That's interesting. Are they taught in Indian primary school that "the layoffs is" is correct?

No. Even in Indian English, this is not correct.

> Indian English is just about as different from American English as it's possible to get.

Hardly. Indian English is not even very different from some dialects of British English (just not the one British dialect that most non-Brits are used to). Even many of the features that people commonly associate with Indian English are actually taken from British English and still present in present-day British dialects (again, just not the one that most non-Brits are familiar with).

There are other dialects of English that are far more different from Standard American English, to the point where an American speaker will have trouble understanding them altogether, as opposed to being able to understand the meaning correctly albeit with noticeable distinctions.

But you're right that there's a good chance that this is a dialect difference.

Indian English has lots of loanwords from Indian languages in it. That's the biggest difference I'm referring to. Try reading any Indian finance news without knowing what lakh, crore, and lakh crore mean, for example.

How does it compare to Scottish English or Jamaican Patois? Those seem like a different language to me

If you asked a Jamaican to pass you the "beer can", they might hand you pork rashes. :-D