Indian engineering giant Larsen & Toubro sacked 14,000 employees or 11.2% of its staffers in the six months leading to September, as part of its bid to “right size” during an economic slowdown and maximise on digital developments, The Economic Times reported on Wednesday. The announcement of one of the country’s biggest retrenchment exercises follows the conglomerate’s claims that its second quarter profit rose by 84.3% to Rs 1,434.63 crore, Mint reported.

Chief Financial Officer R Shankar Raman said, “The company has taken a lot of initiative to right size staffing in various businesses. The digitisation and productivity enhancement initiatives taken by us boiled down to redundancies of roles and we have been able to shed as a group 14,000 in the six months to September.” The company said the next few months would be challenging with “customers deferring orders and falling oil prices contributing to a sharp slowdown in the Middle-east”. The company reported a rise in revenue by 8.2% to Rs 25,010 crore in the second quarter.

Raman referred to the retrenchment as a “correction”. Government projects have offset the decline the company has faced in its private sector orders.