Nokia India Braces for Fresh Layoffs as Global Restructuring Hits Home

Finnish phonemaker Nokia is set to cut jobs in India as part of a sweeping global restructuring plan, with the country unit expected to mirror the company's worldwide target of reducing up to 20% of its 74,100-strong workforce, Moneycontrol report.

The layoffs are part of a major overhaul announced by Nokia CEO Justin Hotard in November 2025, aimed at simplifying the company's structure into two core divisions, Network Infrastructure and Mobile Infrastructure. Businesses that fall outside these priorities have been grouped separately for potential sale or review, as Nokia looks to streamline operations and align itself with growing demand driven by artificial intelligence.

This comes at a time when major technology companies have been aggressively cutting their workforces. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have already laid off thousands of workers, while Meta is also rumoured to be planning to let go of over 15,000 employees.

The restructuring has already triggered leadership changes in India. Samar Mittal has been elevated to India Country Business Leader and Vibha Mehra to India Country Manager, both effective April 1, 2026. Their appointments come alongside the exit of Tarun Chhabra from the India country head role.

The shake-up also marks a significant shift in how Nokia operates on the ground. The company is essentially reverting to its older, horizontal organisational structure, where sales teams manage customer relationships from start to finish, after its 2023 experiment with a vertical model failed to deliver the results it had hoped for.

That vertical structure, introduced under former CEO Pekka Lundmark, had split Nokia into three business groups, Mobile Networks, Network Infrastructure and Cloud and Network Services, each running independently with their own profit targets and dedicated teams. That shift did not deliver the desired results, prompting a return to the earlier horizontal setup, according to the report.

The return to the old model is significant because many of the roles created during the 2023 overhaul, including account managers, account heads, and other specialised positions, are now likely to be made redundant, directly translating into job cuts.

In terms of seniority, the new leadership structure in India still falls short of the era under Sanjay Malik, who helmed Nokia India for eight years in a role that combined responsibilities now being split between Mittal and Mehra. Mittal, however, will have broader operational control than his predecessor Chhabra, overseeing the entire customer portfolio end-to-end.

This is not Nokia's first round of restructuring-related job cuts in India. The 2023 overhaul had also resulted in layoffs, as roles were eliminated in customer experience, sales, and marketing during the transition to the vertical model.