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These IT jobs may soon go obsolete, claims study

NEW DELHI: Automationis bringing about changes in work choices like never before as some profiles get obsolete and new job roles make their way to cyber security, cloud and Big Data, among others, says a report.

According to a recent research by Simplilearn Career Data Labs, some of the job roles that may soon go off the radar include those of software test engineer, system engineer, data entry operator and the like.

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9 technology companies in India that cut jobs in 2017

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9 technology companies in India that cut jobs in 2017

The year 2017 seems to have started on a harsh note for the technology sector in the country. With funding drying up and global political changes, many startups and technology companies in the country are staring at an uncertain future, making them cut costs. This has resulted in pink slips across many of these companies. Here's a look at nine technology companies that cut jobs this year.

LeEco

Four months after Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting acknowledged his company LeEco was fast running out of cash, the erstwhile high-flying company has fired 85% of its India staff and allowed two leadership exits in what the industry says is a precursor to its eventual withdrawal from the South Asian nation. Industry executives attributed the likely exit to the financial crisis at the parent firm and its decision to focus on China and the US.

​ Aircel

In February this year, cellular services major Aircel reportedly gave pink slips to 700 of its employees -- around 10% of its pan-India staff strength - in its first stage of manpower downsizing amid a huge wave of consolidation that is going to engulf India's telecommunication sector. Aircel has around 8,000 employees in India.

​ Snapdeal

Late last month Indian e-tailer Snapdeal confirmed that it is cutting jobs, but declined to specify the exact number of employees affected by the decision. The news comes as the Gurgaon-based company looks to turn around its fortunes after a dismal 12 months. Separately, in an internal email sent to employees, the SoftBank, Foxconn and Alibaba Group-backed company's founders, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, have pledged not to take a salary, for an unspecified period.

YepMe

Fashion retailer YepMe recently laid off an unspecified number of people from its warehousing and quality control teams. Vivek Gaur, founder of YepMe told TOI, "We were planning to break-even in January. But demonetisation hit, (the option for cash payments on delivery) disappeared and sales were down. We decided to move our focus outside of India." The company recently began operations in the United Kingdom. "In India, we decided to recalibrate the business and decided that the best thing is to outsource certain functions," he added.

Craftsvilla

The ethnic fashion website Craftsvilla reportedly laid of hundreds of employees recently. "(Craftsvilla) has laid off more than 100 staffers in recent weeks, including its entire product and technology teams and most of its operations and marketing teams," a former senior executive of the company told ET.

​ PayU

Payment gateway PayU India recently dropped plans to launch a credit card product. This reportedly resulted in the company handing out pinkslips to its its 85-member call centre team and collection team of 25.

Tolexo

Industrial marketplace Tolexo is recently laid of about 50 employees. The job cuts come as the company integrates its teams with parent IndiaMART. Some reports also put the number to 300. "Tolexo as a platform had been taking orders from retail as well as wholesale customers, but since we realised that our value proposition is strongest for wholesalers, we have decided to focus only on this segment," CEO Brijesh Agrawal.

​ Girnar Software

Internet company Girnar Software, which runs auto portals CarDekho.com, Gaadi.com and Zigwheels.com, recently cut over 100 jobs as part of a restructuring exercise to cut costs. The company, which has been on an acquisition spree over the past two years, is said to be cutting the jobs in order to keep its commitment to the board to become a profitable firm by the first quarter of the next fiscal and reduce "dependence on external investor funds".

Stayzilla

Homestay startup Stayzilla recently shut down operations. The Chennai-based online hotel aggregator failed to raise a fresh round funding of $20 million. Started in 2005, the company was among one of the earliest hotel room aggregators in the country. The company let go of its 210-member team. In a blog post, Stayzilla CEO and founder Yogi Vasupal wrote this: “I would like to announce today that we would be bringing to a halt the operations of Stayzilla in its current form. This has been one of the toughest decisions that I have taken so far but it is the right thing to do.”

New IT jobs that will be in demand are expected to be in segments like Big Data and data science, artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things, cloud computing and cyber security, among others.

"The IT industry is seeing the impact of two major trends -- one, that of AI and machine learning. And second, that of legacy skill sets going out of date," Simplilearn Chief Business Officer Kashyap Dalal said.