Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q3 FY 2026 earnings conference call of NIIT Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Vijay K. Thadani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, NIIT Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to NIIT Limited Q3 FY 26 earnings call. This is a busy result season, and for you to spend your time with us, we're truly grateful to you, and we always learn from your questions, and they lead us to deep introspection and sharpening our strategy. Today's agenda is covering the Quarter 3 and 9-month results for financial year 25, 26. We'll talk to you about the performance highlights. We would also like to explain to you, this time it requires a little more explanation, as to what changed this quarter and how we are handling that. And lastly, we'll also talk to you about outlook and priorities for Quarter 4 and beyond. So to address all your questions, I have the full management team here. Our chairman, Mr.
Pawar, another executive director and co-founder, Mr. P. Rajendran; the CEO of the company, Pankaj Jathar; Sanjeev Bansal, who's the CFO of the company, Ms. Shilpa Dureja, who's the CHRO, as well as, Mr. Sapnesh Lalla, who's the non-executive director and also CEO of NIIT Learning Systems Limited. In addition to that, we have the investor relations and senior colleagues from finance and business functions. Just to set the context, our performance in Quarter three did not meet the expectation that we had from ourselves. We had entered the quarter with a double digit plus growth, based on the schedules as well as the order book that we had at the beginning of the quarter and what we were expecting.
But we fell short, driven primarily by a sharper-than-anticipated slowdown that happened because in fresh hire training. We have all been reading about the fact that fresh hire training in technology has been very muted, but this quarter, we also saw that happening at a larger scale in BFSI, which was quite sudden, since it happened in the second half of the quarter, where we had to push the dates out, and therefore, to that extent, we could not record the revenue that we wanted, and our expenses remained at the levels that they were, having planned for this and the future goal.
So, taking into account that and how we have handled the situation, how AI-enabled revenue is actually changing the way we are looking at things, how the pivot that we did in technology training a few quarters ago, which helped us grow technology part of the training by 20% this quarter and more. I have Mr. Pankaj Jathar, CEO of the company, to brief us, and then we'll open it for Q&A. Over to you, Pankaj.
Thank you, Vijay, and good afternoon, everyone. I will cover Q3 performance first, starting with revenue and order intake, and then look at segment trends and profitability. Finally, what we're doing in Q4 to improve execution and momentum. Q3 FY 2026 performance, revenue and order intake. Revenue in Q3 was INR 1,014 million. This is the second consecutive quarter with revenue above INR 1,000 million. That's INR 100 crores. Revenue was up 3% year-on-year. Excluding Iamneo , revenue was down 10% year-on-year, largely due to a compression in NU hire training, most notably across large private sector banks and top IT services firms that are large customers for us. Order intake was at INR 822 million, marginally better than last year.
What changed was the expectation is that we saw onboarding plans weaken materially in the second half of the quarter, which pushed training start dates out and reduced batch volumes for BFSI and others, contributed most to this shortfall. In terms of go-to-market mix and what worked for us, the enterprise go-to-market held up despite BFSI and others slowing down. Our enterprise go-to-market execution was strong, despite a significant slowdown in the large private sector bank hiring training. Overall, enterprise revenues grew 8% year-on-year, led by enterprise tech, which grew 18% year-on-year. Importantly, excluding Iamneo, enterprise tech grew 9% year-on-year, reflecting an underlying improvement to the business. Why do we think this worked? We are trying to achieve a balance across early careers and working professionals.
Our strategy to increase penetration across lateral job roles through upskilling, reskilling, has created a healthier balance between early careers and working professionals in enterprise tech. This mix made enterprise tech structurally more resilient, even as fresher hiring and onboarding remained volatile. On the consumer side, it's overall down, though tech is a bright spot even within that. Consumer business declined 3% year-on-year, driven by BFSI and others, where revenue was down 36%. At the same time, consumer tech grew 22% year-on-year, reflecting continued demand for tech skilling from job seekers and working professionals. Our direct-to-college strategy through New is paying dividends as tech clients become more discerning on talent, quality, and job readiness. Consumer tech grew at 22%. This is a good indication, indicator of the traction we are getting.
