Wipro Limited (507685) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and a warm welcome to our company's 75th Annual General Meeting. I'm Rishad Premji, Chairman of Wipro Limited. I hope all of you and your loved ones are safe and keeping well during these tough times. I also hope that all of you are vaccinated or on your way to getting there, so that we can emerge out of this pandemic stronger and return back to our normal lives. Let me introduce you to the members of the Board and senior management present with us today. Joining from Bengaluru are Mr. Azim Premji, Founder Chairman; Mr. Jatin Dalal, Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Sanaulla Khan, Company Secretary. We have other directors of the Board also joining us from different locations. I will introduce them one by one. Mr. Thierry Delaporte, Wipro's CEO and Managing Director is joining us from France. Mr. Deepak Satwalekar, Independent Director, Chairman of our Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee and also Chairman of our Administrative and Investor Grievance Committee, is joining us from Bombay, Mumbai. Mr. Bill Owens is joining us from the U.S., Independent Director. He's also the Chairman of our Board, Governance Nomination and Compensation Committee. Mrs. Ireena Vittal, Lead Independent Director, is joining us from Gurgaon. Dr. Patrick Ennis, Independent Director, is joining us from the U.S. Mr. Patrick Dupuis, Independent Director, is joining us from the U.S. And our newest Board member, Ms. Tulsi Naidu, Independent Director, is joining us from London. In addition, we also have Mr. Vikas Bagaria, Partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, statutory auditor; and Mr. V. Sreedharan and Mr. Pradeep Kulkarni, from V. Sreedharan & Associates, secretary and auditors who have also joined us today. Sana, is there a quorum for this meeting?

Yes. Yes, Mr. Chairman. We have over 70 members present for the Annual General Meeting and commence the proceedings of the meeting.

Thank you, Sana. The Company Secretary informs me that we have sufficient quorum of members participating through video conferencing. Accordingly, the meeting is properly constituted, and I call this meeting to order. I request Sana, our Company Secretary, to read the arrangements made for the members at the 75th Annual General Meeting. Sana, over to you.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the 75th Annual General Meeting of Wipro Limited. This meeting is being held through video conferencing in accordance with the circulars issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, applicable provisions of the Companies Act 2013 and the SEBI listing regulations. The company has enabled the members to participate at the 75th Annual General Meeting through the video conferencing facility as due to the pandemic, we are unable to arrange for the physical meeting of the shareholders. The proceedings of this meeting are being webcasted live for all the shareholders as per the details provided in the Notice to the Annual General Meeting. The proceedings of this meeting are being recorded for compliance purposes. In accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act and the SEBI listing regulations, the members have been provided with the facility to exercise their right to vote by electronic means, both through remote e-voting facility and e-voting at the Annual General Meeting. The remote e-voting facility was made available to all the members holding shares as on the cutoff date of July 7, 2021 during the period commencing from 9 a.m. IST on Saturday to July 10, '21 till 5 p.m. IST on Tuesday, July 13, 2021. Remote e-voting has been blocked on July 13, '21 at 5 p.m. Members joining the meeting through video conferencing facility who have not yet casted their vote by means of the remote e-voting may vote through the Insta Poll e-voting facility provided at this Annual General Meeting. The members who have cast their vote by remote e-voting prior to the meeting shall not be casting their vote once again. The Board of Directors has appointed Mr. V. Sreedharan Partner, V. Sreedharan & Associates as the scrutinizer for this meeting. Based on the report of the scrutinizer, the combined results of remote e-voting and the e-voting done at the meeting today will be announced and displayed on the website of the company and will also be submitted to the stock exchanges as per the requirements under the SEBI listing regulations. I now request Mr. Rishad Premji, Chairman, to continue with the proceedings of the meeting.

Thanks, Sana. Thank you. I'm satisfied that all efforts feasible under the circumstances have been made by the company to enable members to participate and vote on the items being considered at this meeting. Before we take up the items as per the notice, I would like to share with shareholders the performance of our company during the financial year 2021 and the general outlook for the sector. Good morning, and welcome again to all of you, and welcome to the Special 75th Annual General Meeting. On behalf of our Board of Directors, I'd like to thank you again for joining us today. This has been a difficult year for so many of us. But despite all the pain and suffering, the unbreakable human spirit has shone through in the kindness, empathy and compassion displayed by our families, our colleagues and our customers. Global cooperation has never been more important. The vaccines developed in record time for COVID are one of the greatest examples of collaboration and pioneering science. We must now do all we can to scale supply chain and build mechanisms for equitable distribution of these life-saving vaccines. In these last 15 months, as a community, so much has changed. We have unlearned old habits, welcomed technology into our lives in ways never considered before and challenged ourselves to adapt to new ways of working. I am so glad and so proud that Wipro has been a trusted partner for our customers and our employees right through this journey. Collectively, we have emerged much stronger. Technology is often at the forefront of economic recovery, but this time, it has been especially so. The pandemic has resulted in structural changes across almost all industries and challenged established ways of working, whether it's digital commerce or telemedicine, technology-enabled businesses have emerged rapidly over these past 15 months with cloud technology becoming the cornerstone of this transformation. As vaccination efforts ramp up globally and economy starts seeing a rebound, our customers are ever so keen to invest in and also deeply accelerate their digital transformation. With the rapid shift to digital, the demand for talent will likely outpace supply and become a key dependency for growth. Already, we see new delivery models, such as the work from anywhere model and crowdsourcing becoming mainstay. We expect virtual remote community-based and distributed work models to be the future of work. I believe your company, Wipro, is well positioned to leverage as well as enable such transformations. In the last 6 months, we have made some bold changes to help serve our customers better. Early last year, we set out to make the first big change. embracing the direction set by Thierry Delaporte, our CEO and Managing Director. The Board and I have great confidence in Thierry and his leadership, and I feel more optimistic about our future today than ever before. The changes we have made have been difficult, but necessary, and it has made us a stronger, and we believe, a better organization. A key design of our new business model is proximity to customers. Our model has a deep focus on countries, industry sectors, service and solution offerings and strong ecosystem partnerships. These changes, along with the operating model that makes us agile and nimble and is all about impact at speed, is critical for success in this new post-crisis world. Overall, I see a much stronger external market orientation at your company. Several new leaders across the globe have joined us, energized by our purpose and our ambition to take forward this transformation and add to the diversity of thought and innovation at our company. Our acquisition of CAPCO, which is a leading strategy and consulting firm in the banking and financial services industry, was our largest ever acquisition, which we completed earlier this year and yet another bold move for us. With a purchase consideration of $1.45 billion, CAPCO brings to us over $700 million in annual revenues and over 5,000 consultants across the world. As I speak to you today, India, where over 1,60,000 or 160,000 of our employees are based, is emerging out of a devastating second wave of COVID-19. It has been incredibly hard for many of us and for many of our colleagues and their families. In this time of deep stress and grief, we are doing everything, everything we can to help our employees. This includes providing COVID-19 isolation centers for our staff and for their families, partnering with major hospitals to provide medical support to critically ill employees, additional medical reimbursement and additional leaves related to COVID as well as vaccination at our campuses. We have so far vaccinated over 35,000 people at our campuses, and over 55% of our employees are vaccinated in India as far as we know. The need for self-care and mental well-being has clearly become a space to prioritize. In doing that, we want to make it comfortable for our employees to reach out, share and be able to seek help whenever there is a need. We have partnered with leading global EAP providers to facilitate this 24/7. Earlier last year when the pandemic broke out, we triggered our business continuity plans to quickly enable remote working. We have settled well into these new ways of working and continue to make our customers successful. Today, 97% of our colleagues work from home. This was possible because of the inspirational, inclusive and seamless teamwork by our colleagues across the globe. I want to recognize and celebrate this tremendous commitment, resilience and ownership our teams have demonstrated over these last 15 months. We enjoy that confidence, and I have no doubt that a hybrid model will be the mode of work in the future. Now while we have emerged stronger from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are acutely aware that it has widened socioeconomic inequities. Our responsibility towards our communities has increased manyfold. In April 2020, Wipro Limited, along with Wipro Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. and the Azim Premji Foundation, Wipro's largest shareholder, together committed INR 1,125 crores, approximately $150 million, towards tackling the unprecedented health and humanitarian crisis coming out of the COVID outbreak. Over these past 12 months, we have supported more than 1,500 projects covering humanitarian aid, integrated health care support and livelihood generation. We have reached out directly to more than 18 million people through our coordinated and comprehensive COVID-19 response to provide both humanitarian aid and support the creation of livelihoods for those most affected. Earlier this year, to deal with the unprecedented second wave, we have ramped up our response on multiple fronts. Our approach has been to address short-term emergency response as well as contribute towards strengthening our public health infrastructure. The hospital we had set up in one of our campuses in Pune and Maharashtra, which we converted into a 450-bed COVID care hospital, continues to save lives. We have treated over 6,000 patients in this past year at the hospital. Our overall health care efforts have built capacity and run programs, closely collaborating with the public health system to serve geographies that have a population of over 150 million people, the most vulnerable population in our country. We are now supporting multiple state governments on the vaccination program, and the foundation has committed an additional INR 1,000 crores for this. Another major challenge facing humanity today is the climate crisis. We at Wipro have always and deeply believed that organizations must be at the forefront to address this. Our climate change program goes back nearly 2 decades. And this year, we announced our commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, in line with the objectives of the Paris agreement. Our approach emphasizes the importance of not just reaching that goal by doing so in a way that aligns with Wipro's core values -- that aligns with Wipro's core values of integrity and business responsibility. We are, without doubt, committed to enhancing value for all our stakeholders. So let me talk a little bit about the performance. Even as we focus on our employee safety and customer success, we drove focused action on our costs to respond to a deceleration in revenues in the first quarter of the year as the pandemic took hold globally. Just as effectively, we quickly pivoted to meet the rising demand through an efficient supply chain in the second half of the financial year. For the year ending 31st March 2021, our IT Services revenue were $8.1 billion, a decline of 1.4% year-on-year in reported currency. Our net income at INR 107.9 billion was an increase of 11% year-on-year, driven by improved operating margins. For the full year, the EPS was at INR 19.11 per share, up 14.6% year-on-year. Our market cap and share price increased by over 108% in these last 12 months. This year is also special for us because we complete 75 years since our incorporation. From the humble beginnings in Amalner, in Maharashtra to the global IT player we are today, this fabulous journey would not have been possible but for the tireless efforts of our employees and their dedication and their inventiveness. They truly embody the spirit of Wipro. As a result, Wipro is recognized the world over as an exemplar of corporate citizenship with the highest standards of governance, ethics and values. What we encourage as a culture and how we come across is remarkably important while influencing change in our company. I personally champion this culture and the 5 habits which are our ways of working. These are: being respectful; two, being responsive; three, always communicating; four, demonstrating stewardship; and five, building trust. Sparking an inclusive cultural movement is moving the whole organization to a high-performance mindset with our values and habits embedded in every touch. I'm also excited to welcome Tulsi Naidu to the Wipro Board as non-executive independent director. Her knowledge and experience and strong business acumen spanning the entire financial services sector will further strengthen the Board and its impact on your company. Lastly, and importantly, I am thankful to our clients, to our partners, to our employees and to all other stakeholders who have placed their trust and confidence in us. I am very excited about the path we are on and confident you will see a bolder and more ambitious Wipro as we move forward that is unafraid to shake up the status quo, invest deep and think big. Thank you. I now want to invite Thierry Delaporte to share a few comments. So Thierry, over to you.

