Persistent Systems Limited (PERSISTENT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good evening. It's wonderful to see so many of you here today for the 34th Annual General Meeting of Persistent Systems. We are all here present at the Dewang Mehta Auditorium, and it's 4 o'clock on Tuesday, July 16, 2024 at our registered office on Senapati Bapat Road. As the quorum is present, let me start the proceedings of the meeting. As an introduction, I'm Anand Deshpande, the Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of the company. On behalf of my fellow members of the Board of Directors, I am delighted to welcome you to the 34th Annual General Meeting. We are grateful to all of you, especially our long-term shareholders, for your love and affection and your support over these years. As per our new post-pandemic tradition, today's meeting is organized as a hybrid meeting. And it is great to see many of you here, but we also have a large number of people attending this meeting online, those who could not come here in-person. As we get started, I want to get -- show you a short video of the company's performance during the last 1 year. [Presentation]

It has clearly been a very exciting year. Let me first introduce our Board members to you. Let me first start with Independent Directors, who have joined us online. Signing in from New York, we have independent Director, Dr. Ambuj Goyal. Thank you, Ambuj. We also have, signing in from California, Independent Director, Dan'l Lewin. It's very early in the morning for Dan'l. He Is signing in from the West Coast in California. Thank you, Dan'l, for being here. We also have today from Delhi, Professor Ajit Ranade. Hi, Ajit. Next, we have from Mumbai today, Ms. Avani Davda. Let me also welcome Ms. Anjali Joshi, additional Director of the company, signing in today from London. Resolution 7 of today's agenda proposes to appoint her as an Independent Director for a 5-year term. I will share Ms. Joshi's impressive profile when I read the resolution. Thank you, Anjali, for being here. Thank you, Ambuj, Dan'l, Ajit, Avani, and Anjali for joining this meeting despite odd hours that you are at. Let me also introduce the Independent Directors who are here on stage today. We have Independent Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee and the Risk Management Committee, Mr. Praveen Kadle. Resolution 6 of today's agenda proposes to reappoint Mr. Kadle as an Independent Director for his second term of 5 years, starting April 23, 2025. Independent Director and Chairman of the Nominations and Remuneration Committee, Ms. Roshini Bakshi; Independent Director and Chairman of the Stakeholder Relationship and ESG Committee, Mr. Arvind Goel. I wish to inform the members that Roshini Bakshi, who has served the Board of the company as an Independent Director since 2014, would be retiring from the Board upon conclusion of this AGM. I thank her for your contribution to the company during her tenure of 10 years. Thank you, Roshini. Let me now introduce my colleagues and executive directors who are present on stage today. Let me start with our CEO, Sandeep Kalra. Next, we have Sunil Sapre. And Resolution 5 of today's agenda proposes to reappoint him as Executive Director for a term of 3 months till his superannuation that is up to December 31, 2024. I would also like to welcome Vinit Teredesai, who joined us as Chief Financial Officer from May 15, 2024 to his first Annual General Meeting of the company. Welcome, Vinit. On stage, we have Mr. Sonali Deshpande, Chairperson of Persistent Foundation. We are glad to share that Persistent Foundation has completed 15 years, and we will be highlighting some of the work done by the foundation during this meeting. Finally, let me introduce our Dynamic Company Secretary, Amit Atre. Thank you all for being part of this meeting. We have several distinguished guests in the audience. I'd like to acknowledge their presence. Let me start with Mr. S.P. Deshpande, better known as Dada, Co-Promoter and former Director of the company. It is my pleasure to also introduce Mr. Pradeep Bhargava, who was a Director in the company for 10 years. Shridhar Shukla, not sure if he's here. And then we also have Srikanth Sundararajan, who was our COO for when we went IPO. We also have Rajesh Ghonasgi, who was our CFO when we did an IPO. Let me now introduce Gaurav Mehrunkar, Manager from Walker Chandiok & Company, our statutory auditors. [ Shashi Talwalkar ], the partner who was planning to be here, but there was a family emergency, so he couldn't make it. We also have the Tejashree Joshi and Kaustubh Deshpande, partners from Joshi Apte & Co, our tax auditors. We have Sridhar Mudaliar, Sheetal Joshi and [ Meenakshi ] Deshmukh here. They represent SVD & Associates, Secretarial Auditors of the company for the financial year '23, '24. And there are also the Scrutinizers for this meeting. I also welcome Sandip Pawar. He is here representing Link Intime India. They are the registrar and share transfer agents of the company. Thank you all for coming here and for being here today, and thank you for all your help through the year. Now let me thank all of you for joining this meeting, too. It's good to see so many people in this auditorium. And now let me invite Amit Atre, our Company Secretary, who will share some information about the meeting to make this experience very delightful. Amit?

Thank you, Anand. And let me also welcome all the members. The company has provided facility to cast votes electronically on all resolutions outlined in the notice. Members who have not had an opportunity to cast their votes electronically and who are participating in this meeting will have an opportunity to cast their votes during the meeting through electronic e-voting system provided by NSDL as well as physically through ballot paper up to 30 minutes after the end of the meeting. The end time of the e-voting facility will be adjusted according to the actual time, end time of the meeting. Members who are attending this meeting through video conferencing are requested to refer to the instructions provided in the AGM for the pleasant experience of participating in this AGM through video conferencing. During the AGM, in case they face any difficulty, they may reach out to the helpline numbers mentioned in the AGM notice. I would like to inform the members that the annual report for the financial year 2023, '24, AGM notice, the register of members, the register of directors and key managerial personnel, the register of shareholding of Directors, key managerial personnel, the register of contracts or arrangements in which directors are interested, certificate from the Secretarial Auditors regarding the implementation of ESOP schemes and copies of newspaper advertisements about VC facility and AGM are made available online and in physical form for inspection by the members during this meeting. Online copies are available on the company and NSDL website. As the meeting is being held in hybrid mode, the facility for appointment of the proxies by the members attending this meeting through video conferencing is not applicable. However, the members attending this meeting in-person are allowed to appoint proxies. The proxy register is also available for inspection. The company has not received any proxy forms for this Annual General Meeting. With this, I now invite the Chairman to share his thoughts.