In terms of product mix, this translated to the following: The mix shifted meaningfully this quarter, with tech: BFSI becoming 76:24, which was 65:35 last year. The proportion has changed decisively in favor of technology. Technology programs revenue was at INR 766 million, which is up 20% year-on-year. The key drivers behind this, an increased investment in GTM and focus on advanced programs for the working professional audience, has helped stabilize the business against hiring growth. Iamneo contributed INR 128 million revenue in the quarter and is scaling well. The pressure was concentrated in BFSI and others segment. BFSI and others revenue, at INR 248 million, was down 27% year-on-year, led by reduced volumes for our TPaaS business. I now invite Sanjeev Bansal, our CFO, to talk through some of the financial metrics.
Thanks, Pankaj. Good afternoon, everyone. I will talk through some of the financial indicators, including a bit of other income and financial and cash flow. Despite the revenue mix, we delivered positive margins in Q3. This was enabled by tight cost control, even as we continue to invest in GTM capacity and new AI offerings. Depreciation was at INR 76 million. Net other income was INR 132 million, which is comprising of other income of INR 191 million, which is offset by exceptional expense of INR 54 million.
Other income of INR 191 million includes treasury income of INR 101 million and other income of INR 90 million. And INR 90 million includes interest on tax refunds of INR 63 million, rental income of INR 17 million, and there is some transition-related expense recovery of INR 5 million and other miscellaneous income of INR 5 million.
Exceptional expenses of INR 54 million includes one-time impact of new wage code implementation, sub INR 46 million, and there is an expense of INR 8 million, which is related to scheme of arrangement for merger of RPS and IFBI into NIIT. Other expenses, INR 5 million, includes net finance cost of INR 3 million and Forex loss of INR 2 million. All this has resulted into PAT of INR 39 million and EPS of INR 0.29 per share. As stated earlier, the business is in investment phase currently.
We are investing into making the business resilient across hiring cycles through expansion of GTM, new products and offerings, partnerships, and inorganic investments. Now, coming to balance sheet and cash flows. DSO is at 59 days versus 68, 68 days last year, though it was 55 days last quarter. CapEx, INR 87 million in Q3. This is consistent with our invest-investment cycle.
Cash and cash equivalents stands at INR 712.2 million against INR 684.6 million last quarter. This is driven by working capital efficiency and treasury income. Headcount stands at 939, which is flat QoQ, which is up from 720 last year. Aligned with growth initiatives, investments, this includes Iamneo headcount. Thanks. Back to Pankaj.
Thanks, Sanjeev. Let me now talk a little bit more about the last nine months of FY 2026, the performance and operating context. For the first time, first nine months, order intake was INR 3,340 million, up 16% year-on-year, and revenue was INR 2,904 million, up 7% year-on-year. Over these last nine months, we've navigated conflict-related impact on volume, a prolonged and continued period of subdued IT hiring, where we successfully de-risked growth via GTM expansion, new customer additions, and scaling AI offerings and inorganic investments. Q3 for us has historically been a seasonally weaker quarter for some parts of our business. In the last few years, it had shown better trends with a changing mix.
However, the primary driver of the quarter-on-quarter decline this quarter was the push out of planned Q3 trainings due to the BFSI onboarding slowdown, especially in the second half of the business end of the quarter. Some of the actions we've taken this year, we've been investing in building blocks that widen the funnel and improve resilience across cycles. On the go-to market, we've added 5 sales leaders across NIIT, including, Iamneo, and 8 enterprise sales managers. Expanded coverage across GCCs, banks, NBFCs, Indian enterprises, and with Iamneo coming into the fold, universities and colleges.
Increased brand visibility and targeted influencer-led campaigns. We are seeing early results in the form of logo additions and customer base expansion across technology companies, financial service firms, Indian enterprises, and universities. We added 37 new enterprise logos in the 9 months of FY 2026, along with 20 new universities and colleges.
The 20 new institutions are in addition to the more than 70 that were already Iamneo customers when they became part of NIIT. One of the interesting things I would like to mention is that our social media strategy is working, and we've just hit 1 million subscribers to the NIIT YouTube channel. In terms of platform and product, we've revamped the learning platform, launched deep skilling in new age technologies, integrated AI to enhance learner outcomes and internal products. We put a focus towards advanced programs for working professionals, which have structurally better stability than pressure-led hiring cycles. Solutions and differentiation.
