GitHub, a Microsoft-owned company, has reportedly laid off all of its 142 engineering roles in India, as per the Business Today report. The laid-off employees were given two months' pay as severance and were made to sign a strict Non-Disclosure Agreement in lieu of the benefits. 

The layoffs were not based on the performance of employees but rather were part of GitHub's cost-cutting measures. The company had previously announced that it would let go of 10 per cent of its workforce and freeze hiring until further notice.

In an e-mail to employees, GitHub chief executive officer (CEO) Thomas Dohmke justified the measures, stating that they were designed to protect the short-term health of the business while also granting them the capacity to invest in their long-term strategy. 
GitHub was acquired by Microsoft in 2018 and in October last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that GitHub’s revenue was at $1 billion annually.

Microsoft had also announced earlier this year that it would be laying off 10,000 employees by the third quarter of the fiscal year 2023 (FY23), which is less than 5 per cent of the company’s workforce. Other tech giants have also been slashing jobs, with Salesforce announcing a reduction of 10 per cent of its workforce, or nearly 8,000 employees Meta laying off thousands of employees and Amazon announcing two rounds of layoffs that affect 27,000 people.