From cricket to leadership: Satya Nadella shares his life experience

The Microsoft CEO, on a whirlwind trip of India for the promotion of his book Hit Refresh, is also expected to meet officials of PMO, IT ministry and NITI Aayog

 

On a whirlwind trip to India for the promotion of Hit Refresh, his book on his journey to becoming the chief executive of Microsoft, one of the world’s biggest tech companies, Satya Nadella made his final pit stop in Delhi. Over 100 Microsoft Students Programme members, startup entrepreneurs, met the Microsoft CEO, who talked about a range of issues – from cricket to various aspects of his professional journey.

Earlier, during his trip to the Microsoft India headquarters in Hyderabad, Nadella had spoken at length about artificial intelligence (AI). At the Delhi event, he spoke about leadership skills and his love for cricket. The event also saw entrepreneurs like Vishal Gondal, founder CEO of fitness app GOQii, talking about their respective journeys.

While Nadella's itinerary has been kept under the wraps, sources say that the Microsoft CEO plans to meet officials of the communications & information technology ministry, as well as the NITI Aayog and the Prime Minister’s Office during the final leg of his India visit. He leaves India for the US on Tuesday night.

In Hit Refresh, Nadella delves into three key technologies that would lead to massive shifts in economy and society – mixed reality, artificial intelligence and quantum computing. These three currently independent threads would ultimately converge in future, with quantum computing making AI more intelligent and mixed reality becoming an even more immersive experience.

Pink slips galore: Wipro, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Cognizant cut India jobs

Tech Mahindra recently fired close to 1,000 employees; Wipro was the canary in the coal mine

 

Once India's global claim to fame, the country's information technology (IT) sector is seeing a spate of layoffs by IT majors like Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Infosys and Cognizant. 

The churn in the IT sector — which is moving towards increasing automation, use of artificial intelligence and is beset by tightening visa regulations — is likely to affect mid-level employees with 10-15 years of experience the most, as many are averse to learning new skills, industry experts have said.

Further, Indian IT firms are witnessing their slowest growth in a decade, while global firms are shifting their budgets from traditional IT services to newer areas such as digital and cloud, which require engineers to engage with clients instead of working remotely. Even as this shift takes hold of the sector, automation is increasingly taking over low-end maintenance work, forcing companies to shift workers to other projects and reduce hiring from campuses. 

Tech Mahindra joins the bandwagon

As reported earlier, software services firm Tech Mahindra has sacked a thousand-odd employees this month. 

However, what happened at Tech Mahindra is not an outlier, other IT majors like Wipro, Cognizant, Infosys and Capgemini are also facing their own share of challenges, and moving to either prune or re-skill their respective workforce. 

“We have a process of weeding out bottom performers every year and this year is no different,” a Tech Mahindra spokesperson said.

As on December 31, 2016, the company’s total employee headcount stood at 117,095, while the software division had 80,858 employees. 

Wipro was the canary in the coal mine

Late in April, Wipro move to sack around 500 of its employees as part of its appraisal process. (Read more) 

The company is reported to have weeded out "non-performers" after a "rigorous performance appraisal". 

While Wipro did not specify the exact number of affected employees, the company said it “undertakes a rigorous performance appraisal process on a regular basis to align its workforce with the business objectives, strategic priorities of the organisation, and requirements of our clients”.

“This systematic and comprehensive performance evaluation process triggers a series of actions, such as mentoring, retraining and up-skilling. The performance appraisal may also lead to the separation of some employees from the company and these numbers vary from year to year,” it said. (READ MORE)

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)

Automation to impact Indian jobs the most: Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka

Sikka invoked Moore's law and said automation was the future of Indian IT

 

COMPANY RESULTS | India would see the biggest impact on jobs due to automation, Infosys Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka said, quoting a research report, while addressing shareholders on Monday.

While most observers would have followed Sikka's address with regard to the recent tussle between the company's board and its founders, especially N R Narayan Murthy's allegations of a drop in corporate governance standards in India's second-largest software company, Sikka steered clear of the issue and merely dismissed media reports as drama and distraction. 

However, he did have a lot to say on the impact of automation and innovation on the country's IT sector and Infosys. "We have to eliminate our own work to automation, improve productivity, deploy the improved productivity to innovation," Sikka said, adding, "Technology continues to change and we have to continue to adapt."

"Instead of 10 people, what if we have three people to work on it. If we don’t have the software, then some others will take the advantage ... Having software together with education is something that is critical for our business. This, in essence, is the nature of our journey ... If you look at the 3.5 million people in our industry, the only thing that I see in the future is automation."

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