Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath's has a better advice to firms in big cities

Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath has advised companies to allow - if they can afford to - their employees to work remotely or open small satellite offices. He said most large Indian cities weren't built in a way to handle as many people living in them today, and that disasters are bound to continue. He said the only real solution is to have many smaller cities with their own economies. "Over 50% of our team now live there; a silver lining from Covid," he said.

Kamath then said that if companies can afford to have teams work remotely or through small satellite offices, they should nudge teams to work out of small towns and cities. "This way, the company can play a part in problem-solving. The quality of life can go up significantly, with more bang for the buck, more savings, lesser time in traffic, better work-life balance, and more," he said.

Kamath said that this isn't just a hypothesis anymore. "We now have enough data from our team, many of whom have moved to Mysuru and Belgavi," he said.

The Zerodha founder further said that the best part is if these people consume locally, it can also help in terms of climate change issues and the creation of livelihood - "probably the two biggest problems we are facing as a nation". "Otherwise, money keeps circulating in the large cities, enticing everyone to migrate," he said.

After Covid struck in 2020, the nation went into complete lockdown forcing companies to shut operations or allow their employees to work from home (WFH). This soon became the norm as most companies and employees adapted to this change with little to no compromise on productivity. However, as the Covid cases have declined, most companies have now started calling their staff to join them back in cities.