Beyond Layoff

Many organizations and tech firms are going through rounds of layoffs and only some are making headlines in the media. The reason why a large percentage of layoffs are going underreported is because managers aided by their HR partners have come up with a crafty carrot-and-stick way of asking employees to resign.  This technique is probably a variance of Voluntary Retirement Schemes (VRS) that have been refined by organizations over the years and remain highly popular because: They reduce financial burden by retiring senior, higher-paid employees, thereby lowering overall costs. Senior employees often have negotiated benefits such as better retirement contributions and health insurance, which may have been "grandfathered" and are not available to newer employees. Retirees are typically replaced with younger, lower-paid workers, further reducing salary expenses. While offering a VRS package incurs some upfront costs, companies justify it based on the expected return on investme...

 Amritsar: Two individuals, among the 116 illegal Indian immigrants deported from the United States on Saturday, were arrested by Punjab Police upon their arrival at Amritsar airport. The suspects, identified as Sandeep and Pradeep, hail from Patiala district and are reportedly cousins. Both were fugitives in a murder case registered under FIR No. 175 in 2023 in Rajpura, Patiala. Their criminal history surfaced during the deportation process, prompting Patiala Police to take them into custody immediately upon their return. Legal proceedings against them have now commenced. A U.S. C-17 military aircraft carrying the deportees landed in Amritsar late Saturday night. This marks the second instance of a mass deportation of Indian nationals by the U.S. government as part of its intensified crackdown on illegal immigration. Reports indicate that more than 60 of the deported individuals are from Punjab. Further investigations into the case are ongoing.

  L&T Chairman #SNSubrahmanyan, who previously faced backlash for advocating a 90-hour workweek, has now sparked debate with his comments on workers’ reluctance to relocate within India. In a recent interview, he remarked, “Today, if I take a guy from Chennai and tell him to go to Delhi and work, he says bye.”   While social media is roasting his statement, there’s a grain of truth in his observation. As an Indian Air Force brat, I grew up studying in a dozen schools across the country—from Bagdogra in West Bengal to Jodhpur in Rajasthan—before settling in Bengaluru. Our family, like many in the armed forces, had a safety net: assured housing and quarters, school admissions in Kendriya Vidyalayas, and a structured support system with every move. Fast forward to contemporary India, where regionalism, linguistic politics, and local identity movements are creating new barriers to mobility.  The Rising Tide of Regionalism  Recently, pro-Kannada activists vandal...