Kolkata’s IT sector has been gripped by fear psychosis a day after Lehman Brothers Holdings declared bankruptcy.

IT employees are apprehensive about losing their jobs, and much of the discussions at the IT offices on Tuesday centred around the health of the US economy.

IT majors like Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Wipro Technologies, Satyam Computers, Infosys Technologies and HCL Technologies provide services to customers like Lehman and Merill Lynch. TCS, for instance, earns 43 per cent of its revenue from financial services solutions

“Wipro does trim down staff each year but there has been no announcement of any such measure immediately after the US debacle,” said a senior employee of Wipro Technologies.

When asked to comment on the possible impact, Tamal Dasgupta, Vice-President of Wipro Technologies, said: “It is too early to comment. We have to be patient and wait for the next two days to see what impact the developments have on the IT sector.”

“Any development in the USA or any part of the world is bound to have a ripple effect on the IT sector in India as most of the operations of the IT companies are linked to the firms based in the USA. The BPO and KPO sectors are likely to be worst hit,” said an IBM employee.

An employee of a global BPO firm, GENPACT, feels that the fear is unfounded saying, “There are reasons for concern but it is too early to make any assessments.”

The TCS authorities refused to comment on its client Lehman’s latest financial crisis. But it assured that there would be no drastic measures like trimming down its

... contd.