iWorld
Twitter appoints Taranjeet Singh as head of sales for India
MUMBAI: Twitter has appointed Taranjeet Singh as head of sales for its India operations. He will be based in the company’s Gurgaon office.
Singh’s main responsibilities will be to increase the commercial opportunities for Twitter in India and to work closely with brands and agencies to maximise the value of real-time marketing on the world’s largest platform for live, public conversations.
Twitter managing director – Southeast Asia, India and Middle East and North Africa Parminder Singh said, “India is a very important market for us – we’ve seen strong usage of our platform across the board last year and now is a great time to increase our local sales presence by bringing in Taranjeet as the head of sales for India.”
Parminder believed that it has seen growing momentum for brands and agencies to use Twitter to connect with their audiences in real-time for major events as well as everyday moments in India. “Taranjeet will lead our partnership with brands for maximize their creativity and deepening their customer engagement on our platform to take our sales business to the next level in India.”
Taranjeet added, “I’m excited to be part of the Twitter team in one of the world’s fastest-growing mobile and social media markets. Social media has such a big impact on Indian society today and Twitter is the best way for Indians to stay connected to their interests and the world. We have an amazing opportunity to help the best brands and agencies in India to understand the benefits of real-time marketing on the Twitter platform and make social media an integral element of every brand advertising campaign.”
Taranjeet has more than 19 years of sales and business development experience and a comprehensive understanding of the media industry. In his last assignment as the BBC Advertising sales director, South Asia, he was responsible for revenue and business strategy for BBC World News and the website www.bbc.com. Prior to joining the BBC, Taranjeet held various positions at Outlook Publishing, including heading advertising sales and business development in northern India.
Taranjeet holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Amity Business School and a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from DAV College, Dehradun. He is also currently pursuing a General Management leadership program from INSEAD.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
