India, April 10 -- Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.'s quarterly earnings topped analysts' estimates after the information technology provider curbed costs to cope with slowing demand in an era of geopolitical tensions. Net income advanced 12% to Rs.13,720 crore ($1.5 billion) for the three months through March, Asia's biggest outsourcer said in a statement Thursday. Analysts estimated Rs.13,551 crore on average. Sales rose 9.6% to Rs.70,700 crore, helped by a decline by the Indian currency versus the dollar and the euro. TCS and other Indian IT services exporters such as Infosys Ltd. are limiting spending and curbing headcount as demand for major software projects sputters. Corporate customers are holding back expenditures as they deal with elevated interest rates, US President Donald Trump's tariffs and military conflicts such as the war in the Middle East. Shares of TCS have lost 19% this year as investors have assessed its strategy to deal with the geopolitical challenges as well a competitive threat from artificial intelligence services. Mumbai-based TCS and its local rivals began by offering cheap backoffice solutions to large international corporations, but they now provide a range of cloud, automation and AI services to multinationals such as Citigroup Inc. and PepsiCo Inc. That's made the Indian contenders direct rivals to global technology services providers from Accenture Plc to International Business Machines Corp. Like its international rivals, TCS is battling fresh competition from AI services that can increasingly perform tasks previously handled by people. Still, the IT firms are also betting on the rapid adoption of AI as an opportunity to go after higher-margin contracts. TCS and its competitors are also facing potential disruptions from Trump's sweeping changes to the H-1B visa regime. India's more than $280 billion IT industry has long used H-1Bs to send developers and engineers to client sites in the US. Though companies have used fewer such visas in recent years, the program remains an important way for them to manage key customer relationships and sensitive IT projects. Tata Consultancy's fiscal 4Q26 results and subsequent remarks will likely emphasize a tougher enterprise-IT spending climate than the prior quarter, as clients pull back further on discretionary projects. We expect sales growth in constant currency to fall 1-3% amid increased pressure from European clients. This revised view entails the worsening geopolitical climate in the past two months, including the war in Iran, which could lead to the cancellation of non-critical IT projects. Management is likely to tout its growing gen-AI business, yet we don't anticipate that momentum will offset weakness in legacy IT work. We're more optimistic about 4Q margin, given it may improve from a year earlier, aided by lower headcount and a reduction in third-party contractor use, said Anurag Rana, analyst....