Struggling French telecom gear maker Alcatel-Lucent is expected to lay off 9% of its India workforce as part of a global restructuring drive to cut costs as deals dry up and demand for network equipment plunges. Bulk of the cull is likely to impact Alcatel-Lucent India's key business support functions and its people-centric managed services vertical where nearly 7,000 employees are engaged primarily in maintaining and managing Reliance Communications' countrywide CDMA and GSM networks and Bharti Airtel's landline & broadband networks. With the decision to lay off, Alcatel Lucent becomes the second European networks vendor to announce staff reduction plans after Nokia Siemens Networks said it would axe 17,000 jobs globally to trim losses.

Source: The Economic Times