We've added generative and agentic AI, AI digital coaching for banks and enterprises, and sectoral solutions for auto, telecom, consumer electronics. These solutions are improving differentiation and supporting share expansion within key accounts, while acknowledging that realized revenues depend on client onboarding and rollout timelines. Iamneo integration.
Iamneo brings an AI-first, deep-skilling SaaS platform, which includes coding labs, assessments, placement automation, and talent acquisition. This opens up the higher ed channel for us. In terms of simplification and agility, we've announced a merger of two wholly-owned subsidiaries, RPS Consulting and IFBI, with NIIT Limited, to simplify our structure and reduce complexity, thereby improving our agility. This process is on track. What are we doing now? We'll accelerate what's working, tech, AI, and onboarding new logos.
Continue scaling AI programs and work pro offerings. Expand penetration into GCCs and India enterprise, where demand signals are comparatively healthier. Position reskilling around role evolution, particularly AI-enabled role redesign through outcome-led programs. On the BFSI and others front, we are putting in place a recovery plan. We are diversifying beyond the top four private banks into a broader set of financial services, including NBFCs and insurance players.
We are also broad-basing across more banks to reduce concentration risk. Structurally, we are increasing the share of lateral upskilling programs to reduce dependence on fresher onboarding cycles. Given the volatility that we saw last quarter, we have to accelerate this transformation. On the Iamneo integration and synergies, we are maintaining a strong execution in this higher ed channel, pursuing cross-sell opportunities into enterprise relationships in a measured way, prioritizing conversion quality and delivery readiness.
The road ahead. We are seeing improved consumption of our differentiated, outcome-oriented offerings across the technology landscape, including working professionals and job seekers. Our investment thesis is showing in new logos, digital engagement, and pipeline. BFSI remains cautious in the near term, and we are actively managing concentration and phasing risk. In terms of guidance, we expect to be breakeven to low single-digit margin in Q4, given continued investments.
Medium to long term, we still see substantial opportunity. We remain fully committed to our strategic objectives, although timelines are difficult to predict, given the fluid environment. With that, Vijay, I hand it back to you.
Okay, before I open it up for Q&A, I just thought I'll give an update on 2 important items. One, which Pankaj has already spoken about, and that is how Iamneo is getting integrated into the NIIT system. The second thing which I thought I would like to talk about is the merger of RPS Consulting and IFBI, which the two subsidiaries of NIIT, which are being merged into NIIT. This process is on, and we expect to complete it in the next 8-10 days. And we'll, of course, keep you updated on that.
In closing, I would only say, while Q3 was a challenging quarter and the numbers, by, in terms of the outcomes, don't appear to look very attractive, our strategy set is very much in place and is actually strengthening. Our AI offerings are being very well appreciated. I think Pankaj referred to the 17.65% that they contribute to our revenue, the AI-enabled. And, we are widening the demand base. We are accelerating the parts of the portfolio that are working, especially tech and AI, and we are maintaining cost discipline while continuing targeted investments. So, we would like to open this up for Q&A, and, based on your questions, we will then include other, colleagues of ours in this discussion. Pankaj, you want to say one more thing?
Yeah, on the guidance, we are expecting double-digit growth year-on-year in Q4. That's the guidance we wanted to give for Q4. Yeah, Vijay, that's it. We can open it up for questions.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Ganesh Reddy, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. I just want to have some information regarding our inorganic activities. Like this, last quarter, we had one small investment in Iamneo. Apart from that, as we have a good cash in our balance sheet and our growth targets are quite high. So I wish to ask you that whether there is any challenge in acquiring new capability or new company because of fast pace of change of technology or hiring, hiring freeze in big companies. So can you throw some light on this, sir, our inorganic initiative? And also, I wish to know whether we wish to target any new sectors as talent building and also for AI capabilities, which may be required by other sectors apart from BFSI and technology. Can you please throw some light on this, sir? Thank you.
Right. So, let me try to respond on the inorganic part, and then, Pankaj will also talk to you about how we are, extending the capability that we have in AI, to help other sectors, in fact, some other plans that, we are working on. So inorganic activity, as you know, our approach has been, to look at new segments, new capabilities, new geographies. And in these three areas, we've been, looking at niche companies, where we'll make investments. We have an active funnel. We are in discussions, in some cases, fairly advanced discussions, but obviously we can talk about these only, when a deal materializes, otherwise it leads to speculation.
