Carnage in Indian IT? As Wipro fires 500, here is what other cos are doing

Trump's tightening H-1B visa norms, AI and automation are weighing heavy on India's IT workers

 

Wipro's move to sack around 500 of its employees as part of its appraisal process is indicative of the churn in India's information technology (IT) sector — which is moving towards increasing automation, use of artificial intelligence and is beset by tightening visa regulations.

he company is reported to have weeded out "non-performers" after a "rigorous performance appraisal". However, what happened at Wipro is not an outlier, other IT majors like Cognizant, Infosys and Capgemini are also facing their own share of challenges, and moving to either prune or re-skill their respective workforce. (Read more) 

The real bloodbath could be at Cognizant

US-listed IT major Cognizant Technology Solutions, which has a significant workforce in India, is said to be reducing its employee count by as much as five per cent, which translates to close to 10,000 workers, as reported in March this year

Globally, the company employs around 260,000 employees, of this around 75 per cent of the workforce is based in India. 

Here too, according to what the company spokesperson told Business Standard, the layoffs will take place as part of the Cognizant's performance review process. Typically, the bottom one per cent of the workforce is weeded out for non-performance, a common practice across IT firms as part of the annual appraisal exercise. The appraisal process generally ends by March.| (READ MORE)