Thank you, Amit. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm truly honored to stand before you today to express my heartfelt gratitude to the members for all your support to the company through these years. Your unwavering support and trust have brought us to where we are today, and I cannot thank you enough. This was our first year as a $1 billion enterprise, and we have moved into our sixth orbit. I'm glad to share that our team is geared up to continue our momentum as we march towards becoming a $2 billion enterprise. This year was challenging as our clients who are investing in accelerating their digital transformation journey during the pandemic turned their focus to cost optimization. This tested our resilience. Thankfully, our global delivery business model allows us to provide an equally compelling proposition to our clients, whether they are accelerating their roadmap or focusing on better cost outcomes. While generative AI and other next-generational technologies are promising and will be disruptive in the long run, high inflation, elevated interest rates and geopolitical uncertainties, especially in the U.S., have contributed to a market of uncertainties. We responded with alacrity as the market shifted, and we maintained industry-leading growth rates during the financial year. I'd like to thank our clients who continue to trust us and have confidence in our capabilities. I must thank all my colleagues and fellow persistent employees. Our multi-talented global team is our strength. Their high-quality work is the reason why our clients trust us. We believe that developers with AI will be far more productive as compared to developers without AI. And hence, we have invested in preparing our global workforce to respond to technology disruptions. We have trained more than 16,000 professionals on AI and next-generation tools and technologies during this year. Our 360-degree relationship with key partners allows us to learn, explore and deploy the latest technologies for future-ready solutions. In tough times, our people, employees, partners, suppliers and vendors are the source of our resilience during -- driving continued success. We are committed to providing our employees and their families with a holistic experience and long-term work-life harmony. We encourage diversity across the company and have continued to implement several initiatives during the year that spotlight and support diversity and inclusion. We have a strong focus on health and wellness and believe that healthy employees are happy employees and happy employees are productive employees. We have several programs encouraging employees to learn and engage in various activities beyond work. This is what we call the Persistent Way. During the year, we were consistently recognized for our achievements from a diverse group of analysts, advisers, organizations and market observers. The highlight was the receiving of the CNBC TV Most Promising Company of the Year, recognizing our extraordinary growth journey. Resilience is critical as we propel the company into our sixth orbit and reach towards $2 billion goal. To bolster our resilience, we have invested by adding senior leadership and have created new business lines and capabilities during the year to support our growth and our growth strategies. I'm counting on your continued support as we celebrate 34 years of trust and partnership. We look ahead to shared success and to many more years of innovation, collaboration and progress. We would not be here without you. Thank you very much. Now let me now invite our CEO and Executive Director, Sandeep Kalra, to share the highlights of the year. Sandeep?

Thank you, Anand. So I assume everyone can hear me in the back? Perfect. So let me start by welcoming all our shareholders here one more time. And in the next few slides, I'd like to report the financial performance of the company, starting with the last year. In financial year '24, we delivered 14.5% revenue growth, which is among the best growth in companies comparable to us. In terms of the EBIT performance, we delivered a similar 14.4% EBIT growth, which translates into roughly about [ 18% ] in EPS growth. From a 4-year perspective to 5-year perspective, if you look to a little bit more longer range, we have delivered roughly about 20% CAGR, which is cumulative annual growth rate from a revenue perspective, and 27% earnings per share growth, which translates into one of the highest growth in our sector. If you were to go back to the time Persistent went IPO, from that time, we have delivered 17.3% growth. So if -- whether you were to look at 1-year, 5-year or even 14-year perspective, we have delivered industry-leading growth and industry-leading profit growth in the sector. A little known fact in our sector, in comparable companies, the record for sequential growth is roughly about 16 quarters, and we have delivered the 16 sequential quarters of growth. So rest assured, your company is performing very well, based on the capabilities that it brings to the customers and the partners it partners with. From a perspective of what do we do, just to refresh everyone, we service 3 segments: the ISV segment, which we call Software, Hi-Tech & Emerging Industries, wherein we do product development for software companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon to mid-market software companies. We go to market in Banking, Financial Services segment and Healthcare & Life Sciences as 2 other industry verticals. So in terms of the customer segments and the customers that we service, whether it is the global markets or India market, we serve some of the largest Banking, Financial Services organizations, some of the largest in Software, Hi-Tech and Healthcare & Life sciences. To give you an example, if any of you applies for a home loan, auto loan or loan against shares and so on in the India market, the chances are 2 in 3 that the platform that you use is built by us on other platforms like Salesforce working for some of these financial services organizations. If you were to look at Healthcare & Life Sciences, for example, in India, we have worked with Narayana Health, which is a leading hospital chain right here and also has hospitals outside India in places like Cayman Islands. So let's see what we do for health care organizations, which some of you also use. Can you have the video, please? [Presentation]

All of this capability that we bring to bear, all of these customers that we service are serviced by the team behind this, roughly about 24,000 of us working globally day in, day out to deliver on this. Now, not only do we use the Persistent technology expertise, but we also partner with the best-in-class globally, whether it is the likes of Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Salesforce and IBM. We have built good expertise on these platforms, and we are very well respected by all of them. We have invested in building our own learning and development infrastructure. In the video, you would have seen the Ramanujan facility. And that's where we basically certify our professionals on this. Now, if you were to look at it for a small company that we are in the sector, we are very well respected by the CEOs also from Microsoft, Google, IBM, AWS and so on. We are also contributing to their forward-looking AI journey. Let's take a listen to what AWS CEO has to say about this. [Presentation]

Not only are we recognized for our technical [ chops ], but we are also very well respected for the corporate governance, and we have won the leading awards in our sector compared to our peers, whether it is the Golden Peacock Award or whether it is the Institutional Investor award. We've been awarded and honored by various organizations. All of this has also led to us winning, as Anand pointed out, the CNBC TV18, the most coveted -- the Most Promising Company of the Year award for 2023. All these activities, these recognitions have led to the Persistent brand growing at the fastest possible click in our sector over the last 3 years. All of these recognitions, brand movement, et cetera, and everything else has contributed to us not only being included in the capital markets various indices in India, whether it is on the NSE, in Nifty IT, Nifty Midcap 50, Nifty Midcap Liquid 15; but we also have been included in the MSCI Index. Just for everyone's reference, this is a global index. So anyone in the U.S. investing in India, if they buy the MSCI Index, our company gets a passive flow. We are one of the 131 listed companies, the best-in-class in India, who are a part of this index. All of this has led to, whether you look at a 1-year, 3-year, 5-year return or from the time we went to IPO; some of the best returns for our shareholders here today over the years. A sincere thanks to all of the shareholders, partners, analysts, customers for making all of this happen for us. Now, if we look at the path forward, what brought us here will not take us there. You would have all heard about generative AI and the potential disruption or the opportunities that it can afford to us as a sector. We are looking at this trend very positively and are very enthused about it. From our perspective, we are implementing these systems in-house, training our own employees, taking this to market with our partners like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, many others to our customers. We are building what we call a modern engineering framework, and I'll have a video talk about how our colleagues are working on this as we go along. So can we have a video, please? [Presentation]

So we're building a knowledge graph solution that can help accelerate the insights and also provide knowledge synthesis, the time reduction is as high as 50%.

We are working with the leading American financial services company, which has got over $800 [ billion ] assets under management. This is an outcome driven engagement where we are jointly working with them to help them improve their productivity using the latest engineering techniques, leveraging GenAI. As a part of this engagement, we are helping them set up a center of excellence, which will facilitate this productivity improvement using the latest techniques using GenAI.

Persistent has partnered with one of the largest private equity organization with over $100 [ billion ] assets in management. When they were looking at their portfolio, there were many projects, which were kept on shelf because of the complexity involved, the cost that were against all of these work. At the same time, the go-to-market aspect there. They partnered with Persistent. They're using our [ SaaS ] platform to orchestate, automate most of their difficult projects. We are able to deliver over 50% of productivity and much faster go-to-market at a very improved quality.

Our AI expertise not only ensures that you stay ahead of the curve, but you thrive in an ever-changing landscape. Today, we are not only using AI and GenAI to transform our customers but to transform ourselves as well.

We are investing very heavily in every one of our employees to have them understand how GenAI will impact their ability to deliver for our customers.

At Persistent, we empower our customers for rapid scalable growth. It delivers superior engineering outcomes at unparallel speed, quality and security.

Generative AI is not an evolutionary technology, but a revolutionary technology. Like the Internet before. we're looking to unlock the limitless potential of generative AI to impact our business and our customers' business and their users lives in every possible way.

