Pink slips and glum faces. Bitter stand-offs between team leaders and young IT professionals. The usually upbeat ambience at the hi-tech city is suddenly very tense.

Hyderabad's IT industry has been hit by the economic slowdown across the world and the financial crisis in the US. As a result, hundreds of IT professionals have either already lost their jobs or have been issued warnings.

Even top companies like Satyam and Wipro are politely asking their employees to quit or are curtly handing out pink slips, saying they are not required anymore. It is a blow for at least 80 per cent of the IT professionals working here who were told only last month that they should not expect hikes this year.

“Companies are not getting enough projects and the crisis in the US has forced them to downsize and tighten their fists further,” said a senior management official of Infotech Enterprises.

Particularly affected are companies offering services to financial institutions. “A majority of US-based financial institutions outsource work and Hyderabad’s IT industry is a major beneficiary. The slump there has really hit the companies here very hard,” a manager in Satyam said after the IT major issued pink slips to at least 140 employees and put at least 400 engineers on a performance improvement plan with a warning that if they fail, they have to quit.

“They have given us ‘dummy projects’ and if we don't prove our worth, we are out,” said Debashish, a software engineer who sat on the bench for six months,.

... contd.