But yes, we are. We have a committed and a fully committed team which is working on this, and we will be sharing areas that we are looking at. The areas that we cover, as I said, at a broad level is segment, geography, and capability, but it can be a new sector that we are looking at, for example, ER&D or manufacturing. And we are open to opportunities where we can find companies and teams which can add value to our strategy. At this point of time, that's what I would like to share. We are very hopeful that we'll be able to share some deals with you in the coming quarters. We are making continuous investments in AI on three dimensions.
One is the dimension of building capability to build solutions as well as agents. For example, we heard about the new program, Building Agentic AI Systems, that we launched, but we are also working on building agents and doing R&D in that area. The second is building an AI-powered platform, which many parts of the organization are working on. And third is to create AI content. AI learning content, which to start with, was generic and was organized across various dimensions in the organization, from literacy to expertise, fluency and expertise, which now we are making sure that we make them more specific to particular domains.
So that work is going on, but I'm sure Pankaj will have many more things to say and can perhaps give you a couple of examples also.
On the... You've covered the inorganic bits, so I won't go there. We've already talked about things that we are looking at. I can talk a little bit about the Building Agentic AI Systems program that we launched recently as part of our digital offerings in the direct to consumer go-to markets. So, the Building Agentic AI Systems program is designed to empower engineers with skills to architect autonomous, goal-oriented AI agents that drive enterprise transformations. This is a 25-week hands-on curriculum delivered through mentor-led online sessions and practical projects. It equips participants with expertise in cutting-edge tools like LangChain, LlamaIndex, and Azure AI Foundry. Enables learners to build scalable, secure systems for real-world applications, such as compliance, automation, and financial analysis.
In designing this program, we aligned with industry forecasts from people like McKinsey and Deloitte, who've been projecting trillions in value from agentic AI. This initiative addresses the growing talent gap in India, India's AI ecosystem. This positions us, NIIT, as a leader in upskilling for the next wave of intelligent automation. We anticipate a positive response from the learner community to this innovative program. Besides this, on the enterprise side, there's a number of engagements we are running with customers. These involve GenAI and agentic AI programs, spanning across leadership enablement to hands-on technical implementation.
Our offerings include cloud native GenAI programs across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Databricks. We also have GitHub Copilot development acceleration programs going on and specialized agentic AI training, covering LangChain applications, workflow automation, and with ChatGPT, Zapier, and AI agent development.
For leaders and decision-makers, we deliver GenAI leadership programs tailored for manufacturing markets and cross-industry transformation. Alongside, we also have an AI mindset and transformative force of GenAI programs. These are series that are going on with customers across different industries. In terms of our foundational tier, we are also doing programs like AI for All, AI Fundamentals, and AI Readiness programs. While our practitioner track features multiple cohorts of AI practitioner and AI Builder League programs. We complement these formal programs with webinars, hackathons, and campus initiatives, delivered both synchronous and asynchronous, across enterprise for mid-career professionals as well as early career segments. Vijay, back to you.
Right. Ganesh, I hope we have answered your question.
Yeah.
If there is a follow-up, we'll be happy.
Yes, sir. My, that's good. So, sir, my second question is regarding our B2B and B2C business. In spite of, challenges in macros and, hiring freeze, our B2B business is doing quite well due to our initiative with, with GSIs and GCCs. But our B2C business is, quite soft during all these years. So I just want to have some flavor how the road ahead for B2C business. That's all from me, sir. All the best. Thank you very much.
Okay. Do you want Pankaj to talk first?
Thanks, Ganesh, for the question. On the B2B side, like you mentioned, we have taken some initiatives on engaging with a slightly different learner community within the same customer base, right? So while we were earlier largely dependent on fresh hire training, we've changed our go-to-market to also include working professionals and delivering training programs, which are more deep skilling and transformational in nature, and this has helped us in that space. On the B2C segment, right? This quarter, one of the things that did impact us was the slowdown in fresh hiring. And while on the direct to consumer, the technology side of programs, we saw a good uptick happening there. So that did well for us in spite of the slowing down on the BFSI segment. So this is an area that we are focused on.
