record of expertise and excellence across industries means it can provide global insight to support Aotearoa businesses.

“We're not speaking in just the technology language. We're talking about what’s best for your retail business or your airline or media business.”

Ambani says “there’s a lot of mutual respect” between India and Aotearoa which is positive news for a potential trade deal.

Ambani says shifting geopolitical tension, consumer demand and technological developments have encouraged Kiwi businesses to leverage the global technology and expertise of the 600,000-strong TCS workforce.

She says Kiwi companies have increased demand for the business after the pandemic, which revealed major areas for digital improvement, changing consumer behaviour, and efforts to cut business costs.

“We’re seeing a lot more value when companies have to make tough decisions. They’re relying on us,” she says.

Ambani was part of Luxon’s trade delegation to India and says it was well-received and welcomed “from both countries”.

“The Prime Minister, his cabinet, MBIE, NZTE and the whole team put in a phenomenal amount of effort into showcasing how important the India-New Zealand relationship is for them,” she says.

“On the other side, I saw equal interest and excitement about a partnership with New Zealand.”

Ambani says India sees New Zealand as a partner on multiple fronts, from geopolitics, defence and agriculture to cinema and sports: “There's a lot of mutual respect.”

A trade deal would let Aotearoa tap into India’s large-scale technological projects, she says. The Indian Government has developed public-facing digital infrastructure in its passport rollout which was administered by TCS, as well as remote and rural digital services and data sovereignty systems, and Ambani says New Zealand could provide more insights.

“I'm excited about opening the door for greater collaboration, coordination, and a greater insight into what we do well and what India does well, and incorporating those best practices.”

Technological innovation in Aotearoa like agriculture and space exploration could also offer India valuable insights into areas of growth, she says.

“It's long overdue. I think there is an appetite [for an agreement] on both sides. What I've seen as part of the delegation is that the partnership matters for both sides, which is a good thing.”