In 2009, when Tech Mahindra acquired Satyam Computer Services and said it would lay off around 10,000 “surplus staff,” the government intervened and ensured the retrenchment was called off.
“When Indian IT companies chased rapid growth—which is hard to come by now—they kept adding people without realising demand patterns in the future,” Yugal Joshi, vice-president at Texas-based consultancy Everest Group, said. “Indian IT companies created bloated middle management that was pushing paper and managing projects rather than upskilling itself. As the teams become more independent and self-governing to serve the digital world, the need for a classic project manager goes down and therefore, this layer comes under a bigger threat (of getting laid off).”
