Twitter announced on Monday that it will shut down engineering operations at its development centre in Bengaluru, a move that is likely to result in 20-60 layoffs. The employees who will be effected are part of ZipDial, the mobile communications startup Twitter had acquired for around $35 million (around Rs 235 crore) last year.

"As part of our normal business review, we have decided to stop the global engineering work at the Bangalore development centre. We thank the impacted individuals for their valuable contributions and are doing as much as we can to provide them a respectful exit from our company," Twitter India said in a statement.

The microblogging website, however, did not disclose the number of employees who will be laid off because of the Bengaluru centre being shut down. While Reuters reported that not more than 20 staff will be affected, a report in The Times of India said at least 60 employees will be handed pink slips.

Twitter's Bengaluru operations was its second development centre after one in the United States. The company said India was one of its "fastest-growing markets" and it remained committed to it as a "strategic market for users, partners and advertisers".