For Cognizant, an unmistakable scent of homecoming is in the air.

The US-listed IT services company is working with a Mumbai-based corporate law firm on due diligence for a potential listing in India, The Ken has learnt. 

The idea is still in the exploratory phase, but the outline appeared sometime ago: CFO Jatin Dalal revealed on an earnings call in October that Cognizant was assessingBusiness StandardCognizant looking to list on Indian exchanges, says IT firm's senior exec a primary offering and secondary listing, and CEO Ravi Kumar recently said they were already talkingCNBC TV18Cognizant plots big bets with AI, outcome-based pricing and possible India IPO to Indian regulators. 

The key phrase is “secondary listing”. Cognizant will continue trading on Nasdaq even after it joins the Indian stock market. A rare move. Standard Chartered tried it in 2010. Tax complications and poor liquidity followed. By 2020, the global banking giant was buying back its Indian shares and endingEconomic TimesAn idea that failed: The IDR market may collapse with Standard Chartered’s global share buyback the experiment. No one has attempted it since.

Why does Cognizant want to walk where others fear to tread? And at such a volatile time for the IT sector in India? 

The Nifty IT index’s price-to-earnings (PE) ratio peaked at around 36 in late 2024, sharply dipped in 2025, and recovered slightly in recent months. Until this week’s wider market selloffIndia TodaySensex crashes over 1,000 points: Why the stock market fell today hit IT stocks the hardest yet again. Hiring freezesEconomic TimesTop IT firms add just 17 staff in nine months, hiring nearly freezes in the sector are so harsh that the top five firms added just 17 employees in the first nine months of 2025–26.

Cognizant, though, it seems, is playing a longer game.