We are, as we've called out previously, as Sanjeev mentioned today, we are in the investment cycle, and we are building programs. We are investing in technology platforms, investing in content, and in creating new programs, like the Agentic AI system that I just spoke about. That's a new offering that we've brought to the market, in this quarter, and it's part of a curriculum that we are designing around AI offerings, that we will bring more of these to the market.
So we are hoping that this will help us grow faster in this segment. Like you, we have also noticed that the growth in this segment, it has not been as much as we would have liked to, and we are doubling down on bringing new products to the market to help this growth. Vijay, if you would add in.
All right. I think, there would be other questions, operator.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Prakash, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Thank you for giving me this chance. So, it's, you know, very heartening to see that, there's been a 20% year-on-year growth in the technology program. So I just wanted to, like, you know, ask that we've been talking about AI on these concalls for a while, and now is the time when this industry is sort of, you know, really taking off in a way, and we are - and, and NIIT is the right company, you know, to capitalize on it. So considering, you know, the courses, the Agentic AI program is a very good one. I've seen it, and, I just wanted to ask, I mean, is it like maybe the cost structure is a bit too high? And, I mean, what are your plans, like, views on the cost structure, and how can you make it more broad-based?
I just wanted to ask if it is not being too prohibitive, you know, to go, like, very mainstream? Could it be possible that there are like, you know, shorter duration, extremely specialized courses also, especially for working professionals? Thank you.
Thanks, Amit. I can take that question. So firstly, really glad that you've seen the Agentic AI program, and, you think it's a good one. Thankful to you for appreciating that. And yes, it is part of a larger initiative we have, and we will bring in, programs which will be at different price points for different audience. This particular one is a more comprehensive program that we have. It's a 25-week duration program, and, the pricing was also done, based on what we've seen in the market of similar programs with this level of intensity and, engagement, right? So we believe that, it is priced well enough for the market to accept, and we are seeing some early traction, which gives us that feedback. But, noted. Your comment is noted.
We are working on creating niche programs for different audiences within the working professional segment, and these will be both shorter duration, differentially priced. And we, we are creating a whole many of these programs. I hope that answers your question.
He was talking about cost structure.
Okay, sir.
It's a different price points.
Yeah. All right.
Of course,
Referring to, cost to the learner. I thought he was also referring to our cost structure. Okay.
Yeah, sure. Thanks for your answer. Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Participants who wish to ask a question, may please press Star and One. The next question is from the line of Rahul Jain from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. You know, what I heard about the guidance was the one data which is like for Q4, we're expecting 10% YoY. Are we articulating something for the full year as well or, the implied number would give more over, that number, for the full year, which could be like, low, high single digit growth for the full year. Is that the right implication?
Yes, Rahul, your understanding is correct.
The way we started with the acquisition of Iamneo, I think the implied guidance was upwards of 15% for the core business. But where we are ending is probably a negative number. So I understand some of the challenges that you have identified as a reason for this miss. But if we could articulate what would have led to our enthusiasm at that point of time, because if I look at the hiring situation, general macro at the beginning of the year was weak, even at that time. So what was driving the optimism then, where we have, you know, significantly moved away from that point till today to have this kind of a discussion?
Thanks, Rahul, for the question. So beginning of the year, you're right, hiring sentiment has been muted. But we did see a few, you know, green shoots a couple of times, where we saw numbers from some of our customers on hiring, and at least on the hiring, training engagements that we were doing. And that led to a little bit of enthusiasm for us, where we thought things were correcting and changing. And there have consistently been external factors which have also come in, which have made changes to the real business. This quarter, we were struck by some of the push outs and changes in dates and requirements from the banking segment, where new hire training got pushed out.
And, that's the reason why, this quarter, suddenly we had to cope with that kind of external factor. Yeah, I don't think I have much to add.
Let me add to that, Rahul. This year has been very interesting in terms of volatility. Just going back, in the first quarter, we had a zero fresh hire situation in technology. And therefore, in technology sector, we were badly affected, including training programs were pushed. You know, there was war and all that kind of situation also. But we had orders, and we recovered from that in quarter two, and quarter two, we were again on track. Now, all this while, BFSI for last two or three years, has been very strong on hiring, and that trend was continuing. But, and even last quarter, quarter two, they were very good. And even when we started this quarter, I think the confidence was coming from the dates that are available.
