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Delivery riders · IT employees · India · FY19–FY27*

Which is bigger in India now: IT staff or delivery riders?

Each pair of bars is one financial year: employees at TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech and Tech Mahindra on the left, and delivery riders active in an average month on Swiggy, Zomato, Blinkit and Zepto on the right. Figures are from company filings, in lakh. Tap a section for its number and source.

Hover or tap a section for its count
IT employees and delivery riders · India · FY19–FY27*Delivery apps now have more riders in a month than TCS has employees
IT headcount has stalled since 2023 while every delivery app keeps adding riders

IT employees, left barTCSInfosysWiproHCLTechTech Mahindra

Delivery riders, right barSwiggyZomatoBlinkitZepto

People, in lakhs051015202510.80.8FY1911.51.9FY2012.41.2FY2115.15.3FY2215.96.8FY2315.39.1FY2415.412.5FY2515.317.6FY2615.521.5FY27*

How to read it. The left bar counts employees of TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech and Tech Mahindra worldwide on 31 March each year. The right bar counts riders who delivered at least once in an average month that year. FY27* is still running (April 2026 to March 2027), so it uses the newest figures: staff on 30 September 2026 and riders in July–September 2026.

Note: One rider can work for Swiggy, Zomato and Blinkit in the same month and gets counted by all three. That is rarely possible with IT jobs, where working for two firms can count as moonlighting. So the rider numbers can overlap: one person may sit in more than one app’s bar.

Source: company annual reports, results and prospectuses

All sources and methodology @ visualized.in/headcount

All the figures

Lakh people. Each figure links to its source. A dash means the company did not report that year.

Company or appFY19FY20FY21FY22FY23FY24FY25FY26FY27*
TCS4.244.484.895.926.156.026.085.855.98
Infosys2.282.422.603.143.433.173.243.293.33
Wipro1.711.831.982.432.572.342.332.422.36
HCLTech1.381.501.692.092.262.272.232.272.30
Tech Mahindra1.211.251.211.511.521.451.491.481.52
Swiggy–––2.433.233.935.16*6.497.56
Zomato0.811.891.202.853.264.004.735.527.36
Blinkit––––0.340.671.413.406.53
Zepto–––––0.491.192.22–
Sources and method
  • IT employees: everyone employed by TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech and Tech Mahindra worldwide on 31 March, as each company reports it in its results or annual report. Wipro’s figures are as first reported, before later restatements.
  • Delivery riders: delivery partners active in an average month of the year, from annual reports, quarterly letters and IPO prospectuses. Swiggy covers food and Instamart, Zomato covers food delivery, Blinkit and Zepto cover quick commerce. Zepto counts riders given at least one order in a month; the others count riders who completed one.
  • Years: India’s financial year runs April to March, so FY26 is April 2025 to March 2026. FY27 is not over, so FY27* uses IT staff on 30 September 2026 and riders for July–September 2026.
  • Gaps: the filings report Swiggy from FY22, Blinkit from FY23 and Zepto for FY24 to FY26. A missing year is left out of the bar, not counted as zero, so the early rider bars, and FY27* with no Zepto figure since FY26, add up only the apps that report.
  • Estimates: Swiggy’s FY25 (starred in the table) is the average of its four quarterly figures. Blinkit’s FY23 comes from unaudited internal records in Eternal’s annual report.
  • What it does not show: riders work part-time and across apps, so the rider total is not a count of people, and a rider is not a salaried job. The chart compares size; it does not show people moving from IT into delivery work. Zepto is shown from FY24, the first year its prospectus reports.