Samsung India trims workforce in consumer electronics business (Photo: Samsung)
New Delhi, IANS): Samsung India has reportedly laid off their executives across its television and home appliance businesses as part of a cost-rationalisation exercise amid rising operating costs, muted consumer demand and organisational restructuring, as per multiple reports.
Reports suggest that the workforce reduction affects employees across various levels, including directors, team leaders, branch managers and area managers.
The layoffs are being carried out in phases with termination letters issued over the past few days, according to them.
Some employees have reportedly been asked to leave immediately without serving their notice period.
When contacted, Samsung declined to comment regarding such reports.
In addition, Samsung is offering affected employees a severance package comprising three months' salary along with an additional month's salary for every completed year of service.
The move comes as consumer electronics companies grapple with softer demand and rising costs.
Moreover, factors such as higher memory chip prices, elevated raw material costs and depreciation of the Indian rupee have added to operating expenses, as per reports.
Additionally, smartphone shipments in India have declined by about 12 per cent year-on-year.
Similarly, some industry experts expect that the Indian smartphone market to decline by around 13 per cent year-on-year in 2026 with the second half likely to perform better than the first half as festive demand provides some support.
Samsung had also planned to integrate its television and home appliance sales teams, although the move has reportedly been deferred until the December quarter, say reports.
Despite the restructuring, Samsung India reported revenue of over Rs 1.1 lakh crore and net profit of Rs 11,287 crore in FY25.Separately, a report noted that global foldable smartphone shipments are expected to cross 100 million cumulative units by the end of 2026 which is a major milestone for the category in its eighth year since the first commercially available foldable was launched. Samsung India cuts jobs in consumer electronics business | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
Volkswagen to cut at least 1 lakh jobs by 2030 in cost cutting measures
Mumbai, (IANS): German car manufacturer Volkswagen has announced to cut 1 lakh jobs by the end of the decade in a sweeping cost‑cutting plan, marking the largest restructuring in the global auto industry.
The German carmaker announced a further reduction of about 50,000 positions on top of nearly 50,000 job cuts already agreed, amounting to about 15 per cent of the group’s workforce.
The company decided to halve the number of car models the Volkswagen group produces, which includes the Bentley and Audi brands, and considers to shut down four production plants in Germany within the next eight years.
“Given intensifying global competition, shifting demand and technological change in the automotive industry, a consistent alignment of workforce capacity with economic reality is essential,” the Volkswagen Group said in a statement.
Volkswagen employs over 6.5 lakh people across brands including Skoda, Seat, Porsche, Cupra and Lamborghini.
The group plans to streamline its model portfolio by around 50 percent and reduce its offering complexity by around 75 percent by 2035.
“The prioritised models aim to excel in design and technology – and benefit from the focus on fewer variants: Higher volumes per model, lower costs, stronger economies of scale,” the statement said.
The Volkswagen Group is systematically tailoring its platforms, electronic architectures, driver assistance systems and software to the needs of both the Western and Eastern hemisphere, it added.
In North America, the Volkswagen Group will focus on the most profitable segments. In China, the Group is adapting to revised expectations for overall growth in the Chinese automotive market and is expanding its export business toward the “Global South,” the statement added.
The company said that portfolio of shareholdings and businesses will be rigorously assessed and streamlined by around one-third to retain only those with a clear strategic and financial contribution to the core business.
Birth rates have been declining worldwide since the peak of the post-second world war baby boom. Birth rates have now reached below replacement in most of the world, including Australia. Put simply, populations on average aren’t replacing themselves.
Everyone from Elon Musk to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, to the pope have opinions on declining total fertility (or birth) rates – the average number of births per woman.
Overpopulation has dominated popular discourse since the 1960s. While fears of overpopulation remain, especially tied to immigration, concerns have shifted to depopulation and the related economic and national security issues.
Overpopulation fears to depopulation woes
In his 1968 book The Population Bomb, Paul Ehrlich warned the 1970s would bring “people, people, people, people” and an overpopulation “cancer” resulting in famine and war. Human extinction was imminent, we were warned.
Overpopulation-associated human extinction has not come to be.
The global total fertility rate has more than halved since 1950. Average birth rates for OECD countries now sit at 1.46 births per woman, well below the 2.1 required for generational replacement.
World population decline is projected by the mid-2080s. China is now in its fourth year of population decline. South Korea has been declining since 2019 with its near-global record low birth rates. Germany has seen deaths outnumber births since 1972. Japan, Greece, Italy, Cuba and Thailand are also among those in the depopulation club.
Enormous advancements since the 1950s, mostly in health and medical technologies like immunisation, mean humans are living longer. We’re also having fewer children, and as a result populations are ageing.
An ageing population is a mark of success and human ingenuity, but economic systems tend to view ageing societies as problematic.
Workers and working-aged people are essential to maintain a healthy economy. Individual income taxpayers are the top source of federal government revenue in Australia. Too few people of working age replacing those retiring can seriously undermine economic wellbeing, forcing governments to do more service provision with less financial resources.
Below-replacement fertility and its implications for government bottom lines have resulted in Australian politicians calling on Australians to have more babies. “Have one for mum, one for dad, and one for the country”, treasurer Peter Costello famously said in 2004.
In 2020, former prime minister Tony Abbott suggested the wrong kind of women were having children, calling on “middle class” women to have more. Talking the budget, treasurer Jim Chalmers in 2024 said it would be “better if birth rates were higher”.
Human catastrophe of low birth rates
People are increasingly saying the choice to have children is constrained by external factors. Worldwide, around one-in-five surveyed by the United Nations said fears about the future would or has resulted in them having fewer children than they wanted.
Housing affordability, economic stability, gender inequality and climate change present insurmountable barriers for having a much-wanted family.
The lack of choice to have children in below-replacement regions, I’d argue is indeed a human catastrophe. How is it that we’ve allowed society to become so hostile that children are out of the question for so many who want them?
We are confronted with the tough question of who will care for us with the children gone.
Can a human catastrophe be avoided?
The burden of having a family falls on working-aged people, especially women.
A baby bonus or one-off payment is unlikely to change people’s minds and increase the total fertility rate; such payments merely change timing. Instead, increasing total fertility rates requires a comprehensive suite of measures from a policy perspective.
Tackling the big four big domains of housing, the economy, gender and climate encompass issues such as
secure, affordable and appropriate housing
employment and income security
accessible childcare
social and workplace gender equality
climate change action.
People of childbearing age aren’t being hedonistic when making family and fertility decisions. They’re not thinking about themselves, they’re actually thinking about the future world and weighing what that might look like for prospective children.
Loss of hope among people of childbearing age, including fears of being left behind, contribute to overall concerns about an insecure future.
Not only is the human catastrophe of low births rates reflecting more widespread concerns, such as insecurity, it could also be undermining social cohesion.
Rather than an exploding bomb of overpopulation, the world faces an economic and social implosion due to lacking substantive supports necessary to help raise much-wanted children.
Surely it’s beyond time we ask people what they actually need – and give it to them.
