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Nareshchandra Singh, an IT analyst with global research and analyst firm Gartner, takes only a few seconds to reach his office from home.
Singh goes to work in his nightdress, unkempt hair, unshaven face and without the trademark cologne of a high-flying executive. There is also Joseph Vinod Victor, a senior systems engineer with IBM India, who has not visited his office for over a year now.
Singh and Victor belong to an emerging breed of employees called telecommuters. Also known as e-commuting, e-work, telework or simply working from home, telecommunications links are slowly replacing daily commute to central workplace.
Across the world, this is an established phenomenon with over 100 million telecommuters, but in India it is still in a nascent stage. Going by rough estimates, there are only around 600-800 employees working from home in India. They are mainly from the four major metros, even though the location is insignificant.
At present, only a handful of companies (mostly multinationals) such as IBM, Accenture, Cisco Systems, Microsoft and Gartner allow executives to work from home. Media companies such as Merger Market and certain online portals are also permitting employees to work from home, while Indian companies are yet to jump on to the bandwagon.
According to Singh, e-commuting saves a lot of time, especially in a city like Mumbai, where a commuter spends on an average two-three hours for daily travel. Citing a study, he adds that a 30-minute drive to work equates to about six working weeks a year.