During the announcement of layoffs, Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote a memo to all employees, saying that the company had hired for a different economic reality than the one they face today
https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/google-layoffs-some-fired-employees-may-get-up-to-rs-260-crore-in-severance-pay-375444-2023-03-30
Or can't they close the office? The India office can't be innovating beyond what the U.S. office can do. Just think about it. The land of IITs still hasn't produced a large scale tech company, while China has produced so many, one that is threatening Google and can only be stopped by Google lobbying the feds to close it. There's no innovation coming out of India.
It’s better to keep ‘em on payroll and fire them for poor performance
They must be planning for a long decline.