At a time when Yahoo! and Nokia are cutting jobs in India, several start-ups, e-commerce firms and mid-size companies are eager to acquire their talent. Among those interested are Olacabs, Wingify, PropTiger, Commonfloor.com, and AOL.
“With the way India’s product landscape is shaping up, this could be an opportunity for engineers and product people to join the Make-In-India movement,” said Sparsh Gupta, Partner and CTO at Delhi-based software start-up Wingify.
If the 1990s saw India emerging as a global IT services leader, 2010 will be seen as the year that marked the country’s rise as a global IT products leader, he added.
Wingify looks to hire across engineering, product management, engineering management and user experience, Gupta said, adding the company would offer better-than-market salaries and relocation assistance.
He, however, did not specify the number of personnel the company would recruit. Another start-up, Olacabs, is ready to recruit at least 100 immediately. “We are currently hiring mid-to-senior talent for our technology team,” said Anand Subramanian, Director (Marketing and Communication) at the Bangalore-based radio taxi operator.
Yahoo! India on Tuesday said it plans to cut as many as 400 jobs in its Bangalore facility, which is one of the biggest engineering hubs in the world.
Same time, handset maker Nokia said it would suspend operations at its Chennai plant, which employs nearly 1,000 people, from November 1.
“This presents a great opportunity for the start-up ecosystem in two distinct ways. Every start-up worth its mettle is investing in technology and will be keen to hire the great talent coming out of Yahoo,” said Prashan Aggarwal, Co-Founder of real estate portal PropTiger.com.