So as you can see, we are very enthused about this transformation that is happening in our industry. And we look forward to making ourselves a platform-driven services organization, not just a human-driven services organization. We're taking certain strategic bets where we will be taking some growth in terms of building organic capabilities as well as bringing in some inorganic capabilities. At the end of the day, it's about doing better engineering, bringing more engineering productivity and also disrupting the business processes and doing business transformation for our customers. And if you would have noticed, we have done a small acquisition earlier this quarter in contact center space, and we look forward to building our AI journey as we move along. With this, in summary, we have delivered good growth, good revenues, profitability and shareholder returns over the last several years. We are further unlocking newer growth vectors using AI, GenAI and similar technologies and we remain confident of continuing our growth momentum. We look forward to your support in our journey. And with that, I will stop my session. I would like to invite our Chairman for Persistent Foundation. Ms. Sonali Deshpande. We're very proud of what the foundation has done over the last 15-plus years, and I look forward to hearing from her over some of the snippets. Sonali, welcome.

Thank you, Sandeep. So I'm a very -- good evening. I'm very honored to stand before you here today at this Annual General Meeting as part of a member of the CSR team at the Persistent Foundation. The foundation was established in 2009. And as we have heard, we are celebrating 15 years of service to society this year. During this last decade and a half, I'd like to inform you that we have been able to spend more than INR 100 crores towards CSR, influencing and affecting the lives -- thank you. Also influencing and affecting the lives of more than 4.5 lakh individuals. So I think that is a good benchmark for CSR for Persistent over the last 15 years. This has, of course, been possible because of the unrelenting support and encouragement that we have received from the Persistent Board members, our trustees, our esteemed employees, our NGO partners who have affected and executed the projects for us and the CSR team and all of you well-wishers present here today. So thank you very much for your support, and we bank on continued support from you, so that we can aspire to reach more such milestones in the future. I'd also like to inform you that in -- recently, the last month or so, we have also established a Persistent Foundation U.S.A. in the U.S., which will also take care of doing CSR across the world. So that is another milestone for this year. And to mark this occasion of completion of 15 years, we have curated a short film, which showcases most of the highlights of our journey through the last 15 years. I would request you to watch the video and just get a glimpse of what CSR means to the culture at Persistent here. Again, thank you very much. And can we have the video, please? [Presentation]

Thank you, Sonali, for your passion and commitment. It is heartening to see the work done by the Persistent Foundation team. Now let us move to the business segment of the Annual General Meeting. So notice convening the 34th Annual General Meeting, the directors' report, the audited financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2024, have been with you for some time. Therefore, I take them as read. As there are no qualifications or observations in the auditor's report to the consolidated and stand-alone financials for the year ending March 31, 2024, and they are not required to be read. The secretarial audit report does not contain qualifications or observations. And again, they are also not required to be read. There are 9 resolutions for your consideration today, and I will read them briefly one by one. The first 4 resolutions are proposed as ordinary businesses to be voted as ordinary resolutions. First, to receive, consider and adopt the audited standalone financial statements of the company for financial year ended March 31, 2024. Reports of the Board of Directors and auditors thereon. Number 2, to receive, consider and adopt the audited consolidated financial statements of the company for the financial year ended March 31, 2024. Number 3, to confirm the payment of interim dividend of INR 16 per equity share of INR 5 each is adjusted for the split and to approve the payment of final dividend of INR 10 per equity share of INR 5 each, recommended for the financial year '23, '24. To appoint a director in place of Mr. Sunil Sapre, Executive Director, who retires by rotation and has confirmed his eligibility and willingness to accept the office if reappointed. The next resolution is proposed as special business and voted as ordinary resolution to reappoint Sunil Sapre as an Executive Director of the company liable to retire by rotation to hold office for a term of 3 months until his superannuation that is from October 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024. In the opinion of the Board, Mr. Sapre possesses appropriate skills, experience and knowledge necessary to hold the office of Executive Director of the company, and we recommend to the members to pass this resolution with requisite majority. The next 4 resolutions are proposed as special businesses and also voted as special resolutions. I'll read them out one by one. To reappoint Mr. Praveen Kadle as an independent director of the company, not liable to retire by rotation to hold office for a second term of 5 consecutive years from April 23, 2025, to April 22, 2030. The Board, after taking into account the performance of Mr. Kadle during his first term has recommended to the members to consider his reappointment as Independent Director of the company for a second 5-year term, that is from April 23, 2025, to April 22, 2030. This is to ensure that there would be no gap between the end of his current term and the date of reappointment on his second term. Number 7. To a point Ms. Anjali Joshi as an independent director of the company, not liable to retire by rotation to hold office for a term of 5 consecutive years, that is from June 12, 2024, to June 11, 2029. At this time, I'd like to share a brief introduction about Ms. Joshi. She has joined the Board as an additional director of Persistent Systems with effect from 12th June 2024. Anjali is an experienced technology and product leader and a professional director with more than 30 years of experience in engineering and product management. She received her B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur, a Masters in Computer Engineering from the State University of New York and a Masters In Engineering Management from Stanford University. She was awarded the distinguished Alumni Award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. She is currently a Director of Xero and LocoNav and was previously a director in Alteryx, Lattice Semiconductor, Iteris, MobileIron and Mcclatchy. Anjali holds advisory positions at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education at the State University of New York and at Insight Partners. Anjali has worked in a senior product leadership team at Google for 13 years, where she was instrumental in building and scaling several products, including search and maps globally across the Internet, mobile and video platforms. Prior to joining Google, Anjali held engineering leadership positions at Covad Communications and systems Engineering roles at AT&T Bell Labs. In the opinion of the Board, Anjali Joshi possesses the appropriate skills, experience and knowledge as necessary to hold the office as an Independent Director of the company, and we recommend to the members that the resolution be passed with requisite majority. Number 8. To approve an amendment to the Persistent Employee Stock Option Scheme 2014, pe-SOS 2014 to increase the number of stock options allocated to pe-SOS 2014 by 1.6 million stock options. That is from 3.8 million stock options to 5.4 million stock options. Number 9, and this is the last one. To allow the grant of stock options to the employees of subsidiaries of Persistent Systems under the Persistent Employee Stock Option Scheme 2014. Having completed the resolutions, we will now move to the Q&A section of this meeting. To help me with this process, let me invite Rajshree to this stage.

Thank you, Anand. Good evening, dear shareholders. For today's AGM, we will be taking questions from our online speaker shareholders who have preregistered to speak at the AGM. Then we will be taking questions from our shareholders seated here in the auditorium. For shareholders attending the meeting online, you may post questions in the Q&A box any time during the meeting. You may also ask your questions on X with hashtag Persistent AGM2024. We will read the questions received during the meeting through Q&A and X. After we have heard all the questions received during the meeting, we will collate your questions, group them into categories and answer them by category. Let me take you through some instructions to facilitate your participation in today's meeting. Since this is a hybrid meeting, we will be switching between speaker shareholders joining virtually the shareholders we have here in the live audience and reading out questions from the Q&A box, and from the Twitter feed -- I'm sorry, the X Feed. For speakers joining virtually, we will call out your name and unmute your audio. Please look out for your name. If there is any trouble with the connectivity of the speakers end, we will request the next speaker to ask the question. You will be added back to the queue, and we will try to call you again to speak once all the other speakers complete their turn. We request the speakers to be crisp and to limit their speech to 3 minutes. Please note that the company reserves the right to limit the number of shareholders asking questions depending on the availability of time at the AGM.

