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From Web2 to Web3: India’s IT Giants Quietly Move Up the Blockchain Stack

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From Web2 to Web3: India’s IT Giants Quietly Move Up the Blockchain Stack

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Khushi V Rangdhol
Jun 28, 2025 01:12

India’s IT giants—TCS, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, and Wipro—are pivoting to blockchain, launching digital-asset divisions and securing international contracts, marking a shift from Web2 outsourcing to Web3 infrastructure.




When most individuals image “Indian crypto,” they think about Bengaluru start-ups or Dubai-registered exchanges. Yet the largest strikes into enterprise blockchain this 12 months are coming from the nation’s 4 IT-services behemoths—Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Wipro—whose mixed income already tops US $55 billion. Each agency now runs a devoted digital-asset division, and the contracts they win—from tokenised-bond pilots in Singapore to CBDC sandboxes in Africa—sign that India’s export engine is pivoting from Web2 outsourcing to Web3 infrastructure.

Why the Tech Majors Care

NASSCOM’s 2024 strategic assessment exhibits 58 % of Indian IT-services income now comes from “digital and engineering” work, up from 34 % 5 years in the past. Blockchain still accounts for <4 % of that pot, but deal worth is rising practically 40 % year-on-year—outpacing cloud or AI progress charges. Talent is also no longer a bottleneck: India hosts roughly 75 000 blockchain engineers (NASSCOM Web3 Landscape 2023), second only to the United States.

1. TCS Quartz: from core banking to tokenised belongings

TCS launched its “Quartz” blockchain framework in 2020, but two 2024 bulletins made the product unimaginable to ignore:

  • LSEG pilot for tokenised settlement. In October 2024 the London Stock Exchange Group accomplished a proof-of-concept utilizing Quartz to settle digital fairness tokens against money on a personal ledger, reducing reconciliation time from two hours to 30 seconds.
  • Bank Muscat custody challenge. Oman’s largest financial institution mentioned in March 2025 it will deploy Quartz Digital Asset Custody to serve regional household places of work that need regulated crypto safekeeping.
  • TCS employees say Quartz income is “tiny but growing”—and strategically important because every settlement node or custody vault feeds more consulting hours into the agency’s legacy integration models.

    2. Infosys Finacle: CBDC and deposit tokens

    Infosys’ banking suite, used by 1,000+ establishments worldwide, quietly added a Finacle Digital Asset Solution in 2022. Recent milestones:

  • Nigeria’s e-Naira improve. The Central Bank of Nigeria confirmed in January 2025 that Finacle middleware now powers offline e-Naira wallets for function telephones, after a six-month pilot in rural Kaduna.
  • Deposit-token sandbox in Saudi Arabia. Riyad Bank and the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) introduced in May 2025 a joint check where Finacle tokenises sight deposits for prompt wholesale funds.
  • Because Finacle already holds core-banking market share across Africa and the Gulf, every profitable CBDC or deposit-token pilot widens the moat.

    3. Tech Mahindra: DePIN and carbon markets

    Tech Mahindra, recognized for telecom IT initiatives, leans on that DNA to chase infrastructure-token work:

  • Helium enterprise node ops. In December 2024, Nova Labs named Tech Mahindra its systems-integration associate for Helium’s India rollout of Wi-Fi Passpoint nodes across 200 smart-city places.
  • Grasim carbon-credit chain. Aditya Birla subsidiary Grasim Industries selected TechM in April 2025 to construct a personal blockchain that tokenises verified abatement credit from its green-hydrogen vegetation.
  • Revenue is small, but such proofs unlock cross-selling into 5G personal networks and ESG reporting—TechM’s conventional candy spots.

    4. Wipro: wholesale-CBDC rails

    Wipro’s blockchain follow felt quiet after its 2019 Corda work, but resurfaced when:

  • The Central Bank of Thailand named Wipro and R3 as tech distributors for its Project Inthanon-LionRock cross-border CBDC bridge in July 2024. A follow-up pilot in January 2025 processed US $180 million in simulated commerce funds between Bangkok and Hong Kong.
  • A Wipro vice-president (talking at Hyperledger Global Forum, April 2025) mentioned 60 % of the challenge workforce sits in Bengaluru—proof that the agency’s offshore expertise still anchors headline Web3 contracts.

    Implications for India’s Export Engine

  • Higher-margin work. NASSCOM pegs common billing for blockchain architects at 1.6× conventional Java charges; margin growth issues in a talent-scarce market.
  • Hard forex earnings. With most blockchain pilots denominated in {dollars}, rupee weak point boosts income—useful after a flat 2024 IT-services progress 12 months.
  • Skill flywheel. As banks and telecoms demand Solidity, Rust or DAML, India’s college pipeline shifts, feeding both start-ups and IT majors.
  • Roadblocks Still Ahead

  • Regulatory fragmentation. None of the massive 4 IT companies can host retail-facing crypto wallets in India due to the 30 % positive factors tax and 1 % TDS. That forces “build here, deploy abroad” methods that complicate information residency.
  • Standards wars. Quartz backs Ethereum-compatible Substrate; Finacle favours Hyperledger Fabric and tokenised-deposit modules; Tech Mahindra toggles between Solana and personal Corda. Clients fear about vendor lock-in.
  • Talent retention. Blockchain expertise are transportable; start-ups dangle token upside that IT providers can’t legally match under India’s wage guidelines.
  • Outlook

    For years, Indian IT giants watched blockchain from the sidelines while start-ups grabbed headlines. That period is ending. With tokenised bonds, CBDC pilots and DePIN rollouts transferring from proof-of-concept to paid manufacturing, TCS, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Wipro are positioning themselves as the international back-office for Web3—just as they once have been for Web2. The greatest winners may not be the start-ups minting cash, but the legacy integrators quietly promoting the picks and shovels of the next web.

     

    Image supply: Shutterstock

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