Thanks, Rishad. Dear shareholders, good morning to you all. I'm really pleased to meet you today. And this meeting is symbolic for me just as I complete 1 year with Wipro. It's been a privilege and an honor to lead this exceptional company for the past year. In the IT Services space, Wipro is an industry pioneer. But just as importantly, Wipro is also a force for good in our community, especially in the last 15 months when the COVID-19 crisis brought great hardship to millions of people around the world. It makes me proud to be part of a company that led with a people-first mindset, and I'll explain how in just a few minutes. The financial year that ended March 31, 2020 and '21 capped a landmark 12 months for Wipro, a period of total transformation. We announced a new business strategy. We completed our biggest organization restructuring in recent history, we delivered strong performance for back-to-back quarters and we sealed our largest ever acquisition, all during a global pandemic. We finished FY '21 with healthy revenue growth, prestigious deal wins, strong margins, robust cash flows. But most importantly, we are seeing our new business strategy, simplified operating model and bold mindset starting to pay off. We know this from our interactions with customers and partners. They say they are seeing a more innovative mindset and operational agility from Wipro's teams. We hear this from our stakeholders and analysts as well, who regularly indicate a shift in sentiment. Wipro is being seen as emerging again. There are many reasons for this, possible the biggest of them being our global talent base. Our pursuit of excellence is possible because of the quality, the commitment and the hard work of each of our 200,000 colleagues, especially so during a global pandemic. They have witnessed that. They have displayed tremendous stewardship in the difficult year, and I'm so proud of them. Naturally, the health, safety and well-being of our employees has been our topmost priority. So in March 2020, realizing the potential threat of the COVID virus, we swiftly enabled our employees globally to work from home. As Rishad had said, only about 3% of them have worked from our offices. This was possible because of the understanding and the empathy of our customers. They actively worked with us to reduce employee footprint in the office. In many countries, but in India, especially, the pandemic has caused a great amount of loss and suffering. It was our moral obligation to do everything we could for our colleagues and their loved ones. So we ramped up efforts around oxygen provisioning, COVID testing. We partnered with hospitals and managed hospital admissions. We offered COVID care sick leave and enhanced medical insurance coverage for employees. Our COVID isolation centers in various Indian cities allowed our colleagues and their immediate family members to isolate and recover safely. We continue to operate a dedicated COVID hospital in our Pune campus since last year. The 5-story hospital has treated almost 6,000 patients so far. As of today, over 87,000 of our employees are vaccinated, and that number is inching up every day. But unfortunately, we lost some of our colleagues to the virus during the second wave. In some cases, the spouse of such an employee has sought jobs with us. We've treated every such request as priority, found and offered them the best treatment possible. The kindness, the empathy, the generosity, the perseverance that our entire Wipro family has displayed has made us stronger, more resilient and more dependable than ever before. Our customers see that in us, too. They agree that Wipro is a transformation partner they can trust. Our ability to deliver change is underpinned by 3 core components. The first is technology, which is at the heart of all transformation. Next is talent, which drives our technological engine. The third is trust. Without it, a partnership cannot thrive. For long, Wipro has been helping customers navigate the full spectrum of IT transformation. Our customers appreciate our passion for innovation, our commitment to delivery rigor and the like that we are invested in and invest in their success. So to continue to be a true global leader for our industry, we have implemented a 5-point strategy. One, accelerating growth by prioritizing the sectors and the markets we operate in. We are channeling our efforts and investments for maximum results, going deeper in areas we have strength in, where we can secure leadership position. Second, strengthening our partnership with strategic clients and partners by investing in good talent and a focused structure that can help us win larger transformational deals. M&A, too, is a strategic lever for us, as you may have noticed from our recent acquisitions. Three, leading with business solutions that enhance our portfolio and align with business and functional spend pools. Four, building talent at scale across front-end domain technology areas, alongside ensuring leadership diversity throughout our business. And finally, five, simplifying our operating model to drive a better customer-centricity, agility, but also empowering our teams who are closest to clients to make decisions. So we've done all these in the past year. Now let me also run you through our performance for FY 2020/'21. Today, you will see in Wipro a high-performance organization that has built the foundations for sustained growth. Our IT services revenues for the full year was $8.1 billion. Revenue growth during the last 2 quarters of the year was 3.3% and 3%, respectively, on constant currency term, which means they were the best quarters in terms of growth in the last 20 quarters. Despite a steep decline in the first quarter of the fiscal year as a result of the pandemic, we bounced back to finish the year with only a marginal decline of 1.4% year-on-year. Our renewed focus on the market and on customers ensure that the total contract value of our order book in the second half of the year grew by 33% year-on-year. This was a result of increased activity in the market, which I must say, we have leveraged very well. A second factor in our growth story is the closure of large deals. We closed 24 large deals in the second half of the year, resulting in a total contract value of $2.6 billion. This includes 2 mega deals, 1 in Europe and 1 in the Americas market, each of which can lead to revenues of more than $1 billion over the deal duration. In the second half of the financial year, we closed several acquisitions as well across key markets like the U.S., Europe, Latin America, Australia, India. These acquisitions have strengthened our local presence and service offerings as well. Our largest ever acquisition, CAPCO, for $1.45 billion is one that significantly strengthens our position in the global financial services market. We know that industry growth will largely be laid by next-generation technologies and services. We expect to see huge incremental growth in areas such as digital, cloud, data, engineering, cybersecurity. Cloud definitely is at the center of customer conversations and is becoming both the operating platform of choice and the core for all digital transformation. Cybersecurity, too, has become a top priority for business today. We are now prepared to provide all this. We are pleased with our execution, which has resulted in operating margins of 20.3% for the full year, an expansion of 220 basis points in the financial year. Our operating metrics have shown consistent improvement with utilization and offshoring being at its highest ever. We also had a robust operating cash flow generation of $2 billion, which was at 136.7% of net income for the year. In addition, we ended the year with $3.6 billion in cash, net of debt, on our balance sheet. And finally, we completed salary increments and promotions, covering our entire eligible employee base below Band B3 in January 2021. More recently, we announced another salary increase that will be effective September 1 for employees below the Band B3, offering them a second salary increase this calendar year. It's important for a vibrant, new agent, diverse talent base around the world. Such talent, along with the new cadre of leadership that has joined the existing executive team, brings to Wipro kind of leadership that is not typical for our industry historically. And we will continue to recruit local talent that is diverse in every way. Of course, the responsibility we show for ourselves mostly extend to the world we live in. We have always taken pride in being a responsible global citizen, one that engages with its key stakeholders to find solutions to the most pressing issues of our time. Our business, therefore, is not detached from the climate crisis. We are running a program of deep decarbonization across our entire value chain with the goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2040 and with an intermediate target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030. As I wrap up, I want to thank our colleagues, our clients, partners, Board of Directors and other stakeholders who have provided incredible support and trust. I am filled with optimism and energy for this new financial year, and I'm confident we will continue to build a bolder tomorrow for our business, our customers and for the world around us. I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today. Rishad, back to you now.

