India's IT industry is experiencing a rough phase both at home and abroad buoyed by surging global protectionism and automation. And that has forced hundreds of employees in Hyderabad to protest against the mass layoffs in the sector.
Asia's third largest major economy's software services exports slumped to the lowest in seven years which could blow the current account deficit to the widest since 2013 and add further pressure to the rupee, Bloomberg reported.
"Growing anti-globalization tendencies in the US during and after elections and the Brexit referendum" also threaten Indian jobs," said Arvind Subramanian, top economic adviser to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the economic survey published earlier this month.
Creating more jobs was one of the key promises Modi made to win the 2014 elections. But, large job cuts in the tech industry which is the country's largest private sector employer will come out as one of the biggest issues in the upcoming 2019 elections.
Indian engineers are also crucial dollar-earners. But the labour in recent times became cheap as wage growth fell in developed countries. Also, US President Donald Trump's protectionist policies and U.K.'s rise in visa costs are factors limiting the free movement of Indian engineers.
Moreover, automation threatens 69 percent of jobs in India, according to a 2016 World Bank report. Executive search firm Head Hunters India estimates that 175,000 to 200,000 technology jobs will be lost in the country each year through 2020.
Hyderabad IT layoffs protest
On Friday, India's tech city Hyderabad observed mass protest against the IT layoff. Hundreds of employees gathered on the streets near Raheja Mindspace junction of the city and demanded justice for the people who faced job cut recently. People in the protest raised slogans such as 'we want justice', 'give back my job' and 'give back my life', News Minute reported.
While addressing the gathering, Kiran Chandra, founder member of ForIT said that it is illegal to retrench employees under the guise of underperformance. He asserted that the employees are protected under the law of the land and no one can be fired without due process of law.
The authorities overlooked several petitions that were filed with the Hyderabad labour commissioner which forced them to file a case in the High Court.
Last month, Tech Mahindra had received a notice from Hyderabad High Court after four of its retrenched employees moved court over illegal terminations.
