New Delhi, March 17 -- Since January 20th through the last week of February, shares of every major global IT services company have dropped between 20 and 30 per cent. Accenture was down roughly 30 per cent. IBM was down 24% with a single-day 13% decline around February 23rd-24th. Wipro and Coforge shed nearly 25 per cent. TCS, Infosys and HCL Tech are all trading at lower levels.

The only comparable sector decline in such a compressed window was COVID-era 2020-except that time, the Dow Jones fell 39 per cent alongside them. This time, the Dow was essentially flat.

The broader economy was not in crisis. It's the IT services business model that the market is repricing-and it is signalling a shift. The US-Israel-Iran war has broken out sin...