With that, let's go to the -- our very first speaker shareholder who is joining us virtually. Mr. Jaideep Bakshi. Sir? Sir please go ahead with your question.

Am I audible now?

Yes. Please go ahead.

Yes. Good evening Chairman and Board of Directors and CEO. And also good morning to persons who are joining from foreign land. Myself, Jaideep Bakshi, connecting from the city of Kolkata. Thanks to our Company Secretary, Mr. Amit ji, for helping me to join and also to the secretary team for helping me to join this detailed conference. And also for presenting a detailed annual result. Third, the initial speeches were very much informative one and also the video presentation was. Sir, congrats for achieving of 14.5% on a year-over-year basis growth in revenue and congrats to the entire global workforce, and also, the performance has been well highlighted in Page 8 and breakup given in Page 389. And also thanks once again for the dividend to have passed on INR 52. Sir, what is the expected results for the first quarter? And myself proud to be a part of this trusted digital engineering and enterprise modernization partner serving global market leaders. Sir, we are into cloud compounding IoT, et cetera, that any new development like GenAI or value-added service for future growth and tie up with other companies? Sir, how are we placed from peers in respect of service and steps taken to stay as the leader and be future ready and plans for using our general reserve for the development work. Sir, what are the steps we are taking for data protection and training and career growth for our employees. Sir, congrats once again for the CSR through the Persistent foundation, well explained from Pages 34 to 41 and congrats for receiving the recognition for different achievements Page 13 and for making history with the 3 Guinness World records entitled on Pages 18 and 19. And also for the ESG program undertaken in return to our mother earth mentioned in Pages 136 to 140 also. Sir, I have supported all the resolutions and nothing to add. And I hope our company continues leadership in software engineering and digitalized transformation with the trust of all the stakeholders with the company moved to greater heights and reach our $2 billion goal in the future. And sir, continue with this VC so that we can get connected in future. Thank you, sir, for giving me an opportunity.

Thank you very much, sir, for your question. Our next speaker shareholder joining us virtually is Mr. Rajesh Chanani. Sir, you will have to take yourself off mute.

Am I audible now?

Yes, now you are.

Hello. Respected Chairman, Mr. Anand Deshpande ji and a very highly distinguished eminent Board of Directors, my fellow shareholders. My name is Rajesh Chanani, I am speaking from Vile Parle, Mumbai. At the outset, I thank the company secretary Mr. Amit ji for sending the email notice very well on time. He called me also to join the meeting. So he has done a very good secretarial job because he's a link between the shareholders and the management. So the secretary team is very friendly and they really care for the shareholders. Sir, I just wanted to know, sir, that our promoter holding is 31.02%. So are there any plans to increase the promoter holding because SEBI has permitted us to increase it till 75%. So if you can throw the light on that. And regarding the performance of the company, sir, it is an excellent performance sir, from the low of [ 2,3,1.8 we have touched the high of 4.95, could you also just ] [indiscernible] on the face value too. So sir, the share capital and reserves are so much that even in future, you can consider for a bonus also or even if you are in future, now we have gone from INR 10 to INR 5 face value. So my request is in future make it to INR 2, not immediately to INR 1 if you're doing it. And this sir, is a hybrid meet because I got a call from Amit that I'm going to join in Pune. So I said, no, I won't be coming to Pune. I will be doing VC. Sir, we are expressing many of the companies. TCS, Infosys everybody for hybrid, but no one -- they're just on the VC way. So you've done a very good thing, sir, by doing the hybrid meet. I really appreciate sir. And I thank you really very much, sir, what shall I say sir, performance is excellent sir. My previous shareholder covered a lot of things with the CSR activities and all stuff. Thank you very much and wish you all the way for the coming festivals. Thank you.

Thank you for your question. We will now take questions from the shareholders seated here in the audience. Please raise your hand if you have a question you'd like to ask, our volunteers will get the mic to you. I would request you to please say your name before you ask your question. We can have a show of hands so that we can get the mic to you. Al right, we have the raise hand here please.

First of all, again, my name is Shrikant Joshi. Congratulations to the Board of Directors for excellent results.

One moment sir.

My name is Shrikant Joshi. I am from Pune. Congratulations to Persistent team for good achievements. In the last 3 or 4 meetings, the company has highlighted that they are going for acquisitions spree. And we -- in quarterly results, we often read -- listen about it. I just want to have a question that out of your $1 billion plus revenue, what percentage has contributed from recent acquisitions?

Can we have a raise of hand for the next question. Anyone whould like to post a question from the audience?

I thank the owner of the company, Anand Sahib Deshpande for investing the AGM meeting. Company should be make a profit. Company should be split face value for new investor. Company ROC is good. Company has delivered good profit growth, 26% CAGR last 5 years. And thank you my -- invest me AGM attending. Can all body speak to Marathi? [Foreign Language] My name is Samir Kingre. I am Pune. My villiage is [indiscernible].

So any more questions from the audience. Let me read out some questions that we have received from the Q&A box that's live. The very first one is send hard copy of annual report. The next one is, are you taking any measures to increase any operational efficiency? Have you taken any strategic goals for yourself in this regard? This question comes to us from Basu. Prasad has asked, when can we get the access for ESOP 2024, '25 schemes. Vijay Kumar has asked, when will the company issue bonus shares since our reserves are very good. Rashmita Swain has asked, I would like to request you to open a Persistent branch in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, so that is -- it is easier to go to office daily who are part of Odisha and Jharkhand. Vijay Kumar has asked tear sir. Please let us know if Persistent is in ERD, that is engineering, research and design, which is latest buzzword nowadays? And [ Vikas Dakre ] has asked us, what is the attrition rate and support that -- he mentioned that he supports all the resolutions. And we'll go back to the audience, see if anyone else would like to ask us a question. Can we have a mic here please, and here after that.

I am Anirudh [indiscernible]. So as a service company, 1 metric to look at is per employee revenue per month. And I didn't have tracked that metric for a few of the larger peers in this organization -- in this sector. So when it comes to our company, what is the -- as in that number is significantly higher with about 24,000 employees, which we have. So could you give some guidance on that as in how we should look at that metric when it compares to some other companies in the same sector?

Thank you, very much for your question. Please.

Actually, there's 2 parts to this question. By the way, this is [ Dock ]. Everyone knows me. The first part is great to see. There's some kind of [indiscernible] and Odisha and Jharkhand, because I actually belong to both those states. So I grew up in Odisha and I was born in Jharkhand. So let's hope something good happens there. But one futuristic question, which I probably will put out to both Anand and Sandeep here, is -- if you look at the rate of hardware now from an NVIDIA perspective and the GPU perspective, one thing, which we should not miss is actually creating a state-of-the-art hardware lab, where we can actually create essentially stacks, which are high performing because it's all going to keep on going in that direction. So one of the things which is missing is just that. I don't know whether it's going to be built indigenously or if it's going to be built through an acquisition, but that's a very, very critical thing to not forget. So that's it.

Thank you very much for your question. Waiting for only 1 or 2 more questions.

I'm not really sure whether people will like what I'm going to say because I have a suggestion that personally I have been now working for 34 years. I think Persistent should now diversify in similar activities. And so that other than giving the shareholders bonuses, they could give them shares of the new companies, they are Persistent firms. There are a number of areas where Persistent can really continue. There are a number of areas where we can at least start working on the new activities and not necessarily only in IT, that also, I must say. Because there are a number of companies which are not really working in IT, but they are working in different fields that will also give one more opportunity, particularly in the manufacturing sector. If we start working this will definitely increase the employment proportion significantly.