Thanks. Thanks, Thierry. The Notice of the 75th Annual General Meeting and the annual report containing audited financial statements, including consolidated financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2021 and Board's and auditors' reports, have been sent by electronic mode to those members whose e-mail addresses are registered with the company or with our depositories. These documents have also been made available on the company's website, Considering the above, the notice is being taken as read. The register of directors shareholding, register of contracts, copies of audited financial statements are available for inspection to the members. Members seeking to inspect such documents can send an e-mail to corp, [email protected]. Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP statutory auditors have submitted their report for the financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2021. The auditors' report does not contain any qualifications, modified opinion or adverse remarks. There being no qualifications, the entire report is not required to be read at this meeting and the auditors' report is being taken as read. In terms of the Notice of the 75th Annual General Meeting, the following items of ordinary business are to be considered at this meeting: one, to receive, consider and adopt the audited financial statements of the company, including consolidated financial statements for the financial year ended March 31, 2021, together with the reports of the directors and auditors thereon; to confirm the payment of interim dividend of INR 1 per equity share already paid during the year as final dividend for the financial year 2021; to consider appointment of a director in place of Mr. Thierry Delaporte, DIN number 08107242, who retires by rotation and being eligible, offers himself up for reappointment; to appoint number 03017471 as an independent director of the company. I now vacate the chair and request Mr. Bill Owens, Independent Director and Chairman of the Board, Governance Nomination and Compensation Committee, to take the chair and proceed with other items on the AGM notice. Bill, over to you.

Ladies and gentlemen, the next item of the AGM notice is #5, to consider revision in the terms of remuneration of Mr. Rishad A. Premji, DIN 02983899, as a whole time director designated as Executive Chairman of the company. I now vacate the chair and request Mr. Rishad Premji, Chairman of the company, to chair the meeting once again and proceed with the AGM.

Thank you. Thank you, Bill. We will be glad to answer any questions you may have from any member, which may like to ask questions on the financial statements or any other matters. The Insta Poll e-voting facility will now be activated for members who are participating in this meeting and have not already voted through remote e-voting. The Insta Poll facility will remain active till 30 minutes after the meeting. Before we commence the session, I request Sanaulla Khan, our Company Secretary, to share a few guidelines for the Q&A session. Sana, over to you.

Thank you. Thank you, Rishad. So dear shareholders, we have a number of shareholders -- I'm sorry. We have a number of shareholders registered for the Q&A session. I will be reading out a few guidelines so that we can do this full process of Q&A smoothly. The Q&A session will be anchored by me, and I will call the preregistered shareholders to come up one by one. I will invite the speakers in batches of 5, and we will answer those 5 questions before we move on to the next batch of 5 speakers. [Operator Instructions] Members are requested to restrict their question to 2 minutes so that all speakers will get an opportunity to share their views. It may be noted that the company reserves the right to limit the number of shareholders asking questions depending on the availability of time for the AGM. I'm now commencing the Q&A session. I will take the name of the first shareholder. And after the first shareholder completes his question, I will read the name of the second shareholder who will come on screen. After we finish the first set of 5 shareholders, the management team will answer the questions. And after the answers to the first 5 questions have been provided by the management, we will move on to the next set of 5 shareholders. The first shareholder we have today is Mr. Sadanand Shastry (sic) [ Sadananda Sastry ], and I request Mr. Sastry to start his question. Thank you, Mr. Sastry. Mr. Sastry, are you able to hear us? We are unable to get Mr. Sastry online. I will take the name of the second shareholder. And after Mr. Sastry was able to join, we will bring him online. So I will request Mr. [ Arun Boppana ], shareholder, to come on the screen and ask his question.

Hello, sir. Hello? Hello?

Hello. Hello.

I'm Sadananda Sastry.

Yes. Yes, Mr. Shashtry.

Indiscernible] you call me, should I start or should I finish?

Yes. Yes, Mr. Sastry, we will finish with Mr. [ Arun Boppana ], and then we'll come back to you, sir. Yes, Mr. Arun, go ahead.

