56,000 IT jobs in danger? Infosys, TCS say they're not responsible for mess

According to reports, the 7 biggest IT firms operating in India are set to let go of 56,000 workers

In his social media post, an anonymous techie called the recent spate of layoffs in the information technology (IT) sector a "nightmare". The bad news is, the nightmare is unlikely to end anytime soon.

The seven biggest IT companies operating in India, including Wipro, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Cognizant, are planning to layoff at least 56,000 engineers this year, Livemint reported on Thursday.

According to the report, this projected number is double the amount of layoffs by these companies last year. Mint claims the astoundingly high number was arrived at after "extensive interviews with 22 current and former employees across these seven companies".

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The companies concerned are Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, US-based Cognizant Technology Solutions, DXC Technology, and France-based Cap Gemini SA. According to the report, they have denied that the mass layoffs signal a crisis and have attributed the increased layoffs to more rigorous appraisal processes.

Of course, the news of IT majors handing out pink slips has already been flowing in. On Wednesday, Tech Mahindra let go of around 1,000 of its employees. Tech Mahindra's layoffs, however, were not an outlier; Wipro fired around 500 of its employees in April, and Cognizant has signalled it could let go of close to 10,000 of its employees.(read more)