Thank you very much, sir. Can you -- can we have the mic here?

With due respect, sir, I'll just sit and take the questions because it will be easy for me to roll over the papers. There will be a few more questions. I'll make up for the others. Please give me time. Okay. After last year's interval, I guess I've come back here, and I greatly love this company. It's been one of the most promising companies coming out of Pune for a long, long time. I think 8 or 10 years ago, in a chat at the AGM, I had casually mentioned to Anand, I think Persistent should be the Infosys from Pune. And today, I'm very proud to see that we are nearly there. If not there, I think as Sandeep has said, we'll be going from strength to strength. But in all other aspects, in fact, in some of the aspects, we are ahead of them also, like the hybrid meeting, for example. This is an outstanding decision from this Board as well as the earlier few years to go ahead with holding a hybrid meeting. It is the best of both worlds, of all worlds. People globally, who are our shareholders, who are located wherever can participate. People locally, like me can come and participate, and we can engage with the management. And this is a very, very healthy development from a corporate governance point of view. And I must congratulate the Company Secretary, the Chairman and Board members for supporting him and ensuring that this will become a success. Going forward, I believe this format is the format that will prevail. And we have been constantly badgering the bigger groups, including Tata's and others that please get into this mode, because there are shareholders who are very keen who want to come and participate. It's a once in a year occasion and people would like to actively participate. Having said that, sir, I would request the CEO to make our MDA, management discussion and analysis, especially on the business side of it, a little more meaty. Just 2 small paragraphs are not good enough, both for the vision that you have outlined and for the work that we have done. Because this will engage and inform shareholders what exactly we are doing. And they will also become more aligned with what your goals are, and we will understand you much better. I would welcome Anjali Joshi, who has joined us from overseas. This is her first AGM. Welcome, ma'am, and we look forward to your significant contribution going ahead. As well as Vinit Teredesai, please come on board. Very nice to have you. And I see that there is an organized succession plan. There is an overlap between the earlier gentleman, our Executive Director, Mr. Sapre; and you and this is very healthy, which is very rare. Because I remember 3 years ago at the HDFC Bank meeting, I kept on badgering [ Puri ], who happened to be my peer, when are you going to announce the new CEO. He said [Foreign Language] And now you see what is [Foreign Language]. Though he's a gentleman insider, well-known who knows the company well, but look, how the share is just stagnating, if not going down. And in terms of total shareholder returns, it affects. And the visibility that it creates in the marketplace, that is something that the Board must be alive and concerned, because we need to ensure that this aspect of it is also well managed. Now we have got one change this year from the CFO side. And going forward, as I was briefly discussing with Dr. Deshpande, his role in the company is also slowly getting more and more reduced. Persistent must be ready, future ready, to ensure that 1 day, he is completely out of the picture. We do not want our shareholders to take a beating that time just because Anand has stepped down. The transition from him has to be very smooth, orderly and the nomination committee and their team members have a big role to play, because you see that is when we will truly transform Persistent into a professional organization. Luckily for us, Anand's background, with his technical thing, he's a professional, hard core professional in software. So to call him that is not a professional would be inappropriate. But going ahead, with the team here, et cetera. One has to look 25 years ahead, not 3 years or 4 years ahead. So I think we need to look at that. One small bit of input to our company secretary. If you look at Page 120 and 148, 120 is legible, 148 is not. So the ink and the type, the ink and the type for an old man like me, it is difficult to read it. So -- and I take great interest to read it. Cloud. I read a recent report and all shareholders would like to also know. Cloud is a $300 billion to $380 billion opportunity, and it will add 14 million jobs. That is what the potential of cloud is as per a leading consultancy in the top 4 in the world. And this is backed up by another export to, and he was in the newspaper recently. And I remember 6 years ago or 7 years ago, Anand had bet on cloud. That time, TCS was the only biggie who had just started cloud. And I remember Persistent saying we will also get into cloud. And today, I can see very clearly that the bets have paid off. We have got solid competency in cloud. And I think we're building on that in a very big way. And I'm sure this opportunity also, we will make sure, at Persistent, it will help us. There is a transformation from legacy to cloud across the industry, and that will be a big benefit. Again, cloud as SaaS, that is also a very promising one, and I also like Persistent's initiatives into getting into consultancy. I think the consultancy initiative will lead to a lot of software assignments coming through. And there's a lot of core competency in India. And India is building a lot of industries ground up. So we will quickly bridge the gap between the global best practices in India. And that is where software and consulting will go hand in hand. Consulting may bring the revenue opportunities. And I think most on an outsourced basis, there are lots of people who are domain experts in consulting and persistent should tap in them so that they will aid in building up software products and platforms. I hope I'm not boring you, gentlemen, because I have a few more points. With your permission, sir. On Page 50, I noticed that Amazon language chain has an application or a platform available. I want to inquire whether this language chain can translate into all Indian languages. The reason I'm asking this is we have with all these Jan Dhan accounts, a massive opportunity to transform banking in this country. From brick-and-mortar, if we are able to generate a voice message, let's say, there is a Jan Dhan account person who gets INR 100 credit or INR 1,000 credit in his pension account. And he doesn't know to read a mobile or anything. But he gets the message [Foreign Language] He continues his farming activity. He doesn't have to go to the bank or anything. And then he will, through UPI, use that INR 1,000 to make payments and go ahead. So virtually, banking will -- no one will have to go to a bank, stand in a line, wait for the bank to open and see whether money is credited to him or not. He can start using these funds. So I think, Sandeep, if you can answer that, whether there is a language. And coming to that is UPI. India is a global leader now in UPI. Both Western countries, Japanese countries, they are all amazed. Even in Russia recently, when Prime Minister [indiscernible], the President was asking [Foreign Language]. So I wish to see what persistent has got in terms of speaking itself to take advantage of UPI. Because UPI is going to open up huge amounts of opportunity, and we should keep our eye to the ground and ensure we don't lose that opportunity. Sir, on the dividend side, in spite of such a fantastic year, the rate of growth of dividend year-on-year is not very encouraging. It is a measly 4%. So at least take it to 40%. Maybe in the next interim you can make up for it because now this dividend [Foreign Language]. Profits are outstanding. Revenues are outstanding. Volumes are -- my friend, Mr. Sapre is retiring on a very high note, very rarely a CFO can get both that fundamental performance of the company, which is astounding. The return on capital employed is averaging 22% to 25% over 5 years is very, very rare. It's a superb company. And it's all well run by him as well as the CEO and past. And given that headcount, 22 years -- 22% CAGR of 5 years volume growth means people we have hired, all our employee shareholders are today the beneficiaries of the growth. I think we cannot ask for more, except for the small dividend recompense. It is very small because I'm talking about the commitment to your own policy. There are 2 small points on dividend, which I will take offline with the company secretary and other people. And on the other -- all the -- I have a suggestion. Mr. Sunil Sapre has completed his term and you have asked only an extension for 3 and 6 months. I, on behalf of all the shareholders, would propose that he be continued as non-Executive Director with his permission and availability. So that the handing over or passing of the baton to Teredesai will be much more smoother. So I have a suggestion provided the Board and Sunil's availability is there, we should tap into his wisdom and not allow him to go so scot-free. So early, you are in good health, Sunil. So please help us out more. Vinit, you have got very tall challenges now. Your predecessor has set the bar so high. So you will have to go for a record jump. But best of luck, and I'm sure it will do well. Praveen also, I endorse his candidature. He's an old friend of mine as the CFO forum in the economics unit years ago, I had the opportunity to be on the panel to shortlist the CFOs for those years. So I think -- I know him from old days because happening to be reliance, say 4 years ago, has it some small benefits. Sir, on the independent director side, Anjali Joshi is also being reappointed. And ESOPs also, do we give ESOPs to all our employees? That's one question I have, whether we -- the program covers all employees? Or is it only for certain categories of employees? And on the HR side, we need to do a study, whether our ESOP pricing is good enough to retain our best talent? One of the aims of doing an ESOP at par value or something is to give good bonanza to the guy not to leave us and go. So some sort of study should be done vis-a-vis industry practice, whether our ESOP package, because that is a real attraction for people to bear. And looking at the share price, how it is going I'm sure a lot of people would like to stay and exercise and also contribute their listing. Sir, with these few words, and last but not the least, I think the contribution from Sonali and the CSR Foundation has been outstanding. And of course, they have put all their shoulder to wheel, and I also see employees also helping out. We, as shareholders, if we can contribute in any which way, we would be eager to help and support, whether it is the ASRA Foundation or the CSR or so many other activities. Years ago, at Paud Road, I had seen in the evening, Persistent people helping in traffic management. And I was so thrilled at 6, 6:30 in the evening, we could hardly move 5 feet in 20 minutes. But these people were controlling the traffic and helping. I think at each of our facility within a radius of maybe 200, 300 meters if we can do this, that will be our contribution to our immediate society, where day in, day out, there are problems and people will really respect Persistent much more. Thank you. And sorry, sir, to keep you boring or anything. Thank you all, gentleman.