Yes. Good morning to everybody. The people in economy COVID did ravage but I'm glad Wipro did manage growth well and compliment for adapting to ever-evolving IT and digital ecosystem, for staving off the negative impact. And I'm proud of the closure of 24 large deals amounting to USD 2.6 billion and the net zero greenhouse gases emissions by 2040 as per the Paris agreement. And I'm happy you're -- you're going to reduce the greenhouse gases by 55% by 2030. And Wipro has come together to fight this global pandemic. Global cooperation has never been more important than it is now. Relationships are meant to multiply joy. Multiply misery is a crime against humanity, sir. And I'm glad Wipro supported more than 1,500 projects covering humanitarian aid, health care support and livelihood generation. A bold tomorrow to enhance ability, improve operational efficiency and operational cost. The pandemic has served to accelerate this need, ESG will change the way business operated, and ESG is back to basics must be understood and appreciated. The fact is there are more and more technology will be in trouble unless we have a conscious and responsible population. I hope Wipro does something to induce fair and just principles in the humanity. And my question, sir, every breath in COVID had life and death in them. How many people did we lose? And if we had lost some people, I think it is appropriate -- observe 1 minute silence for the departed souls. IT Industry is expected to have enormous market potential spending to reach around USD 5.7 trillion by 2023. Your comments? What was COVID-19 impact on H-1B visas? Immigration -- the impact of immigration execution project, is moving cloud the answer? Ironically, 80% of world trade now flows to countries with the declining political stability. How do you hedge against disruptions? And this overall diagnosis health care, I understand AI will help because there is a huge diagnostic cost, which is worth around USD 3 billion with [ 230 ], and I believe AI can reduce the cost. Is Wipro doing anything on that? How will Wipro increase the employment streams to fulfill 65 crore Indian dreams, given aggregator is India's largest employer has seen? Lastly, COVID will leave more questions than answers, I think. In conclusion, sir. I wish Wipro all the best. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. [ Arun ]. I now request Mr. Sadanand Shastry to come on to the screen and answer his question. Thank you, Mr. Shastry.

Are you hearing, sir?

Yes, sir. We are able to see you and hear you. Please go ahead.

Okay. I'm Sadananda Shastry from Bangalore. My number is 11702201. First of all, this virtual meeting is fit for nothing. Neither we can approach you properly nor you can reach us effectively. That is why I'm minimizing my observations. Sir, your volume in [ SI ] report, it's very difficult to study in our mobile, so that's why it is better to send a copy of that physical report. Thank you, very much, Chairman, sir. Company is celebrating platinum jubilee. That is 75th year. Shareholders are predicting compliments to celebrate their joy. Sir, I'm sorry to say when the companies are facing setback because of pandemic, and when the [indiscernible] and information are talking about the proposal layout, retrenchments, salary cuts of the IT industries, our company CEO, showing a competition in getting increases in emoluments to the peak, It is very bad that one side cut to the first of employees and shareholders and filling their pockets of CEOs on the other side. It is a stunning matter while hearing a emolument of INR 64 crores of the company's CEO. Mr. Thierry. This fact is depicted in your page, report to Page 125 to as INR 89 crores. What is this? Sir, coming to the report now, financial highlights, Page #12. It's very wonder to note that there is a steep increase in depreciation expenses to the extent of [ INR 7,000 million ], which we have never seen earlier. There is no much increase in the plant and machineries. What is the reason? Page #18. Chairman [indiscernible]. You have promised to renew our message that you are building a bold tomorrow. For this bold tomorrow, you have remember, Wipro company, customers and the employees, forgetting the investors and shareholders. Is it not an injustice? Page 154, stand-alone balance sheet. In stand-alone revenue is reduced. Other income is also reduced, but profit is positive. But because of reduction in item travel and subcontract, which has covered the negative sign. So why is it so? Page #182. Investment in deposits shows INR 20,126 million in 2020, but it is disappearing in 2021. What they were this INR 20,126 million has gone CBS, that is consolidated balance sheet, Page #268. In trade receivables, the full portion is more, which may go bad ultimately. Any steps we have taken for recovery? Page #270. Cash equivalents, INR 25,000 million accumulated again. Is it not an excess liquidity? However, I appreciate company has performed well even in the pandemic period. Thank you very much, sir. See you again next year in Wipro [indiscernible]. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Shastry. I now request Mr. [ J. Abhishek ], shareholder, to come on to the screen and ask his question. Thank you, Mr. [ Abhishek ].

Can you hear me, sir? Am I audible?

Yes, you are visible very clearly and audible very clearly. Please go ahead.

Yes, sir. My name is [ Abhishek ], shareholder of the company. My DP ID, [ IN 0137 ], client ID is 41359155. So I congratulate the management on lieu of the 75th annual general body meeting [indiscernible] of the year. Trust all is well with you and your family in this saddening situation. Our company is a much more restricted than the current market cap after completing more than a decade of successful operations, profitability and dividend [indiscernible], becoming one of the strongest brands in our respective industry. Sir, I would like to -- we are [indiscernible] investor. [ Fraternity ] is expecting a bonus in the present year. Sir, the 75th AGM is a golden opportunity for the management to declare a bonus after the 2019. The shareholders have been eagerly waiting for the bonus issue, sir. I hope the management will fulfill and wish and desire of the minority shareholders. The shareholders also expect the special dividend during this e-vote, 75th annual general body meeting. But unfortunately, the management has declared only INR 1 as an interim dividend, and that itself has to be treated as a final dividend. So the management should reconsider this particular resolution and declare some might -- some dividend for the minority investor, [ Fraternity ]. I also thank our Chairman for his contribution towards the COVID pandemic. And our company does a very good amount of CSR, and we request the management to dedicate as much as CSR towards the COVID pandemic in order to save the country from the upcoming third and fourth wave deadly disease, and situation can normalize in our country. CSR, sir, in the -- at the same time, CSR may be considered for the investors or their family members also for the shareholders of the company who are being affected by the COVID pandemic and after scrutiny and new verification, if they are really eligible, the CSR fund may be awarded to them. And sir, myself and my team are running a legal firm in the name of [ Seven Wells Associates ] in Chennai. And I would request the management to kindly enroll the firm and do the legal [ environment ] of the company. So we would be glad to extend our services to Wipro. Sir, I have read the entire balance sheet, all the 386 pages I have read. I cannot find even one question in the balance sheet, sir, because the annual report is so perfect, and I don't want to raise any query in the part of the annual report. So nothing much to add, sir. I wish the company and the Board of Directors a great success and prosperity in the coming future. Thank you for giving the opportunity. We hope to see you in physical AGM next year, sir. thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. [ Abhishek ]. I now request Mr. [ Manoj Kumar Gupta ], shareholder, to unmute himself and ask his question. Mr. [ Gupta ].

Can you hear me?

Yes, Mr. [ Gupta ]. Kindly go ahead.

Yes, respected -- Chairman, Board of Directors, fellow shareholders. My name is an [ Manoj Kumar Gupta ]. I'm dialing this meeting from Kolkata.

Yes, sir, please go ahead.

Sir, we investors of the Wipro can't forget the contribution of Azim Premji. And please convey our best wishes on his coming birthday on 24th July. So please convey our best wishes on his birthday on 24th July. And we pray almighty God for his healthy and prosperous, safe, long life because company is completing 75 years, and he will complete 76 years. So please convey our best wishes on behalf of us to him. And sir, I will not say a single word on CSR because he has done like a [indiscernible]. We have read about the [indiscernible] and he has done a lot of work for the community and the society under the CSR. And sir, I will not say about the 75th AGM, it's a bold decision, what they will do for the employees. First, they should look for the employees. Employees should get some benefit on the eve of 75th year. And sir, may I invite, too, our Chairman and Azim Premji to visit Kolkata? 15 years back, I met Mr. Azim Premji in Kolkata in a CIA conference. So may I request again to come to Kolkata to visit their [indiscernible] in Kolkata, And sir, what impact has come due to COVID on our company in the national and global due to COVID? And what's the status on campus as of today by the COVID? And sir, your consumer products are very good in every aspect, electric and other goods. So why are you not spreading the wins of the consumer products to raise the consumer base products company? And sir, now the Eastern and Northeast part is growing. So have you any plan to come with the new campus in the Northeast part like Tripura, Assam and other part of the -- after become the India government in these parts. [ These states ] are growing. So have you any plan to start any new [ tempers in these issues ]? And thanks for the hospital in your campus in Pune. And you should start some more hospitals near to a campus in other parts of the country. And why are you not taking part in the government program like to make them a government platform for income tax, passport and railway, other like at Infosys and TCS are helping government. So you should also consider to do something for the government. And last but least, I wish the Board to get more success in coming time under the new -- under the Board of Directors and our Chairman. And may I request the Company Secretary again to convey our best wishes to Azim Premji on his coming birthday? Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. [ Gupta ]. The next shareholder, I request Mr. [ Adil Polat Irani ] to come on to the screen and ask his question. Please go ahead.

