IT services provider Cognizant has taken social media by storm after the announcement of a mass hiring programme that netizens believe comes with a laughably small pay package.

What Happened: Cognizant has initiated a mass hiring drive for the role of trainee IT programmers for the 2024 batch. While mass hirings are a common practice among Indian tech firms, the low remuneration for the role has created a quite the stir on micro-blogging platform Twitter. 

The role, based out of cities like Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Kolkata and Coimbatore, will pay ₹2.5 lakh per year. It invited applicants with relevant three-year undergraduate degrees. 

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The company is being widely criticised over social media for the meagre salary it is offering. Many contrasted it with the rising costs of living in the cities where the positions are based, especially with the rising house rents.

Some even criticised multinational firms for clocking in massive profits but not paying their workers in accordance with the rising inflation. 

“Man, I didn’t want to wake up today and do MNC bashing. But 2.52 LPA is pathetic,” one user said on social media platform X.

According to jobs review platform Glassdoor the average pay for a computer programmer in India lies anywhere between ₹15,000 to ₹45,000 per month. On the contrary, house rents have sky-rocketed since the COVID-19 pandemic ended. 

Some users also took potshots at Infosys‘ cofounder Narayana Murthy, who recently saw himself mired in controversy after calling for longer working hours for Indian professionals to compete on a global scale.

Last year, Murthy said in an interview that youngsters in India should work for a minimum of 70 hours per week to compete with other global economies, drawing widespread flak on social media.

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