Anybody else who would like to ask a question? I do have one question, which does relate to the questions that have been asked, but this one came through social media, I'll quickly read it out for everyone. Ronit Verma has asked us, how can employees be eligible for ESOP option? And that's something that came to us through social media. And one more time, anybody in the audience would like to ask the questions, please raise your hand. All right. Thank you very much.

Further to my suggestion that we should diversify, I would definitely make one humble suggestion. I have been thinking about the activity of solar cell. Effectively, if we look at the power generation, we are using today fossil fuels in quite a lot of areas. We use coal or even oil, they are going to be finished very soon or any time. So if we start changing over to the more and more of the solar side, which in India is in abundant availability, it will definitely help long run for the country.

Thank you all for your questions. We really appreciate your involvement and participation in the well-being of your organization. While we are collating the questions, we'll play a few video showcasing the wonderful things we do here at Persistent. [Presentation]

So let me first invite Sandeep to get started with some of the questions. We'll take turns, take them in groups and answer their questions. And if there's anything missed, then we can go back to it again. So Sandeep, why don't you start with the first set? And then...

Thanks, Anand. And thanks to the shareholders for all the questions. So I'll go in a sequence and if I miss anything, please remind us. So first question is from Vijay Kumar, which is dear sir, please let us know if Persistent Systems is in ER&D, engineering, research and design, which is the latest buzzword nowadays? So Vijay, in fact, Persistent has been a leader in ER&D for quite some time. Since our inception, we have delivered or worked with our customers in product development, and we were the ones who pioneered the term outsourced product development as well. Right from there to doing digital engineering, bringing innovation, doing things around AI, when AI was not even a thing that was talked about. We've been at the leading edge. So yes, we are a category leader in what is called ER&D. There's a question from Jaydeep Bakshi on data protection and cybersecurity. Now from that perspective, if you look at it, data protection, cybersecurity is of paramount importance to us, both as a company, servicing our customers whether it is doing product development for products in cybersecurity, identity access management, data protection and so on. We have been doing that for many, many years to even implementing data protection, cybersecurity frameworks for ourselves. So when we service our customers, it's paramount that our own infrastructure be very good. So we have implemented the best-in-class cybersecurity infrastructure right from protecting/defending ourselves to -- in case somebody was to infiltrate to making sure that the damage is minimized, and we have the ability to recover seamlessly from that. In addition to that, we have invested in implementing laws or tools around GDPR. We are also looking at DPDP very closely. We have certified ourselves to global standards like ISO 27001 and similar others to make sure that we are not just implementing, but we are also certifying and ensuring that we are in terms of the latest frameworks, the latest adoption from there. There's another question from Jaydeep Bakshi on new developments such as AI, tie-up with other companies and so on. So on the AI side, there are 2 things. what tools we are developing using the infrastructure provided by hyperscalers and others. Second, we are also bringing in companies like Starfish, et cetera, to deliver horizontal and vertical use cases. So if you look at the technology landscape, we have partnerships, right, from Google, Microsoft, AWS, IBM and Salesforce on one side, these are the large hyperscalers. Cybersecurity, we are working very closely with the likes of Zscaler, CrowdStrike, many others like Commvault, Securonix, many, many other technology providers to make sure we not just embrace them ourselves, but take them to market. The other question is from Srikanth Sundararajan saying, will the company go for a semiconductor business. So we have invested in a small company called [indiscernible], which is founded by people who are ex Intel and similar other companies. And this is a fabulous semiconductor company. This is trying to build semiconductors for both India market and global markets, and we will expand this investment and capabilities as we go along. And we may also evaluate from time to time if we need to acquire companies in embedded software or in hardware business as we go along. There's a question from Arvind, which says how do you see Persistent in a decade from now? Will it be a much larger services company like TCS, Infosys or a paradigm shift like Google, Salesforce? So look, we'll continue to be a deep technical service provider in engineering services, where we will definitely -- evolve is going from being a human-driven technology services company to a platform and technology-oriented -- technology services company. So it will be a combination of human beings, platforms. Somebody also asked a question about our revenue per employee and so on and so forth. So the way we are looking at it is AI, generative AI and similar technologies give us a transformative approach where size is not a barrier. So it's not about Accenture, TCS, anyone else who has much more revenue, having the ability to disrupt the market, that's where people like us can rise and shine and can grow at a disruptive growth rate disrupting ourselves and the bigger peers and even creating newer markets. So from that perspective, we are confident we are on the right path. And in the next 5 to 10 years, like we have transformed in the last 34, we'll keep transforming. Then there's a question from Mr. Bapat, annual report, which says AWS LangChain, can this translate into all languages. Yes, Generative AI has excellent support from -- for Indian languages, not just AWS, but many platforms like Google, et cetera, et cetera. They are there. There are initiatives like Bhashini and Indian language LLMs, the large language models, which can also enable companies do this, even large banks in India today are using channels like Whatsapp to do banking very effectively. So I'm pretty sure whether it is technology platforms, whether it is languages. A lot of this will get democratized and will help us all different countries, not just India. Now if we would look at the question from [ Rashmita Swain ], basically asking for a persistent branch in Bhubaneswar, Odisha and -- saying it will enable people from Odisha and Jharkhand. Look, we have expanded our footprint significantly over the last several years. We'll keep evaluating newer locations as we have a critical mass in different locations, we'll definitely do that. So stay tuned as we grow in size and we have a need to open offices in Jharkhand, Odisha and more we'll absolutely assess and do the needful. There's a question from Vikas [indiscernible] about our attrition rate. For the last financial year, our attrition rate was 11.5%. I not want to comment on today's -- last quarter attrition rate or somebody even asked about the last quarter performance. We are in a silent period. 2 days from now, I'm sure you will have all the information, whether it is the results, revenue growth or profit growth or attrition, et cetera, for the latest quarter as well. And look, we invest significantly in our employees using our learning development facility called Ramanujam and all of this is enabling us, along with our HR initiatives, employee engagement initiatives to control our attrition rate. Training and growth of employees is another question from [ Jaydeep Bakshi ]. So the same way like we are using learning development for hyperscaler certifications. Look, being a technology service provider -- being a leading technology services provider, I think this is the biggest asset that we have. The reason the customers engage with us is the talent that we bring to bear, the capability that we bring to bear and continuous upgradation of that is paramount, and that's where we invest a lot. Tarun asks a question, there's a term bench in every IT service provider company. I want Persistent to change the term as team innovation, which will be used to build new ideas, prototypes, et cetera. Look, good suggestion, we'll evaluate this. And definitely, look, whether people are there on bench or on projects. It's a talent pool that we have and it's a valuable tool for us. So continuous upgradation and using them the right way around is where our leadership team is focused on a day-to-day basis. There is a question from Mr. Bapat. Is the ESOP scheme helping company retain employees? So sir, I'm sure this is a key part of the compensation for a significant number of our employees. For people at the senior levels who carry disproportionate weight of taking the organization forward and who have highly valued skills, et cetera, there's a differentiated stock option plan as well. And I'm proud to say it has delivered good returns. And the fact that for the last 5 years, we are among the leading service providers. We are in the top quadrant stands for the proof of the pudding. Now the other question is do we give ESOPs to all our employees or only to certain categories of employees? From time to time, we have covered different proportion of employees Three years back, we had covered roughly about 80% of our employees at that point in time. And as we go ahead, we'll keep taking calls the right way around to cover a significant number of our employees, the way we can. And all of that I must say, is dependent on the shareholder approvals. And even if you look at the shareholder approvals, it's hard to get, I may say so. And so my request is, if you believe as shareholders, that's important for the company growth, which we, as management, definitely do, we would look forward to your support in those resolutions. Thank you, and we look forward to the broader shareholder support as well, including institutional investors, both domestic and foreign, they're looking or listening to this particular AGM. Now if I was to look at some other things, so there was a question from [ Srikanth Joshi ] on what is the contribution from recent acquisitions in the $1 billion revenue? So from a perspective of the $1 billion journey, if you look at the last year per se, let me qualify that first, 14.5% is all organic. So there was no additional acquisitions done in the last financial year. If we look at the journey when we became a $1 billion organization, in that particular year from the acquisitions done, roughly about 7.5% to 8% would be the contribution from acquisitions. And acquisitions that we are doing, just to remind everyone, these are acquisitions done for capability addition, wherever we want to expand, create new growth vectors, whether it is cloud, whether it's things like sales force or even the newer ones that we're doing in Generative AI, all these are capability-led acquisitions, not revenue for the sake of buying revenue. Now if you look at the other questions, [ Anirudh Ranade ], as a service company per employee revenue, the question is, what is the per employee revenue in comparison to the other companies? So today, if we look at it, the average revenue per employee for persistent is roughly $50,000 plus, which is the best-in-class. There are -- there's a range in the similar kind of companies between $45,000 to $50,000 per person per year and maybe a few international companies may have a little higher. And I'm pretty sure with our forays into Generative AI and platform-related work that we're talking about. One of the metrics that we would also want to see over the next several years is to increase this by using more technology to deliver services. There's a question about UPI, the advantage of that. I'm sure Anand will discuss that in more details. I'm sure he is far more [indiscernible] with this. So with this, I think I'm done with my questions, Anand. So...