Thank you to the secretarial team, And this is the 75th year of the company. So it's a milestone basically. Rishad Premji, your diction, your English, it's the Queen's English or -- it's just perfect. I mean, amongst all the people and the, I mean, I attend other meetings also basically, but your English and diction is perfect, totally perfect. And actually, I've joined this meeting just now because of your daddy. I mean, the big, big, large shoes to fill up basically. So basically, he is Azim Premji and I'm [ Adil Polat ]. That is the only thing common between us, AP and AP. And Mr. Premji, I can see you in this thing. You're not on the Board but you passed out in school in 1961, basically, I joined. And I want to make you young, again, basically. I will just read out -- I mean I will not take much time. I'll read out the 5 people alphabetically who were sort of in -- was -- there was 1 [ Hassan Padamsee ]; then there was [ Kurshek Patel ]; there was [ Neville Patel ]; [ Zari Paury ]; and [ Richard Perkins ]; and then Azim Premji MH. And after that was [ Richard Rangle ], [ Mohan Sidpalrao ], [ Kushru Reporta ], [ Shabil Ruala ]. And of course, the other great people in your [indiscernible]. There was 1 Captain [indiscernible]. Then there was a [indiscernible]. I mean you went on the ship. Mr. Rishad Premji, your daddy had to go through difficulties. They were no airlines that time. On a ship, they went to London. And from London, they went to U.S.A. to study. You can imagine the difficulties they have gone through. We've got everything on a sort of a silver spoon, And of course, I mean, I cannot forget [ Brad Harrison ], Mr. Azim Premji. You must be remembering [ Brad Harrison ]. And Anil [indiscernible], I mean these are people in your batchmates, Mr. Azim Premji. And again, thank you. Thank you for taking care of my company. And I think you will be the biggest philanthropic in the next 100 years. And your son -- I mean it's there. It's -- I mean I can -- you've got a very loving and humble face, basically, I mean. And I should not forget to -- and I don't question what takes place before 31st of March. That is history, basically. And I approve all the resolutions. And Rishad Premji, you are wearing specs. You want to see me properly.

Exactly.

So Azim Premji, thank you. Thank you, Rishad Premji, thank you. And of course, the same secretarial team also they are very nice. It is the link between the company and the shareholders. They've been very nice. And that's it. I don't question what takes place before 31st March. That is history. And I have invested also because in Premji and because of Wipro Western India products, et cetera, et cetera. That is all. And I forgot, I am using Santoor soap. Santoor soap that contains of sandalwood and almond. That is the world's best soap. Basically, everybody who is listening to this and the shareholders and the directors, I hope you all are using Santoor soap. That is the best soap in the whole world. It contains sandalwood and almond milk. So that's it, sir. I hope I have not taken more than 2 minutes. Mr. Premji, I [ applaud ] you, boss. You are the next -- you'll be the next [Foreign Language]. I mean [indiscernible].

Thank you, Mr. [ Anil ]. Thank you. Thank for your kind words.

Thank you, Mr. [ Polat ]. Thank you for your kind words. So if I can try and I'll try -- so now that we've taken 5, Sana, I'll try and answer some of them and then maybe hand over to some questions I can't -- I'm not able to answer. Mr. [ Boppana ], any loss of life is tragic in these circumstances. We've lost 122 of our colleagues, and it's been very tough for us. We tried to do everything we can to be there for them, to support them and to help them. And as Thierry mentioned in his opening remarks as well, to be there for their families. The issue on H-1B visas that you raised today, more and more, we have glocalized as a company. So we have become more and more global and more and more local. And so our dependency on things like H-1B visas is coming down dramatically over the years. Today, almost 75% of our employees based in the U.S. are locals. And so as I said, our dependency on visas is coming down. Though we certainly take up issues that we feel are unfair and biased against the technology services industry, both directly as well as through industry associations like NASSCOM. The comment you made on disruption and AI. Certainly, technology is changing in a very, very profound way and new age technologies, whether they be cloud or AI, are playing a very core foundational central role as organizations move more and more to build their businesses around a digital technology-first medium. And then your last comment on skilling. We fully recognize the importance of ensuring that we are able to not only enhance our employee base, but also reskill them so that they are relevant and able to participate in the future, which is all about new age skills. And so we're spending a lot of time not only with the industry, but as a company to reskill our people at a very, very foundational and at a very, very detailed level. Mr. Shastry, your comments on the virtual meeting. Look, that is the reality of the times we live in. Today, less than 3% of our employees are coming into the office. To ensure that it is safe for everybody, this is the best medium. I fully appreciate it is not as intimate and as personal as a medium of meeting in person, but this is the safest and most optimal medium. And we didn't want to delay getting a chance to connect with shareholders for the year gone by. Your comment on CEO compensation as well as your comment on employees. Actually, let me just comment on the employees first. It's actually quite the contrary because we have not only added employees, we've added net 15,000-plus employees to our employee base in the last year. We've given salary increases to all our employees, all employees B3 and below, which is 80% of our employees in January. We're doing another salary increase for them in September. We've got a salary increase for all our other employees from June 1 of this year. So it is actually very much supportive and very much enhancing value for our employees. And as far as your comment on the CEO is concerned. 65% of his remuneration is today based on a variable performance, is the performance of the company. So any benefit the CEO, Thierry, sees, the organization sees as well. And so it's a very, very much tightly coupled win-win scenario for both of us. I will come back and let Jatin answer some of your financial questions. But he can come back at the end, Jatin, if that's okay. There was no intention of forgetting of shareholders in any comment in the annual report. The shareholders are the reason we exist. And we've done, I think, quite well by shareholders by returning -- the stock increasing 108% last financial year. So shareholders are very much our focus like all other stakeholders are. And I mentioned that in my opening comments as well. Mr. [ Abhishek ], your comments on bonus and special dividend and things are noted. I just want to say the following, that we have a stated policy to return to shareholders between 45% to 50% of our net income. So our dividend payout ratio of 45% to 50% or an average of 3 years. For the last 3 years, we have, on average, returned over 81%. And for last year, we've returned 113%, right? And this is a combination of not only dividend but also buyback. And we will constantly ensure that we find the right balance between investing back into the business and returning monies to shareholders. On CSR, this year, we have spent over INR 250 crores. In addition, we have spent an additional INR 100 crores, specifically focused on COVID. So your point is well made and well taken. Mr. [ Gupta ], your kind words to Mr. Premji's contribution is noted and appreciated. Thank you very much. We exist as a company. And we are all -- we exist as a company and our success as a company is all due to him and the founding of the organization. Your comments on the CCLG, your comments on new campus, your comments on participating on government programs, which we do selectively and thoughtfully, are well taken. And the other comment on the impact of COVID and working from home. That is now becoming more and more of the new reality, and we can talk a little bit more about that as well. We will likely never come back all of our employees all of the time to the office. We will learn to work in a new hybrid model. And over the next few months, we will have more clarity on how this model will emerge. For the moment, as I mentioned, 97% of our employees are working from home. And Mr. [ Polat ], thank you for all the kind words and for your great support to the organization. So Jatin, maybe if you want to answer the financial questions, and then we can move to the next set.

