Tata Consultancy Services announced the resignation of Rajesh Gopinathan as CEO and the appointment of K Krithivasan as the new CEO designate for TCS. K Krithivasan will go through a transition period with Rajesh Gopinathan and will be appointed as MD & CEO in the next Financial Year. Rajesh Gopinathan was re-appointed as CEO last year and therefore his resignation is a surprise and likely to be perceived negatively.

However, Krithivasan's expertise in the BFSI space as well as the internal promotion of a TCS veteran who has worked closely with the outgoing CEO for over 2 decades, should help TCS from a long term perspective. The announcement is a surprise given Mr. Gopinathan's track record and long association with TCS. Even so, analysts at Nuvama Research believe TCS has among the strongest leadership bench in the industry; hence, the transition shall be as smooth as when Mr. Gopinathan had taken over the reins from Mr. Chandrasekaran, who was promoted as Chairman of Tata Group.