Retrenchment of employees is a common occurrence in the infotech industry, Telangana minister K T Rama Rao said on Monday amid reports of layoffs by India's IT companies.
"There is overt focus or overt emphasis on people being retrenched. I would like to emphasise (that its) natural part of IT and ICT companies. It happens every year. It is not like it is happening for the first time," the minister for IT and industries said, when media persons asked him about layoffs in Indias IT firms, one of the largest private employers.
A few employees of Cognizant recently approached the Telangana state Labour Department alleging that the IT company was forcibly taking resignations from employees citing poor performance.
The US-based IT major has said performance reviews are done to ensure the company has the right employee skill sets necessary to meet client needs and achieve business goals.
Though it is a nation-wide phenomenon, KTR should have been more humane in his response. A word of encouragement from him like: “don’t worry, it is a temporary phase,” would have given a lot of confidence to the IT employees.
Yet, KTR boasted about a sharp increase in IT and IT-enabled services exports from the state in 2016-17.
Last fiscal, Telangana, a major infotech hub with Hyderabad the key centre, had recorded Rs 75,000 crore worth of IT exports.
"Our numbers (compared to) last year in terms of IT growth rates have been impressive. Unofficial figures received by us from STPI (a government body) and SEZs show we are growing better than national growth rates," he said.