Sure, Rishad. So I'll go ahead and cover the 3 questions which were raised. The first is the increase in depreciation, and that is not just depreciation, but that is also amortization expenses related to some of our acquisitions. So as you know, we have remained acquisitive and it is part of the core strategy of the company. And that is the reason you are seeing an increase in amortization/depreciation expenses. The second thing is about the stand-alone entities, profitability going up because of travel, and that is true. That is the reality of last year where travel and some of the variable spend related to our facilities was lower than previous year. Lastly, on cash and PDD cash. As you mentioned about reduction in deposits, I request you to see total aggregate cash, and we had $3.6 million of cash as of end of 31st -- as of end of last year, net of debt, and that is a kind of sound cash balance that we must have as we pursue our M&A strategy. Lastly, on PDD, we continue to improve our -- we saw whole of last year, even during the course of pandemic, we saw a significant improvement in our DSO. And if I can tell you 2 numbers, the operating cash flow as a percentage of our net income was 137%, and free cash flow as a percentage of our net income was 119%, which means that we have continued to collect cash very well. And the provision for doubtful debts would hopefully not need to be eventually provided as we continue to collect the cash. Thank you very much. Sana, back to you.

Thank you, Rishad and Jatin. We will now move to the next set of shareholders. I once again request all the shareholders to be very precise with their questions and observations and avoid duplication questions and observations already made. If you can avoid, we can do this more seamlessly. Thank you. The next shareholder is [ Ashith Kumar Pathak ], I request Mr. Pathak to come on to the screen and ask his question, please. Sir, you are unmute. We are unable to hear you.

Am I audible, sir?

Yes. Yes, Mr. [ Pathak ]. Please go ahead.

Yes, yes. [ I send my ] best wishes for good health and my [ program ] respected Mr. Azim Premji, sir, and pray to God for this good health and his presence throughout his life in our company. Next, respected Chairman, MD and CEO, Board of Directors, Company Secretary, staff, fellow members joined 75th AGM of Wipro Limited. My name is [ Ashith Kumar Pathak ] from Kolkata Dum Dum. My sincere gratitude to Company Secretary, Mr. M. Sanaulla Khan, and the secretarial department for sending me the Notice of 75th AGM and annual report very well in advance. And lastly conducting site verification member speaker with nicely cooperation with corresponding and allow me to speak. Excellent corporate governance and excellent secretarial department. Only request if possible to send me hard copy of the annual report to speakers, shareholders by urgent courier as possible as [indiscernible]. So I already casted my votes in favor of all 5 resolutions. Thanks to NSDL and KFintech for nicely conducting e-voting process. Excellent service, excellent delivery from respected Chairman and MD, CEO for future progression and road maps, I already noted. But it may be better to some video projection in CSR activities like zero-emission strategies. That will be better for us to understood. Sir, at present, vaccination status of our directors, executive staff and supply chains. If possible, throw some highlight and heighten medical insurance and group insurance for the members, for the employees and protection and the protection status of the family, if COVID victim. If throw some highlight as Tata Steel may. Sir, WFH and hybrid water get enhanced based in IT industries. Future also in cost control. Tier 2 cities also a good -- a talent hub and relocation. So what is the strategy and road map for our domestic business performance? We had get the new IT ministry, which is in IT personality and mix [indiscernible] per package by union government and other very strategic drive they are giving. So what the strategy and road map in future 3 year in your domestic market? Where is this market? America and Europe financial performance were not so good. Also impacting global economy, also rupee against dollar is upgrowing. That is the positive sign also. Also, sir, these start-ups performance well sectors such as [indiscernible], social ethic and health, huge investment in the Indian market. And India is the super hot in the map of global investor. So the CapEx program next 3 years in domestic and any expansion plus throw some highlights about this. Also, in the -- the U.S. President is backing mainly scrutiny in big business. Mostly scrutiny in the tech industry. This is also the negative factor I have noted. Sir, Singapore is uprising, tech is booming. Does having -- does not have enough talent against increasing demands for tech. Talent, especially professionals with [indiscernible] skill set in cloud AI and data analytics and mostly cloud architect requirement in cloud ecosystem. So have our any plan to set up in Singapore a subsidiaries? And good news, we probably beat Cognizant in market cap, in fourth rank after the Infosys and respected Mr. Azim Premji's philanthropic areas have received over INR 18,000 crores in dividends and buybacks over the last 5 years. I appreciate, sir, and praying to God to your good health throughout your life. This is very excellent. And significantly, our company get acquisition in CAPCO and any other acquisition in financial year '22 in our pipeline, if possible, throw some highlights. Sir, in Page 61, it mentioned Wipro liquidity...

Mr. [ Pathak ], in the interest of time...

One minute, sir. One minute. One minute, sir. It mentioned Wipro liquidity and capital requirements are affected by many factors. If possible, throw some highlights, electric vehicles uprising, throw some highlight the strategy and road map. And lastly, sir, net debt and our debt reduction policies and some pending litigation in income tax matter pending. what the strategy to liquid -- to reduce this. And what strategy and road map in about cybersecurity is you had ongoing. Then also corporate governance because many cyber attacking are happening in our country also globally. And lastly, any future plan in IT ecosystem will be in quantum computer, which is upcoming in the future. God bless to everybody.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. [ Pathak ]. I now request Mr. [ Santosh Kumar Saraf ] to come on to the screen and ask his question. Yes, Mr. [ Santosh ], we are able to see you.

[Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language]

Thank you, sir. Thank you. We will now move on to the next shareholder.

[Foreign Language]

Thank you. Mr. [ Kaushik Saka ], the next shareholder, I request Mr. [ Kaushik ] to come on to the screen and ask his question, please.

Yes, sir. Am I audible, sir?

Yes. You are audible, Mr. [ Kaushik ]. Yes. Yes, yes. Please go ahead.

At the onset, let me introduce myself as [ Kaushik Saka ] from Mumbai. Professionally, I am a [indiscernible] accountant. Medically, I suffer from dystonia. In simple terms, 55% of my body is paralyzed and this impact my right hand, right leg and the speech. Sir, despite my medical condition, I grew to be self-reliant and self-dependent. I believe Wipro is known for its CSR activities. You empathize with the people, support them in a way possible. This way people connect with Wipro Chairman, sir, have brought smile among various many people. Sir, if you can shower your -- some blessings over me, it will change my life too and also make myself reliant. Sir, I recognize that you have at least supported me with some work. It would be great if you can involve me in some other activities, CSR activities. Chairman, sir, I would like to present a quote and analyst speech. I'm sure Mr. Azim Premji will let it. Give man a fish, and you can feed him for a day. But teach a man technique of fishing, and you can feed him for lifelong. I believe in second part of quote. Sir, I recognize the efforts of Wipro in associating with me in just 1 call last year. I really appreciate the efforts of all the employees who have associated with me. It could have been great if we could have associated with some other activities. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Board of Directors and also for patiently hearing me. Also, special thanks to secretarial department for making this event possible. I'm also hopeful that companies will empathize with me and will easily [ confirm ] me. Can I expect a positive response from the company? Thanks to all, Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. [ Kaushik ]. I will now request Mr. [ Bharat Raj Kanakala ] to come on to the screen and ask his question, please. [ Bharat ], we are able to see you. Please go ahead. We can't hear you, [ Bharat ].

Yes, now you can hear me, sir?

Yes. Yes. Please go ahead, Mr. [ Bharat ].

