Don't think India would be completely unscathed by global tech sector scenario: Rituparna Chakraborty

"It is largely pre-emptive, largely cautionary and I think you might see this continuing for a while and that is the outlook. I think that we all know about the exposure of the Indian tech industry or even the start-up ecosystem had towards SVB and maybe a few other banks here and there in the United States," says Rituparna Chakraborty, TeamLease Services.

The fundamental reasons why Accenture has laid off would be something that will be experienced by other tech companies or IT service companies as well? Do you see that impacting Indian companies?
I think to sum up the reasons it is by and large, give or take, here and there, it is pretty much the same for most organisations. I think it is the looming apprehension around growing inflation. It is higher interest rates especially what is happening in the United States. It is overzealous and really aggressive hiring that happened during just after the pandemic or a little probably at the fag end of the pandemic.

And yes, I think it is about anticipation of further disruptions. I think organisations are tightening their belt and ensuring that focus is on sustenance at this point of time and not do anything or if there are certain steps and measures that can be taken right now to prevent greater probably disaster in the future is what is happening to be honest.

It is largely pre-emptive, largely cautionary and I think you might see this continuing for a while and that is the outlook. I think that we all know about the exposure of the Indian tech industry or even the start-up ecosystem had towards SVB and maybe a few other banks here and there in the United States. So I do not think we would be completely unscathed by what is happening in the global scenario especially when it comes to tech.


There are real people who have been laid off and in a market where it might not be as easy for them to get another job or an equally good job. What would you advise? There might be a lot of people right now, Accenture is going to do these layoffs over the next 18 months, half of them within the next six months up to August or so. The people working there right now wondering what is happening including many in India.
I think first and foremost, I think it is very important for us to remind ourselves that we are talking about the sector, especially I am not talking about the financial sector and its impact but I am talking about the tech sector. My investor concern is a very relevant point to bring out but the thing is, there is a genuine case. When demand is there, when there is top line growth happening, there is enough rationale for us to take care of the investors. But here is a situation where top line definitely seems to have been affected for most of these organisations. So it is not that, it is just the investors. It is essentially clearly a message that the industry definitely has softened. So we need to remember that. Now in terms of what do you do? To be honest and I think in your show and others, I have repeatedly said that the world is actually becoming increasingly unpredictable. The ups and downs are there and the impact on human capital is quite instant. Like we have six months back, we are celebrating the amount of hiring that tech is doing and so the tech sector is the one which reacts and responds.

Now we are talking about a layoff scenario. Who knows, maybe in another 12 months we will see that the tech sector has bounced back. But in amidst all of this I think building personal, professional resilience to ensuring that there is some kind of a fungibility in terms of the skill sets that one possesses. There is a process through which one is I am going to repeat myself like a parrot, there has to be a process of rejuvenating, renewing your own skill sets at any point.

The world is definitely and it is not just tech, in any job role, I do not think the world is becoming easier. Yes, like I just heard about somebody who was laid off three months back in UK and it was not easy and he was a high performer, it was not easy for him to get back into the workforce but believe it or not that gentleman actually completed 33 LinkedIn learning courses.

Now LinkedIn is one option, there are Udemy's and Coursera's, so to stay in touch, and of course, people always have to plan for a bad day. And my submission is that while it is good for us to enjoy the good times but we should always plan for the bad times.