Nokia to slash 1,500 jobs in India under global restructuring plan

As part of its global cost restructuring plans, Finnish telecom giant Nokia will lay off around 1,500 employees in India. Through this cost restructuring, the telecom bellwether aims to increase investment towards research and development capabilities and reduce site fragmentation.

The restructuring plans will hit Nokia's global operations as well as its India operations. Consultation processes in this regard are likely to begin soon. "It is too early to comment in detail, but we expect the consultation processes to start shortly, where applicable. Business groups are looking to reduce site fragmentation, but we have no further details at this point," a Nokia spokesperson told Times of India.

Out of its 20,511 employees in the Asia-Pacific region, Nokia has over 15,000 employees based in India. Nokia's operations are centred in five key locations in India-- Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurgaon, Mumbai and Noida.

Also read: Nokia to slash 10,000 jobs over next two years to trim costs

Besides this, the telecom company also has project offices across 26 Indian cities. Nokia has two global service delivery centres in India-- Noida and Chennai, wherein it employs over 4,200 people. The telecom giant also has a manufacturing headquarter in Chennai and an Innovation Centre in Bengaluru.

Its innovation centre in Bengaluru employs 6,300 people for research in communication technologies such as 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, small cells and Wi-Fi. It also focuses on technologies like Cloud, Big Data Analytics, AI/ML and next-gen core.  The research and development center has filed more than 200 patents since 2012.

Nokia is planning to cut up to 10,000 jobs globally over the next two years. The telecom bellwether is expected to cut its cost base by 600 million euros at the end of 2023 and expects to realise half of its savings in 2021. Nokia also lowered its revenue forecast from 21.9 billion euros in 2020 to 20.6-21.8 billion euros in 2021.

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