Nothing wrong with that. Lots of companies have assistance programs that involve sign on times. If the company is going to pay to move you somewhere, or pay to teach you something, there’s no reason for them not to make sure they’ll get their money’s worth. They aren’t paying for these things for fun, they’re in it for the money.
This "relocation assistance" is basically the severance package IBM avoided paying because the employee was nutty enough to relocate to India on IBM's terms. The question of whether to take the relocation package or severance package is an IQ test. If the employee takes the relocation package (instead of the severance package), then he really is dumb enough to be working for IBM on local terms in India.