A recent off-campus mass recruitment drive by Cognizant has drawn significant flak and ire from netizens, particularly because of its compensation package. 

The information technology multinational company is reportedly offering engineering graduates from the 2024 batch an annual package of Rs 2.52 lakhs per annum (LPA), which translates to about Rs 20,000 per month. 

This marks a significant decrease from the usual packages offered to freshers by Information Technology (IT) firms, which range from Rs 3.5 LPA to Rs 4 LPA, according to a report by Moneycontrol. 

The announcement invited sharp criticism from netizens, who all claimed that the package was less than what low-wage workers in the unorganised sector make. 

Some users even questioned the fairness of the package, when the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cognizant, Ravi Kumar S, draws a significantly hefty salary himself. 

There were also allegations that the company has been offering the same package to freshers for the last 20 years without increment. 

This package also sparked demands for stricter labour laws in India. 

Dire straights in the tech industry?

The outrage sparked by this announcement further makes sense when one considers the state of the IT sector in India. 

Last year, the tech industry was shaken by mass layouts in top tech companies like Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Salesforce — and the most affected demographic seemed to be Indian workers. Even Reliance, arguably India’s largest conglomerate, laid off 42,000 employees in the Financial Year 2023-24

This trend continued in 2024, with India Today reporting that more than 130,000 IT professionals have lost their jobs to date. 

With job insecurity and the threat of looming inflation on one hand, and a lack of well-paying jobs on the other, one only wonders — is the IT industry heading towards massive doldrums, and will the employees bear the brunt of this churn?