Khushi V Rangdhol
Jun 28, 2025 01:12
India’s IT giants—TCS, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, and Wipro—are pivoting to blockchain, launching digital-asset divisions and securing global contracts, marking a shift from Web2 outsourcing to Web3 infrastructure.
When most people picture “Indian crypto,” they imagine Bengaluru start-ups or Dubai-registered exchanges. Yet the largest moves into enterprise blockchain this year are coming from the country’s four IT-services behemoths—Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Wipro—whose combined revenue already tops US $55 billion. Each firm now runs a dedicated digital-asset division, and the contracts they win—from tokenised-bond pilots in Singapore to CBDC sandboxes in Africa—signal that India’s export engine is pivoting from Web2 outsourcing to Web3 infrastructure.
Why the Tech Majors Care
NASSCOM’s 2024 strategic review shows 58 % of Indian IT-services revenue now comes from “digital and engineering” work, up from 34 % five years ago. Blockchain still accounts for <4 % of that pot, but deal value is growing nearly 40 % year-on-year—outpacing cloud or AI growth rates. Talent is also no longer a bottleneck: India hosts roughly 75 000 blockchain engineers (NASSCOM Web3 Landscape 2023), second only to the United States.
1. TCS Quartz: from core banking to tokenised assets
TCS launched its “Quartz” blockchain framework in 2020, but two 2024 announcements made the product impossible to ignore:
- LSEG pilot for tokenised settlement. In October 2024 the London Stock Exchange Group completed a proof-of-concept using Quartz to settle digital equity tokens against cash on a private ledger, cutting reconciliation time from two hours to 30 seconds.
- Bank Muscat custody project. Oman’s largest bank said in March 2025 it will deploy Quartz Digital Asset Custody to serve regional family offices that want regulated crypto safekeeping.
TCS staff say Quartz revenue is “tiny but growing”—and strategically vital because every settlement node or custody vault feeds more consulting hours into the firm’s legacy integration units.
2. Infosys Finacle: CBDC and deposit tokens
Infosys’ banking suite, used by 1,000+ institutions worldwide, quietly added a Finacle Digital Asset Solution in 2022. Recent milestones:
- Nigeria’s e-Naira upgrade. The Central Bank of Nigeria confirmed in January 2025 that Finacle middleware now powers offline e-Naira wallets for feature phones, after a six-month pilot in rural Kaduna.
- Deposit-token sandbox in Saudi Arabia. Riyad Bank and the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) announced in May 2025 a joint test where Finacle tokenises sight deposits for instant wholesale payments.
Because Finacle already holds core-banking market share across Africa and the Gulf, every successful CBDC or deposit-token pilot widens the moat.
3. Tech Mahindra: DePIN and carbon markets
Tech Mahindra, known for telecom IT projects, leans on that DNA to chase infrastructure-token work:
- Helium enterprise node ops. In December 2024, Nova Labs named Tech Mahindra its systems-integration partner for Helium’s India rollout of Wi-Fi Passpoint nodes across 200 smart-city locations.
- Grasim carbon-credit chain. Aditya Birla subsidiary Grasim Industries chose TechM in April 2025 to build a private blockchain that tokenises verified abatement credits from its green-hydrogen plants.
Revenue is small, but such proofs unlock cross-selling into 5G private networks and ESG reporting—TechM’s traditional sweet spots.
4. Wipro: wholesale-CBDC rails
Wipro’s blockchain practice felt quiet after its 2019 Corda work, but resurfaced when:
- The Central Bank of Thailand named Wipro and R3 as tech vendors for its Project Inthanon-LionRock cross-border CBDC bridge in July 2024. A follow-up pilot in January 2025 processed US $180 million in simulated trade payments between Bangkok and Hong Kong.
A Wipro vice-president (speaking at Hyperledger Global Forum, April 2025) said 60 % of the project team sits in Bengaluru—proof that the firm’s offshore talent still anchors headline Web3 contracts.
Implications for India’s Export Engine
- Higher-margin work. NASSCOM pegs average billing for blockchain architects at 1.6× traditional Java rates; margin expansion matters in a talent-scarce market.
- Hard currency earnings. With most blockchain pilots denominated in dollars, rupee weakness boosts revenue—helpful after a flat 2024 IT-services growth year.
- Skill flywheel. As banks and telecoms demand Solidity, Rust or DAML, India’s university pipeline shifts, feeding both start-ups and IT majors.
Roadblocks Still Ahead
- Regulatory fragmentation. None of the big four IT firms can host retail-facing crypto wallets in India due to the 30 % gains tax and 1 % TDS. That forces “build here, deploy abroad” strategies that complicate data residency.
- Standards wars. Quartz backs Ethereum-compatible Substrate; Finacle favours Hyperledger Fabric and tokenised-deposit modules; Tech Mahindra toggles between Solana and private Corda. Clients worry about vendor lock-in.
- Talent retention. Blockchain skills are portable; start-ups dangle token upside that IT services cannot legally match under India’s wage rules.
Outlook
For years, Indian IT giants watched blockchain from the sidelines while start-ups grabbed headlines. That era is ending. With tokenised bonds, CBDC pilots and DePIN rollouts moving from proof-of-concept to paid production, TCS, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Wipro are positioning themselves as the global back-office for Web3—just as they once were for Web2. The biggest winners may not be the start-ups minting coins, but the legacy integrators quietly selling the picks and shovels of the next internet.
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