Nokia Siemens Network, a joint venture between Nokia Corporation and Siemens which intends to cut 17,000 jobs globally is likely to layoff nearly 2,000 employees, or 20% of its direct workforce in India as part of a global restructuring exercise aimed at cutting losses. Bulk of the cull in India will involve wireline assets, deemed non-core and out of sync with the company's focus on mobile broadband and services. Mobile broadband and services will drive NSN’s forward strategy, thereby implying that most of the changes by way of workforce cuts will be in areas that don’t fit well with these lines of business.

However the company has no immediate plans to lay off 5,000 indirect staffers in India, although they do not rule out the possibility of some cuts in future. Also the company has no plans to cut jobs at its 3,000-strong research and development centre in Bangalore or its Chennai manufacturing unit that employs over 1,000 executives. Job cuts are also unlikely at the 300-member R&D centre in Hyderabad, which came under its fold when it acquired Motorola's worldwide wireless network assets for $1.2 billion in 2010.

Source: The Economic Times