The story
Founded by F. C. Kohli and Tata Sons in 1968.1
1968–2000
Tata Consultancy Services Limited, originally known as Tata Computer Systems, was established in 1968 by Tata Sons Limited. The company's initial contracts involved providing punched card services to its sister company TISCO (now Tata Steel), developing an Inter-Branch Reconciliation System for the Central Bank of India, and offering bureau services to the Unit Trust of India.
In 1975, TCS implemented an electronic depository and trading system named SECOM for Swiss company SIS SegaInterSettle. It also developed System X for the Canadian Depository System and automated the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. TCS also partnered with the Swiss firm TKS Teknosoft, which it later acquired.
In 1980, TCS established India's first dedicated software research and development centre, the Tata Research Development and Design Centre (TRDDC), located in Pune. The following year, it created India's first client-dedicated offshore development centre, established for Tandem.
Anticipating the Y2K bug and the introduction of the unified European currency (Euro), Tata Consultancy Services developed a factory model for Y2K conversion. The company also created software tools to automate the conversion process and facilitate implementation by third-party developers and clients. In late 1999, TCS introduced Decision Support System (DSS) solutions to the domestic market. In 1999, the company also registered its first tagline, "Beyond the Obvious."
2001–2019
In 2001, TCS entered the bioinformatics segment, and three years later, launched India's first bioinformatics product.
In 2003, TCS became the first Indian IT company to record $1 billion in revenue. On 25 August 2004, TCS became a publicly listed company after its initial public offering.
In July 2005, Tata Infotech, which was until then a different IT subsidiary of Tata Sons, merged with TCS in a stock swap deal. Later that year, TCS changed its tagline from "Beyond the Obvious" to "Experience Certainty".
In 2006, TCS developed an ERP system for the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation. By 2008, its e-business operations were generating over US$500 million in annual revenue.
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In 2011, TCS entered the small and medium enterprises market with cloud-based solutions. On the final trading day of 2011, it surpassed RIL to achieve the highest market capitalisation of any India-based company. In the 2011–12 fiscal year, TCS achieved annual revenues exceeding US$10 billion for the first time.
In May 2013, TCS was awarded a six-year contract valued at over ₹11 billion (US$110 million) to provide services to the Indian Department of Posts. In 2013, the company moved from 13th to 10th place on the list of global IT services companies by revenue. In July 2014, it became the first Indian company to exceed ₹5 trillion (US$81.93 billion) in market capitalisation.
In January 2015, TCS became India's most profitable company, ending Reliance Industries Limited's 23-year streak.
In January 2017, TCS announced a partnership with Aurus, a payments technology company, to deliver payment solutions for retailers through TCS OmniStore, a unified store commerce platform. The same year, TCS China entered into a joint venture with the Chinese government.
In March 2018, Tata Sons sold TCS shares worth $1.25 billion in a bulk transaction.
In 2019, TCS received four Stevies at the American Business Awards.
2020–present
On 8 October 2020, TCS surpassed Accenture in market capitalisation, becoming the world's most valuable IT company with a market capitalisation of over $144 billion. On 25 January 2021, TCS briefly reclaimed the title of the world's most valuable IT company from Accenture with a market cap of $170 billion. On the same day, TCS also became India's most valuable company, surpassing Reliance Industries.
In May 2021, TCS, in collaboration with its consortium partner Neurotechnology, was selected by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to provide biometric technology for the Aadhaar digital ID programme. The Aadhaar programme, which has a database of over 1.3 billion citizens, has been described by World Bank Chief Economist Paul Romer as the "most sophisticated ID program in the world."
In 2021, TCS underwent a millennial rebranding, and the company updated its tagline from "Experience Certainty" to "Building on Belief". In 2021, Tata Consultancy Services was also one of the largest job providers in India, hiring 43,000 new employees in the first half of the fiscal year 2021–22.
In July 2025, TCS announced that it would downsize its global workforce by 2%, or about 12,000 employees, primarily from middle- and senior-level positions, citing a "skill mismatch". In October 2025, TCS set up a subsidiary called HyperVault for a 1 GW data centre in India, announcing a capex of up to $7 billion over 5 to 7 years. In November 2025, private equity firm TPG agreed to invest $1 billion in HyperVault for a 49% stake, with TCS continuing to hold the remaining 51%.
In June 2026, TCS partnered with Anthropic to train 50,000 TCS employees on Anthropic's Claude AI models and jointly develop enterprise AI solutions for regulated industries.
From Wikipedia’s article on Tata Consultancy Services, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4