For us to build our projections, we have orders, we have dates, and we have people who have to participate. We had capacity, we had dates, and we had orders. I think in the second half of the quarter, dates started getting pushed, and some of them have crossed over to quarter four. There were also lesser working days for new dates to come in, so that would have had a small effect as well. So I think the big gap which came, that between 28th of October, when we spoke to you folks and talked about our quarter three, and the fact that we are wherever we are, I think is largely due to the fact that those dates got disturbed.
BFSI, we have always had a strong run for last as many years that we can remember. In fact, we used to say that percentage is increasing very, very, very rapidly. So I think that has been the disappointment of this quarter. But having said that, I think technology tried to do its best to recover from that. But 20% growth in technology, 17.65% AI, I think those are some positive highlights.
What- since in technology, we've been through this before, we had a pivot which we had applied two or three, six or seven quarters ago, of moving up the chain on, training, working pros and, and building a strong practice there, which came to our rescue, because technology hiring has not come back, but we have yet grown 20% year-on-year. On the other hand, in BFSI, because we are, we are strongly dependent on pressure, I think that hit us more. That's how, I mean, we explain it to ourselves, as well as, that's what I'm sharing with you as well. So the learning is we have to broad base that, to across, to more working professionals, and, their banks are very s- very sharp on how they manage their internal strengths.
But we'll have to find those ways.
Yeah, thanks for the color, Vijay. My point is that if you see acquisition of Iamneo, I think the business have not moved much in couple of years now. And I understand that we have a rightful product, but we are also seeing that the overall the hiring requirement for the tech business ideally should go down over coming years. In that light, do we see a need for a meaningful alteration into the offering that we have or widening in some sense to mitigate this kind of risk? Because at least where I am seeing from IT services hiring point of view, I'm not seeing even next 12 months going to be changing meaningfully. So would that also imply that FY 2027 may not be as exciting?
No, but in technology, despite no hiring, we grew 20%. And that I think, and last year, same time, there was technology training happening, not of this in fresh hires. So the fact that we have been able to pivot, and that pivot has worked out, albeit I must say, on the backing of a strong AI wave, because reskilling of the 6 billion workforce is a huge, humongous opportunity, and I think we have to take full advantage of that.
So what gives us confidence for future is, number one, that, the 6 billion workforce, which is already employed, whether they are in, ITES or pure IT services, I think those, reskilling them is a great opportunity, and much of that you are seeing in the numbers that we have shared with you. I have a feeling, and we strongly believe, that there are similar opportunities sitting in other sectors also, and I think we should see the benefits of those as we go forward. But there are other sectors we are studying. He referred to, ER&D and, and he referred to, manufacturing, EV. Some of those areas we are, we are actively seeking, training opportunities, and I think we'll be able to share them with you.
But large volume things which were happening in BFSI, we are trying to find equivalents of that, and we think the technology wave at this point of time offers a significant opportunity for us to take advantage of. The second is, while, yes, Iamneo is new, but Iamneo is also out of this balance sheet only. So we opened a new segment which, we bought rather than built, and, I think its contribution to our, our, our future will be significant. I think he already mentioned they are ahead of their numbers. So I think they will contribute to the, to the growth as well as we go forward.
Iamneo has crossed their last year numbers in nine months.
So, repeat that. Kapil is saying NEO has crossed their last year's numbers in three quarters.
Yeah, yeah, which, which I am seeing is implying close to 40% growth. So they have done really well, there's no question, and so has been your track record on M&A historically for almost a decade here since when—since I've been following. So, so more... So I understand what you just said, Vijay, about the opportunity that we have on the reskilling side. It's too early to talk about next year outlook, but you, you still believe, you know, 15%-20% growth is something one could clearly chase from a next couple of year point of view?
