Are the pink slips arriving for Indias tech engineers?
Reeling under the triple burden of high wages, a U.S. economy seemingly headed for recession, and a rising Indian rupee, the country’s tech firms are taking steps to prepare for tougher times. Suddenly, Indian engineers who have grown accustomed to ever-rising salaries and expanding workforces are facing wage cuts and layoffs. On Jan. 28, Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest software company and the largest private-sector tech employer, informed workers that it would snip 1.5 percent to 2 percent of the performance-linked portion of their pay starting in February. Meanwhile, multinational rival IBM is laying off 700 of its Indian engineers. With companies such as Infosys, Wipro, and Satyam also vulnerable to a U.S. slowdown, similar announcements could follow. Investors have been worried about India’s IT companies for a while. Infosys last year was the worst-performing stock on the benchmark Sensex stock index. The other big players have struggled, too. On Jan. 18, for instance,
