2,100 Infosys employees face axe

With companies keen on maximum utilisation of employees and low tolerance to poor performance in the backdrop of global economic turmoil, nearly 2,100 employees in software firm Infosys have faced the axe.

"Some of these employees have been asked to go while some have left on their own," V Balakrishnan, CFO of the city-headquartered Nasdaq-listed company, said on Saturday.


Prior to asking the employees to leave, they were put on a performance improvement course and those who showed no improvement were asked to leave while some others quit, he said.


"Tolerance to poor performance is very low given the current economic scenario," said Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan.


Usually, the employees who showed poor performance were given some more time to improve themselves, but this time there had been no such consideration, he said.


Both the officials said the sacking was part of the annual routine, which usually formed five per cent of the total number of employees but this time it was much lower.


Some of the employees had been "outplaced", Kris said, which refers to the firm hiring the services of placement agencies to help the employees to get placements in other firms.


Infosys has a workforce of 1,05,000, including trainees.

Microsoft ties up with HCL to outsource jobs to India

Computer giant Microsoft has signed a USD 170-million five-year contract with India's HCL for outsourcing work for its online business productivity suite.

HCL will provide 600 employees to support the contract and nearly 250 workers have already begun work on the project.Microsoft has not said whether this contract is to replace any existing agreement it has in India, or if this deal is an expansion of its current outsourcing scope.

Despite the recent job cuts, Microsoft has been expanding its online services business.Also, has recently announced plans to make its Business Productivity Online Suite, a software-as-a-service offering, available for trial and purchase in 19 countries