Nasscom, the apex body of IT and ITeS companies in India has taken over a new role of playing matchmaker between IT companies that are considering lay-offs and others that are actually looking to hire good talent.

Nasscom President Som Mittal told mediapersons recently that the association had already had such meetings in large cities like Mumbai and Kolkata where positive results resulted. He, however, did not name any companies that participated in the meetings nor give out figures of their numbers.

“Some IT companies will definitely lay off employees. However, there are many others which are still recruiting. We do not expect mass layoffs,” he was quoted as saying in a report published by DNA Money.

IBM, Wipro and TCS are said to have given out pink slips in what Mittal sees as the direct impact of the global economic crisis. However, he is confident that while the slump would hurt Indian IT over the next three-four quarters, there would be a revival thereafter.

“Hiring is slowing down because of several factors. Attrition is lower. Efficiency is getting improved, but people are back in the campus for next year. If they did not have confidence to use those resources next year, why should they go to the campus and create a problem?” Mittal was quoted as saying.

He said that the companies were actually seeing the slowdown as an opportunity as they feel that their clients would outsource more work to India in the days ahead in view of the significant cost advantage that such a measure provides.