New Delhi, July 17 -- Early results from the first quarter point to a challenging and even unpredictable roadmap ahead for the $280 billion IT business, driven by cautious client spending, tariff-related headwinds, geopolitics and more. While companies are putting up a brave front, these could cast a long shadow on this fiscal year. Mint breaks it down.

The latest earnings season has laid bare the shifting contours in the global IT services industry. IT services bellwether Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), missed revenue estimates in Q1FY26, echoing a broader caution among clients amid tariff-related uncertainty and deferred discretionary spending.

Global technology services and consulting major, Accenture, posted a third quarter (March-...