You know, in Delhi, we have just come out of a period in which if you can see 100 meters, you think you have a very wide visibility. I think we are seeing that in the environment, in the economic environment. I think, for us to... We can see next quarter, but we could see next quarter, even last quarter. I can argue that out. But we feel much more certain about what is likely to happen in the next quarter. Our strategy set, our plans, our, our-- we are finding ways and means to de-risk them, but that's the growth path you are familiar with. You've been with us for such a long time, that we are seeking, and we are trying to find ways to de-risk that. So-
Sure.
Yes, we would like to do that, but for me to stand up and say that that can happen, I think many other people have to participate in it, some of which, some of whom are not in this room and who occupy higher chairs elsewhere.
Right. And last bit... Sorry, sorry, please, continue.
No, no, go ahead, sir. Go ahead.
Yeah. Sorry, Pankaj. Lastly, on the, you know, the other income side, which has been supporting the cause for us. So are we seeing, you know, with, you know, all this rates coming off, do we expect the next year other income to be a bit lower than what we recorded for this year, given some bit of investment that would have reduced the cash balances and the overall yield, in the upcoming maturing deposit would be much lower?
I think you will be able to guide us better than I can, because we have two elements: we have debt mutual funds, and we have fixed deposits. Fixed deposits have fixed tenures, so you will know what it is. Debt mutual funds, unfortunately, we don't control, and those are mark-to-market corrections that we have to make, which appear in our financials. This time, particularly, we have two elements which are contributing more than that. One is the wage code. Wage code has a provision that we have to make statutorily, and that is. I think you shared already, Sanjeev, INR 44 million.
The second is, we have this scheme going on right now, which hopefully will reduce our overall cost structure, improve the agility, and help us work better, and that is to merge IFBI and RPS into NIIT. That scheme is towards the end. I think another 2, 8-10 weeks, we should see that scheme getting over. So there were costs associated with that, which have a provision. Our tax has a higher provision this time, because on wage code, on a prudent basis, we haven't taken any benefits, so our tax rate is coming to nearly 29%, which is not normal.
But then we don't have base, so we always do take more prudent decisions in this matter, and that's how we have done, and I think he explained also. So these situations should correct themselves, and accordingly, I think you will see impact of that. Up to EBIT, we control the matter. After EBIT, our cash balance, by the way, increased last quarter. We got some more cash, and we therefore are INR 712-odd crores.
INR 27 crore.
Seven-
INR 27 crore has been added since last.
Yeah. So INR 712 crore cash balance at the end of the quarter. That should put us in a strong position going forward.
Sure. Sure. That's all from my side, and best wishes for the time ahead.
Thank you. Thank you, Rahul.
Thank you, Rahul.
Thank you for your questions and support both.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may press star and one. Participants, you may press star and one to ask a question now.
Operator, if there are no more questions, I'll ask, Pankaj to just give us a... Since we have a couple of minutes, give us a flavor of what we have been doing in AI-based solutions.
Surely, sir. As we don't have anyone in the question queue, I now hand over to the management for closing remarks.
Go ahead, Pankaj.
So on AI, Vijay, we talked about it a little bit on the call. So there are on the B2B and the B2C side, both. On the B2C side, we launched the Agentic AI Building Agentic AI Systems program. It's a 25-week hands-on program that we've launched. It is an online mentor-led program, which will give participants expertise in some cutting-edge tools like LangChain, LlamaIndex, Azure AI Foundry, et cetera. We've built this program aligning with research from large consultancy houses, which are projecting huge value in Agentic AI areas. It is also meant to address the talent gap in the country's AI ecosystem. We are seeing a positive response to this program, and we are doubling down on that.
It is part of a larger curriculum of AI-focused programs that we are launching. On the enterprise side, we are running various GenAI and Agentic AI kinds of programs. I won't go into too much detail, but we have programs. We are currently running programs from the top floor of the company down to the execution level. So we have programs running, such as GenAI for leaders, creating an AI mindset, transformative force of GenAI. These are some of the enablement series that we're running. We also have foundational tier programs going on, like AI for All, AI Fundamentals, and AI Readiness. We also have AI Practitioner and AI Builder kind of programs. We complement these consistently with webinars.
We also run hackathons and run campus initiatives, where we help uncover interesting AI solutions and AI talent.
Thank you, Pankaj. If there are still no more questions, then, operator, we can close the call.
Yes, sir, we don't have any question queue. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of NIIT Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.