Let me ask Sunil to take the next set and then...

Yes. Actually, Sandeep has mostly covered the finance section. There was one question around the growth in dividend not being commensurate with the company's revenue growth. But if you recall, last year, the dividend that we gave included INR 10 a special dividend. So the actual dividend was INR 40, so the current year's dividend, which is INR 52 and on split basis, you look at it as INR 26. That is actually 30% growth in dividend. But your point is taken with respect to going towards the dividend payout, so we know that request. Yes, I think that's pretty much on the segment.

So there's a couple of questions about bonus issues with splits and all that. Do you want to comment on those?

Yes. Yes. So there was a question, yes, we have done the split. When is the bonus coming? So hold your breath, it is, of course, prerogative of the Board, and we'll see this happening at the right time in our journey. So I'll leave it at that.

Let me ask Amit to quickly take some of the questions that I mentioned here.

The first is the request for the hard copy of the annual report. Those who are the shareholders and who are requesting for the annual report copy, we will definitely provide it to you. Please send us an e-mail on [email protected]. This will help us to track how many copies are being distributed and are copies being given to the eligible shareholders. After checking the shareholding details, we will definitely send it to you by courier. We have those details. In fact, we will be collecting those details in case some shareholders who are attending this meeting at this moment and wish to have the copy, please register their names with our volunteers who are available, and we will definitely send you the copy. About the management discussion analysis, sir, we acknowledge your points about elaboration of some bonds in the next pension annual general meetings -- annual reports. About 140 -- Page #140, which is not [ eligible ]. I am sincerely apologize for this part, and I will ensure that we will take care of this part in the future. With this, I don't know Anand, I'm done with the questions.

