US-based ride-hailing firm Uber is planning to cut costs by shifting engineering jobs to India, a report in The Information website has said.
The news comes a few days after the company laid off more than 600 employees in the country as the coronavirus pandemic hit the business.
During his first visit to India in 2018, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced the company's plans to boost its engineering presence, which has been reiterated on several occasions by the company.
The sudden departure of Uber’s chief technology officer Thuan Pham, who resisted Khosrowshahi’s push to move jobs to India, has revived the CEO’s efforts, the report said, citing two employees of the firm.
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Pham, who left in May, had on an earlier occasion told Khosrowshahi that if he wanted to go ahead with the plan, he could have to do to so with a different CTO, the report said.
According to the report, Pham said hiring more engineers in India would mean accepting lower-quality candidates.
Uber didn't immediately respond to Moneycontrol’s email seeking its comments.
In 2018, Uber's tech team grew by 150 percent and the plan was to double it 2019, Apurva Dalal, head of engineering, Uber India, had said.
The company, at that time, was believed to have more than 500 engineers in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
In India, Uber engineers work across areas such as customer engagement, rider access, Uber Eats, maps, marketplace and data platforms.
The company also debuted Uber Lite in India for users with low internet bandwidth. This application was designed and built in India.
"These teams can really look at the local requirements, understand and empathise with the users. It is an absolutely important investment for us and like Dara said, we are focussed heavily on growing the size of our teams over here because our model is working," Peter Deng, head of rider experience and Manik Gupta, vice president product, maps and marketplace, Uber, had told Moneycontrol.