Yes, Founder, Chairman, Mr. Premji; and Wipro Chairman, Mr. Rishad; and our CEO, Managing Director, Mr. Thierry; and then the Board of Directors [indiscernible] management. First of all, warm welcome, sir. Very happy and congratulate the management for successful completing [indiscernible], sir. Very happy, sir. How the [indiscernible] has been building this [indiscernible] as a full year in our entire board, sir, I'm happy. And I see everybody happy and in this happy occasion in the COVID period very strong and very much strength given to the company, sir. First of all, I thank the management for the dividend, sir. Regarding this dividend, sir, may I know the dividend policy, sir? Sir, what is the percentage every year you are giving [indiscernible], Mr. Rishad as the share that is total is given for 3 years? But every year, what is your dividend policy, sir? That is my first question. Sir, in this platinum jubilee, can we expect a bonus? And it is a special dividend that's INR [ 1.15 ]. Sir, it is a sole purpose of [indiscernible] 75 years. So if this can we expect INR [ 1.15 ] dividend? And then there is no issues regard the CSR, sir. [indiscernible] CSR. And in this COVID period pandemic, sir, have you provided the vaccine to the entire employees? Are you giving any provision to them to take the vaccine, sir? That is my second question, sir. Thanks management for increasing the incremental. And I support the management for our CEO, Managing Director, being a very good increment. Very happy, sir, because he is the captain of the ship and he deserves for this because once he came from this 1 year, [ the lock up ], and the strategic changes he has bring to the Wipro company, sir. I'm very proud of you, Mr. Thierry, and I congratulate you. All the best for the coming years, sir. And Mr. Chairman, once again, all the best, sir. I thank the secretarial department with Mr. Khan and Mr. [indiscernible], has wonderful supported this virtual meeting. And I wish them all the best in coming years. Once again, Mr. Chairman, all the best and [indiscernible]. Thank you. God bless you all.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. [ Bharat ]. Now I request Mr. [ Kamal Mehta ] to come on to the screen and ask his question, please. Yes, Mr. [ Mehta ], we are able to see you. Kindly go ahead.

Good morning to respected Board members and shareholders. At first, I thank Ms. Deepali and Mr. Sanaulla Khan from the Secretary -- Company Secretary office for coordinating and arranging this call. Thank you. Myself, [ Kamal Mehta ] from Bangalore. Sir, I -- Wipro, as I remember, had a very vantage position in early days. Wipro and Infosys were almost similar In size, revenue and profits. Now after almost 20-plus years, I find Infosys has grown multifolds, but Wipro seems to have lost the race and is lagging behind its peers. What could be the reason? Is it because of lack of visionary deal or some strategies going haywire? Even after multiple acquisitions over the years, we still have not reached the pole position. Your views, sir, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. [ Mehta ]. With that, Rishad, we completed the 5 questions agreement we have.

Yes, great. So I'll just try and answer as many questions and then Jatin, maybe if you can answer some of the financials that were -- actually, the first few. On hard copies, anybody who wants a hard copy of the report can just reach out to our Company Secretary and the company secretarial team, and we can certainly provide that for you. Many people have asked a question on vaccination. So let me just clarify that again. We, as a company, have procured 100,000 vaccines, 1 lakh vaccines for our employees and their families to take it across all our centers across the country. We began this in June. And so far, we've provided that to 35,000 employees and their families. That demand is slowly coming down because people have more and more options to take this, mandating people to get vaccinated is not an option. That is completely a personal choice. We're certainly encouraging our employees to get vaccinated because getting vaccinated makes it safer, not only for you and your family, but also for the ecosystem at large. As of today, based on the self-declaration of our employees, we are aware that over 55% of our employees in India are vaccinated, and that number is increasing every day. But we are fully there to support our employees both in terms of providing access to vaccines as well as encouraging them to get vaccinated. There was a question earlier on, again, on work from home. The reality is, as I mentioned, 3% of our employees are coming into the offices. We feel at the moment that is the most prudent and safe strategy to follow. We will certainly evolve into what the right model for work going forward would be. And it will likely be a hybrid model of people coming into work some of the time and working from home some of the time. Jatin, if you can, there was a question on Singapore. We certainly have a large focus in Singapore. We already have a subsidiary there. The markets overall in Asia Pac are an important market for us to focus on, but the U.S. still remains a dominant market given the size of the market that it carries. It's still 60% of our revenues roughly. Mr. [ Santosh ], I answered the question on vaccination. We are also providing support on infrastructure to our employees, whether it be providing dongles, in some cases, enabling them with physical infrastructure as well. Many of our employees today are still working from their hometowns. So while most of our employees are based in the big cities, about 40% of our employees are working from their native places, living with their families at the moment as well. And we are certainly very focused on supporting all of our employees that have been affected by COVID, supporting their families. As Thierry mentioned, even in some cases, seeing if we can employ their spouse. So we're very, very acutely sensitive and aware of every kind of support that we can provide our employees. Mr. [ Kaushik ], we have great respect for you and very much appreciate you and appreciate your resilience. And I know we've connected in the past and will make sure that we connect with you off-line and see what else we can do to enable you to work more closely with the organization. Mr. [ Bharat Raj ], just to clarify again the dividend policy. Our dividend payout ratio is defined on a 3-year basis. On average, we say we will pay out between 45% to 50%. Last year, we paid out 113% versus the policy of 45% to 50%. And the average for the last 3 years versus the policy of 45% to 50% was over 81%. So we paid out almost twice as much over the last 3 years and 2.5 to 3x as much in the last year, which is a combination of dividend and bonus -- dividend and buyback. Your comments on bonus. I noted your comments, and your compliments to Thierry are noted. And Mr. [ Mehta ], we have been through a major transformation as a company over the last 12 months and the journey is young. But hopefully, there are some great shoots of progress and performance that you are seeing in our performance over the last 12 months. Jatin, over to you for anything that I've missed in some of the financials.

Thanks, Rishad. I'll cover 3 questions, which Mr. [ Pathak ] had asked. First one, CapEx. We have just completed our major CapEx cycle between 2017 and 2020. We will continue to evaluate if we need to invest anymore, but we completed our major CapEx cycle in last 3 years. The second, your question on what are the factors which impact the liquidity. These are typically short-term factors. Sometimes you need approval of a central bank in a country to take the earned cash or earned profit in that country out. Sometimes there are tax implication around it. But in a very major way, we have all our cash in a very liquid form, and we can use it at a short notice. Third question on income tax. Yes, we continue to look at options which can improve the tax efficiencies of our transactions, and therefore, we continue to enjoy fairly well managed, fairly well covered tax rate, as you would have seen over the last few years. These were the 3 questions on financials, Rishad. Thank you. And Sana, back to you for Q&A.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Jatin and Rishad. We have the next set of shareholders, starting with Mr. [indiscernible]. I request Mr. [indiscernible] to come on to the screen and ask his question. I again, once again, request the shareholders to be precise and to the point on the questions.

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Rishad Premji and Mr. Azim Premji [indiscernible] and other directors that are here at the conference and my fellow shareholders, good morning and [Foreign Language], sir. Yes. Sir, my name is [indiscernible]. My DP ID is [indiscernible]. As a shareholder, we're very happy and proud and applaud the company performance of 2021 and congratulating for the [ several buyers ] completed successfully. All the best for the future, too, sir. Thank you for [indiscernible] presentation. Detailed AGM report we have [indiscernible]. Excellent speech by my Chairman. Thank you. Sir, in 2019, physical AGM, very nice memory AGM, sir. What I have vision and expected in the last [ couple of years back ]. It was [indiscernible] now. So we have 100% fit on Mr. Chairman. And [indiscernible], it was a delightful and wonderful experience. It was very nice memory in that AGM, sir. We got a chance to [ illustrate ] our great achievement [indiscernible], sir. Wonderful interaction with the Board, sir. Thank you. Sir, regarding this corporate governance. My company doing world-class corporate governance like in legal, [indiscernible], transparency, fitness, everything, sir. Everything, sir. Thank you so much for the Board for conducting this functioning side [indiscernible] of my company. You are the -- borne of the backbone of this company's success, sir. I would like to congratulate our Chairman and Board for the good shareholders written past many years. Thank you. Sir, I'm happy and welcoming Mr. Thierry Delaporte, my CEO and MD. He's a very energetic, sir. Wish you all the best, and welcome to the Board, And also, I'm welcoming new director, Mr. (sic) [ Ms. ] Tulsi Naidu. Welcoming, ma'am. Thank you. Wish you all the best. Sir, in the financial sector, sir, congratulation for the wonderful numbers you have posted. My company CEO is doing with the consistent financial performance, quality management and with the technical momentum, growth mindset. Thank you, sir. And also strong financial performance with a good revenue growth, PAT, EBITDA numbers. Our company is present in more than 55 countries, sir. Thank you so much, sir. So congrats for the operation of CAPCO.

