TMS Ep602: IT talent, Interim Budget 2024, Q3 results, truckers' strike

Tech companies reportedly fired over 220,000 employees in 2023. It was a jump of 40% from the previous year. And a record too. But take this contrast. Demand for tech talent still outstrips supply. So why is it so? Does India IT have a talent management problem? Or there is more to it than meets the eye? 

Next six months are likely to be crucial as IT firms will compete with their domestic as well as global peers to get a pie in the upcoming 16 billion-dollar worth of IT deals. Well, it’s good news as deal wins will help boost the IT sector’s prospects, and in a way, contribute to the country’s growth. The government on its part is getting its expenditure scorecard ready. Interim budget will be tabled in Parliament on February 1. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has ruled out any “spectacular announcements”. But foreign brokerage Jefferies has said the government will boost welfare spending in the interim Budget. So what stance will the interim budget 2024 adopt? 

Dalal Street too will keep a close eye on the interim budget announcements. And it will express its pleasure, or displeasure, through stock movements. Moving on, markets are set to kick off the December quarter earnings this week with IT majors, including Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services slated to report their numbers. Here's a curtain raiser on the Q3 earnings season.

After the earnings preview, let us now turn our gaze to Indian roads which see over 150,00 deaths every year. Government recently introduced new penal provisions in hit and run cases. But unions representing truck and taxi drivers have hit the streets against it. The government, which is now on the back foot, has assured them that its enforcement will happen only after wider consultations. Listen to this episode of the podcast to know more about this new provision.