One important thing: In a big relief to ride-hailing platforms Ola and Uber, the Karnataka High Court has allowed them to continue offering auto-hailing services until the state government fixes the fare as per relevant law.

• As a temporary rule, these platforms can charge a convenience fee of 10% of the base fare plus 5% of GST.

 In today's newsletter:

• IT hiring slows down
• Why Zoho will not fire employees
• Zoomcar goes public via SPAC

Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and Wipro have all reported a decline in net additions for the fiscal year's second quarter, with Wipro faring the worst. HCLTech was the outlier in this case, with a net addition that has quadrupled sequentially. 

• Net addition across the four companies has dropped 45 percent compared to last quarter. 

The second quarter is traditionally a strong quarter for headcount growth, and hiring that is significantly lower than in the first quarter indicates watchfulness about demand going forward.

This is becoming more apparent as the macroeconomic environment in the major markets where Indian IT companies derive revenues from, such as North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe, becomes more challenging.

In addition, Indian IT companies hired — A LOT — in the December 2022 and March 2023 quarters. 

Freshers are still being hired in large numbers, but there have been reports of companies delaying onboarding and offer letters. Companies say they are now training and deploying the new hires, and that they will continue to hire as needed. However, the days of crazy hiring numbers may be over.

• Attrition is starting to moderate, but it is still above 20% in all four companies.

Experts say that the hiring market seems to be stabilising after companies hired a lot of people just to meet demand.

• After several quarters of the environment being an employee's market, ongoing market corrections are tilting the scales back in favour of employers.

According to Xpheno data, active job openings in the IT sector were the lowest in 17 months in September. The share of active job openings in the IT sector has dropped to 58%, down from an 80%-plus range the previous year.

Meanwhile, subcontracting costs at top Indian IT firms such as TCS, Infosys, HCLTech, and Wipro have also started to trend lower as they see supply-side challenges coming down.

• The management of these companies are optimistic about further reductions in subcontracting costs in the upcoming quarters, which will in turn help increase operating margins.
  
  
• Analysts, however, believe further reduction in subcontracting costs will be company specific and depend on the type of deals won

Sridhar Vembu, a SaaS industry thalaivar, said that "layoffs destroy employee loyalty," and his company, Zoho, has pledged not to carry out layoffs even in a difficult economic situation like the one we are currently experiencing. Indeed, he won the hearts of many and the CNN-News18 Indian of the Year 2022 Award in the startups category this week.

Vembu's comments on layoffs come at a time when many people in the startup ecosystem are on edge, waiting to see if their company will suddenly start handing out pink slips in an effort to "rationalise cost and workforce." 

To all the millennials and Gen Zers reading this: hold off on searching LinkedIn for job openings at Zoho just yet. 

SaaS companies are certainly under a lot of pressure. A global economic slowdown, combined with the fear of recession in the US, has kept even the largest SaaS players, such as Freshworks and Zoho, on edge. 

• To stay afloat and weather this storm, companies have implemented strategies such as freezing hiring or cutting marketing costs.

US-based artificial intelligence platform 6Sense has laid off close to 150 employees, or 10 percent of its global workforce. Many of these employees worked in its Bengaluru and Pune offices. 

• 6Sense joins edtech companies like Byju's that announced it will be laying off 2,500 employees earlier this week, and FrontRow that has fired 130 employees.

Your 'Zoomcar' trip to Goa with your besties may not have happened, but the car-sharing platform is on track with its plans.

Zoomcar went public in the US via a merger with blank-check firm Innovative International Acquisition Corp in what is known as a SPAC or special purpose acquisition company deal for $456 million. This is significant for a variety of reasons.

First off, SPAC deals are getting super rare after a frenzied boom last year. The market slowdown and an SEC crackdown resulted in SPACs coming to a screeching halt this year. 

In India, ReNew Power Private was likely the only company to go public through a SPAC deal in recent years. While many expected Byju's to be the next in line, it appears that Zoomcar SPAC-ed ahead of them.

Zoomcar is part of a small but burgeoning cadre of companies such as San Francisco-based Turo that have extended the ride-sharing model to the vehicle itself. 

• The merger and listing would allow the company to enter new markets with low vehicle ownership but high demand for players like Zoomcar. It is already the market leader in India, as well as the 50 cities in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Egypt where it already operates.
  
  
• Early backers include Sequoia Capital, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., and Ford Smart Mobility LLC will also likely have a great exit value post the listing. 

• The bitcoin trading and banking firm NYDIG laid off roughly one-third of its workforce last month, according to the Wall Street Journal. On September 22, the company executives notified employees affected by the job cuts, which numbered around 110.
  
  
• Rio de Janeiro, a city in Brazil, said that people could pay their property taxes with cryptocurrency. The city is looking for crypto firms to run its tax property seasoning in 2023, according to a decree from October 11. This means that taxpayers will be able to pay their taxes with both crypto and fiat currency.
  
  
• In a report, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) said that securities regulators should be able to demand that foreign crypto sites be shut down. The proposals are the most recent in a string of crypto crackdowns motivated by concerns about financial stability, tax evasion, money laundering, and the rise of financial advice from unusual sources like social media influencers.

Some tales are stranger than fiction. But perhaps none are as strange as Running with the Devil: John McAfee's Wild World. The story of this antivirus tycoon is bizarre - and gripping from beginning to end.

Directed by documentary filmmaker Charlie Russell, the documentary is an intriguing and fascinating watch, featuring never-before-seen footage of McAfee on the run.

Watch it on Netflix

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