Mr. [indiscernible], if you have any questions, kindly ask us in the interest of time. We lost your voice.

Sana, I think we've lost him. Why don't we move to the next one and come back if he comes back?

Yes. Yes. So we now request Mr. [ Arvind ] to come on to the screen and ask his question, please.

Yes, yes.

Yes, Mr. [ Arvind ]. Go ahead. We are unable to hear you, Mr. Arvind. You're on mute.

Thank you. Thank you very much, everyone, for giving me this opportunity and congratulations on completion of 75 years of the company. Myself, [indiscernible], [ Arvind Walka ], the Director of [ Greatest Corporate Service Limited ], [indiscernible] on merchant market and for volume performance for [ SMIC ] in India for financial year 2018, as awarded by [indiscernible]. We provide services related to SMIC of the company. Under the leadership of Mr. Azim Premji, turning from his small soft company to multinational IT [indiscernible] has been inspirational to every company in the world. We suggest you invest in some good SME companies also just even 1% of your profit and act as the catalyst in the growth of and development of all those SMEs of India. We can see a bigger impact in the growth of the country.

Thank you, Mr. [ Arvind ]. Moving on, our next shareholder is Mr. [ Jaideep Bakshi ]. I request Mr. [ Bakshi ] to come onto the screen and ask his question. Yes, Mr. Bakshi, we are able to see you. Kindly go ahead.

Am I audible?

Yes, sir. [indiscernible]

Chairman, MD, CEO and Board of Directors, myself, [ Jaideep Bakshi ], connecting from the city of Kolkata. Thanks to Mr. Khan for also giving me an opportunity to express my views and also to Deepali Madam for arranging this video conference in a smooth manner. It's a great honor to be part of a true global leader under the guidance of Mr. Azim Premji, It's a good presentation at the start of the meeting. Sir, during the pandemic period, the train turned to technology. What are our plans for expansion in different market fields in the coming years? Sir, what are the business challenges we have faced in this period? And what are our any further acquisition plans or partnership plans in the coming years? Sir, what is our learning and reshuffling training programs for the employees to adapt to the new technologies, which we had? Sir, the need to increase of the cybersecurity and fraud detection effort is a need of the hour for any finance institution, and AI is playing a significant role in helping this security of online finance. What is our highlight on this aspect, sir? So our CSR activities has been great as always. And the good thing about our Pune hospital, which I thought you have taken up. So what is our cost reduction policy for the future? And also, regarding the carbon-neutral steps we are taking? So we have completed the 75 years as everybody has expressed and the tireless and dedicated effort by all concerned who are attached with our company. Sir, I think we should announce something for special -- for the shareholders. We are a minority shareholders, especially. Sir, what is our strategy regarding to help out to the next of the kin to employees we had lost in this COVID pandemic period? And other than this taking up the medical expenses, what are the other strategies we have? And regarding the -- what are the scope for the debt reduction policy we have? This was a nice move of acquiring this CAPCO, which is the largest strength in the global financial market, and it was also resulting in this revenue collection. Also -- and so nothing to add more and best wishes to the entire team. And we have full faith in the management and hope our company will rise to new heights in the coming years. Thank you so much, and all stay safe. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Bakshi. The next shareholder we have is Mr. Harshil Umesh Parekh. I request Mr. Parekh to come on to the screen and ask his question.

I hope I'm very visible and audible.

Yes, Mr. Parekh, we can hear you.

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak at this AGM. Firstly, my great respect to Mr. Azim Premji, Mr. Rishad Premji. With your vision and guidance, I think our company, Wipro, has reached to this level. Secondly, many thanks to Chairman, sir, and all the directors, for patient hearing of all the shareholders till now. I can just imagine how calm you need to be on the AGM day. Rishad, sir, your words were perfect, be respectful, responsive, always communicating client stewardship. We look forward for such kind of vision of the company. Even as our CEO, Mr. Thierry, he spoke about 33% growth in order book and large deals of $2.6 billion, we appreciate that you are keeping the margins of 20.3% as operating margin, which is a great margin for a company like us. My question is what are the plans the company have to demerge various segments and get them listed and run them independently? This might create some further shareholder value, in my view. Whereas some of my queries are already answered, either by Chairman in his speech or are raised by earlier speaker were similar queries, so I don't need any further clarification on that. One more thing, I think I came across some speaker number who spoke about CSR activity in relation to professional work. Wipro group is famous for such tie-ups and upliftments. I think we can support such kind of payment situation work. Hope this is considered by our beloved Chairman. Our company is doing great, and we hope it reaches new heights every year. Once again, I'm concising my speech, and I thank you for giving me opportunity to speak. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Parekh. I now request Mr. Yusuf Yunus Rangwala, shareholder, to come on to the screen and ask his question, please. Yes, Mr. Rangwala, kindly go ahead, we are able to see you. We can't hear you, sir. Mr. Rangwala, I think you're on mute, if you can unmute yourself and ask your question, please. Sir, we are unable to hear you.

Sana, shall we go ahead or...

Yes. Yes. We shall. We are unable to hear him. We'll see if we can get him back, but this is the last set of shareholders we had and we can move ahead from here after answering the questions.

Okay. So Mr. Edappa, I know you dropped off, but thank you for all the words of encouragement and words of support and compliments. It encourages us. It motivates us to do better. So thank you for the support. Mr. Harlalka, we look at M&A strategically in terms of areas that can add either capacity or new capabilities or geographic expansion for us. We also look at some younger companies, but we typically don't buy many of the small younger companies, we actually invest in them. So we have something called Wipro Ventures through which we invest in young, new age companies that can help enhance the portfolio of offerings we take to customers. That Wipro Ventures portfolio today is about $250 million, and we've invested in about 25-odd companies across the globe through that fund. Mr. Bakshi, I just -- you had a bunch of different comments. I just want to say, look, these last 12 months, as prolific as it has been in terms of the communities and to the world, in general, it has actually boded quite well for the technology space because more and more, every company is becoming a technology company and so that certainly helps opportunities for companies like us. And we are hugely focused on helping our customers bridge that gap and being able to help them become a digital-first company. And so a lot of our focus is there, leveraging new age technologies with the big cloud, AI, cybersecurity, digitally transforming those experiences. There was a comment that you alluded to, as well as Mr. Parekh made around CSR, considering professional work and professional work support. As to CSR, it's something we have noted and we will look into and explore closely. You had a comment on carbon neutrality. Both Thierry and myself mentioned that it's something we take very seriously. We look at the overall ESG framework very closely. We look at sustainability holistically, beyond just carbon neutrality, to focus around biowaste and water and just general biodiversity as well. Specifically, on the carbon neutrality, we have committed to transform to net zero, which is complete decarbonization by 2040, with an interim target of reducing it by 55% by 2030. And then Mr. Parekh, your comment on demerging different parts of the organization, we went through a fundamental demerge of our non-IT businesses back in 2013, which is the Consumer Care business and the infrastructure business. Our view today is Wipro Limited, your company, in -- which is the IT services company, there is a lot of value for the different pieces being together because customers look for an end-to-end partner, who can solve a multitude of their problems along the technology landscape. So there is no intent at the moment to demerge any parts of the company. So with that, Sana, I think I've answered most of those questions. Anything we missed, we can always go back to later.

Yes.

Thank you. So all the items of business as per the notice of the 75th Annual General Meeting have been taken up. I now declare the proceedings of the Annual General Meeting is completed. As mentioned earlier, the Insta Poll e-voting facility will continue to be available for 30 minutes after this meeting. On behalf of our Board of Directors and the management of Wipro, I convey our sincere thanks to all of the members for attending and for participating in this meeting. Stay healthy, stay safe, and please get vaccinated. Take care, be well. Thank you.