Exodus from Infosys continues as India business head Kakal quits

In the ninth senior-level exit at Infosys Ltd since the return of co-founder N R Narayana Murthy as executive chairman, Chandrashekar Kakal, operational head of the India business unit, senior vice president and  member of Infosys executive council, has put in his papers.

Kakal, who joined the Bangalore-based information technology company in 1999, holds operational responsibility for the India business unit and is responsible for application development, maintenance, testing and infrastructure management services worldwide. He also serves on the board of Infosys BPO.

In a filing with the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday, Infosys said, "On March 19, 2014, Chandrashekar Kakal, senior vice president and member of the executive council, conveyed his intention to resign from the company effective April 18, 2014."

Infosys global sales head Basab Pradhan quit in July 2013, while global manufacturing head Ashok Vemuri resigned in August to join rival iGate as chief executive officer. Stephen Pratt, who co-founded Infosys consulting, stepped down in November.

In September, Infosys Head of BPO sales in Australia Kartik Jayaraman and BPO Head Latin America Humberto Andrade quit. A month earlier, Vice President and Financial Services Head for the Americas Sudhir Chaturvedi left.

The same month under a restructuring Kakal, then global head of business IT services (BITS), was given additional responsibility of overseeing the consulting and systems integration (CSI) business.

Murthy has been making a series of changes at Infosys, including cutting costs at on-site work locations and shifting focus to winning large outsourcing projects (See: Infosys rejigs top management).

Last month, Murthy said Infosys, which employs 1.5 lakh people, may hand sack letters to those who did not ''add value'' despite high salaries, as it looks to cut costs and increase operational efficiency.