Yes. So there are a couple of other questions here that I will answer. Regarding Sunil to continue as a Non-Executive Director, of course, we will take his guidance on this. but we are not letting him go away. We have enough work piled in for him for many other things that we are doing as well. So he is already continuing on persistent foundation and also other areas. So we will see what is required within persistent, but we are not going to let him not do anything. That is clear. Regarding promoter holding expansion, while it's nice to say that we can increase promoter holding, there are very limited options if you don't have a whole lot of cash with you. So we'll figure out the best ways if we do a buyback, there is an opportunity a little bit, but it's very marginal. There's not a whole lot you can do. I think as a company, which is a listed company, I think it's important that the value of the promoter shareholding goes up rather than the holding as such. So that's really how we see this. Regarding diversification into other areas, I think this is a good suggestion. We'll look at some of those things. How much of it comes through persistent as direct persistent or through partnerships with other companies is something we can think through because, again, we have limited capabilities in other areas. So we'll have to build those. So either we do it ourselves or with some other partners is something to think about. Regarding the succession planning, I must assure you, [ Vinayak ], that we are working on many of these things. Regarding the CEO succession planning for the last 5 years, we've had a CEO that is not me. And Sandeep has been running the business pretty much independently for the last 5 years. And we have well-defined processes, including leadership teams at every level to take care of this. So we are not at all dependent on any one individual anymore. And I have hardly any -- meaning I'm not really involved in the day-to-day operations for the last almost 4 years now. So nothing will change in that context. Regarding hardware lab, I think that's a good idea. We should consider it. We have some plans in that area, but we could do more. On the UPI and other things, we have, again, not necessarily directly through persistent systems. But through the deAsra Foundation, we have been looking at ONDC account aggregator networks and all digital public goods and DPI, as they call it. So these are the digital public rails that are being created on the government level or rather through NGOs and other places. So ONDC is one of them, account aggregator is the other. And there are some other initiatives around Ayushman Bharat. So we've been tracking them very closely. We have volunteers working in some of these areas. And I'm personally tracking them very closely. It's not clear if -- how much of a business financial opportunity that exists for Persistent directly in that area. Many of our customers who our banks use UPI and other infrastructure, and we are providing add-ons for them, but exclusively for us to build products on that ecosystem, it's not clear yet. But we are tracking them. At least I'm tracking them very closely. And when we see something, we will definitely look at it. I've been also tracking a lot of areas around biotechnology and various other possibilities around bioeconomy and we'll see how some of them can be coming in to work with persistent as well. For the last several years since I have not been the Chairman or rather not being the CEO of the company, I've been spending my time on looking at some of these newer areas. So all of these will feed in into where we are today. I think with this, I have actually covered all the questions that are listed here. I will give my fellow Board members who are here if they have any opinion or anything else that they would like to add. And I will then move on to the next section of the meeting. And this is the relic of the past, but we shall do this. Pursuant to Section 108 of the Companies Act, 2030 and the rules made thereunder, the company has provided remote e-voting facilities for its members to cast votes electronically. The remote e-voting period was open from 9 a.m. on Thursday, 11th July, to Monday, July 15, till 5 p.m. That was yesterday. Further, as stated in the AGM notice, those members who have not cast their vote through remote e-voting and would like to cast their votes today, can cast them either through a ballot paper or e-voting until 30 minutes after the completion of this meeting. If members have already cast their vote through remote e-voting in the past, meaning through their period that was done before. They must not vote again today. If they vote today, today's votes will be rejected. The Board of Directors has appointed [indiscernible] , SVD & ASSOCIATES, practicing company secretaries as scrutinizes to ensure that fair and transparent voting, conduct of e-voting, ballot pool, all of that happens. Members who desire to cast their votes today can do so after the meeting either through electronic mode for members attending the meeting online through electronic mode by using computer machines that have been provided outside the meeting hall, where we have volunteers who will assist you or through a ballot paper that you can deposit in a ballot box. I now request the scrutinizer, [ Mr. Sridhar Murali ] to take a ballot box around in case any if you want to vote in the ballot box. And can you please show us that it is empty? Not shareholder. And then please lock it with a lock so that it cannot be tampered. Thank you, sir. If you feel like voting in the box, we can do that after the meeting. The scrutinizer will submit a consolidated report on the e-voting ballot paper to the company by Thursday, July 18, 2024. Once the scrutinizer submits the results, the company will immediately communicate them to BSC NSE and also upload them on the company's website and also on the NSDL website. The results will be also posted on the company's notice board as soon as they are declared. So we'll have to find where our notice boards are. Subject to receipt of the requisite number of votes. The resolution shall be deemed to be passed as of date of today's meeting. That is July 16, 2024. Now with this, we are coming to the last 2 things, which are more interesting and exciting as well. I'm really glad to announce that we at Persistent Systems take social obligations very seriously. As a responsible social citizens, we have earmarked funds from our net profit for donations and the average net profit for the company within the meaning of the Section 135 of the Companies Act 2013, for the 3 consecutive financial years that ended on March 31, 2024 is INR 10,888.87 million. Therefore, 2% contribution to CSR initiatives is INR 217.78 million. This amount will be donated to persistent India foundation, a new Section 8 company that has been created, which will deploy these funds towards committed CSR activities. Let me now request Mr. Arvind Goel, Independent Director and member of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee to hand over a ceremonial check to Mr. Sonali Deshpande, Chairperson of Persistent India Foundation. Let me request Sonali and Arvind to please come on stage and Sandeep as well to join us for a ceremonial photo, and let's bring this check. Thank you, Sonali. We are now nearing the end of the meeting, and I'd like to sincerely acknowledge the contributions of Roshini Bakshi, who has been an independent Director of the company for the last 10 years. Roshini has been an active member of the Board and is the go-to member for the leadership team. Her guidance to all of us has helped us make better decisions. During these 10 years, the company has grown significantly in all respects, and I must acknowledge Roshini's contribution towards this journey. Roshini, your tenure with us has been defined by the objectivity you brought to the Board. From the very beginning, you have Stedfastly advocated for transparency, accountability and ethical governance. Your independent perspective, has been instrumental in ensuring that our decisions are made with the best interest of all shareholders in mind. Beyond your professional expertise, your personal qualities have also left a lasting impact on all of us. Your dedication to Persistent has been matched by your respect for diverse opinions, your openness to dialogue and your collaborative spirit. You have fostered -- fostered an environment where different viewpoints are valued and consensus is built through thoughtful discussion and mutual respect. As you complete your 2 terms, we want to express our deepest gratitude for years of service and the independents, you have so diligently championed. Your legacy will continue to guide us as we move forward. And your influence will remain a cornerstone of our governance framework. On behalf of the entire Board, the executive team and our employees, we wish you all the very best in your future endeavors, and we would like to felicitate you with a small token of appreciation. May I request Roshini to please come on stage in fact. Thank you, Roshini. Let me hand it to Roshini, if you want to say something, please.

No, I'm really honored and thank you so much, Anand, for these very kind words. Well, I was told that I have to talk literally 2 minutes before I entered the Board meeting. So my few minutes is going to be very unstructured. And I will only be able to say what comes directly from my heart. I was focusing on what Anand was saying about the Board -- about the AGM and did not have time to prepare. So forgive me. I've been very honored to be a part of this journey over the last 10 years. From the time it was a 24-year-old company to a 34-year-old. There have been so many things that's happened in the last 10 years. So how do I crunch it into a few minutes. But a few things stand out. And truly, I think it's made me very proud as I will continue to stand by the sidelines and continue to churn. So 4 things really kind of came to my mind. One, when I joined the company, as an independent director. It was $270 million. Today, it's $1 billion plus, and I'm just waiting to see it reach $2 billion, which I know it will happen much faster than even what everyone is thinking about. So that gives me enormous pride. The second thing is there were 8,000 employees, 8,000 passionate, wonderful employees and team members. Today, there are 24,000. What an amazing journey. But the third is even more, which clearly, I think all of us are extremely thrilled about it. At one stage, I remember the share price went down to INR 550. It was hovering at around INR 720, INR 725 for a long time. Everyone said it was good and then it went on to INR 540 at some stage. And we all looked around and said, "Oh, my god, what's happening". Today, if there was no share split, it would have been -- it would be more than INR 9,000, literally. But the most important which is the fourth point that I will always hold is that when I joined, it was reputed good, great company from Pune that was coming up. Today, as I leave it, it is probably the most envied tech services company in this world. Everyone, when I speak -- when I speak to people, the first thing this is what's that secret sauce? Can you tell us what's happening in side? What are those 24,000 people doing? But the most important and final is that despite all of this, it still continues to remain what it started a soul of gold, humble and continuing to strive. Thank you.

Thank you. Delighted to share that we had 131 members in person in this meeting, I should say, 131 members participating in this meeting. And another 50 who signed up as virtual members. Many people who sign up on YouTube, we will not always know who has joined online. Most of the proceedings will also remain online. So many more members might get a chance to view it at another time. We are really grateful to all of you for participating in this meeting. I hereby declare this meeting closed. We will play the National Anthem, after which you may disconnect from the meeting. For those of you who are physically present here, I would like to invite you to join us for refreshments in the adjacent cafeteria. Thank you. Let me invite you all to please rise for the national anthem.