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According to an internal email sent by Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella, the company will not be increasing full-time staff salaries this year and will also be cutting back on its budget for incentives and stock awards. A request for comment from Reuters received no immediate response from the tech giant. The report quoted Nadella as stating, “Last year, we made a significant investment in compensation driven by market conditions and company performance, nearly doubling our global merit budget…this year, the economic conditions are very different across many dimensions.” Microsoft stated in January that it would lay off 10,000 employees, adding to the tens of thousands of layoffs that had already been reported throughout the IT sector as it struggles with slowing revenue growth in an uncertain economy. Microsoft has now dedicated its whole attention to generative AI, an area that the business community considers to be an advantage. Microsoft has been integrating artificial intelligence technology into its Office products and Bing search engine in partnership with OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT and has also gotten billions of dollars in funding from Microsoft. Source: Reuters

At the soon-to-be-opened Cognizant Google Cloud AI University, 25,000 Cognizant employees will receive training on Google Cloud AI technology. According to a statement from Cognizant, the institution would provide a range of courses, including basic AI introduction courses, advanced courses on Google Cloud’s products, and particular AI use cases. Tuesday saw the extension of the relationship between Cognizant and Google Cloud, which will help organisations all over the world embrace artificial intelligence (AI) faster. Cognizant will also establish new Google Cloud AI Innovation Centres in Bengaluru, London, and San Francisco as part of this development. These innovation hubs would bring together techies, cloud specialists from both firms, clients, and university students to enable cooperation. According to Ravi Kumar, CEO of New Jersey-based Cognizant, “By expanding our long-standing alliance with Google Cloud to leverage our existing technology capabilities, upskill our talent, and deliver advanced technologies to our clients, Cognizant will play a critical role in supporting the global shift to responsible AI use.” According to Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, “Generative AI has the potential to create significant business value by streamlining how we work, creating new consumer experiences, helping people better utilize data, and much more.”

According to a recent Supreme Court decision, an individual cannot be denied pension benefits just because their employer made incorrect deductions. Calcutta State Transport Corporation and others’ appeal was denied by the bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Rajesh Bindal. The appeal was filed in opposition to the High Court’s March 5, 2021 division bench judgement ordering the employer to release Ashit Chakraborty and others’ pension benefits. The company asserted in its appeal that the employee got notifications concerning typical withdrawals from his pay for the contributory provident fund. The employee did not object to these deductions at the time though. Only after his retirement did the problem come up. The company felt that he should not be qualified to receive benefits from the pension scheme in light of these facts. The employee responded to the appeal by stating that since he had decided to enrol in a pension scheme, it was the employer’s duty to correctly calculate his pay and make the necessary deductions for the various categories. Employee shouldn’t be punished or made to suffer as a result of a mistake the company made in this process. In agreement with the employee’s claim, the court rejected the corporation’s defence that other employees in same situations would also be eligible for similar treatment. The court reasoned that this would not preclude it from providing the employee the remedy he is entitled to. The judgement further noted that his rightful claim for a pension cannot be denied because certain improper deductions from his pay were made and he was classified as a member in the CPF scheme.