It is happening in India too. Cognizant is laying off people purposely giving them fourth bucket in spite of working really good and make employees sit in bench without assigning any projects.
It happened to one of my very own colleague who has even got client appreciation to his credit.
Managers are forced to give low ratings to their direct reports even of they perform well. Cognizant follows TCS way and I personally feel that it is the beginning of end of Cognizant.
Few local state governments have given approval for IT employee organization in lieu with securing the interests of employees working in IT companies.
It is happening at many levels. Even a Senior Manager has been sacked.