HR Headlines: March. 08 (Part-1)

Budget Brings Bonanza For Salaried Class
Union Budget 2008-09 brought cheers to the salaried class as the Income Tax Exemption limits were raised from Rs 1.10L to Rs 1.50L. The exemption limit for women has been increased to 1,80,000 from 145,000 whereas for senior citizens, it has gone up from 1,95,000 to 2,25,000. Also, the minimum benefit to a person with an annual income of Rs 1.5 lakh at the threshold will be around Rs 4,000. The proposals may result in a benefit of over Rs 50,000 to a taxpayer having an income of Rs 5 lakh annually. The tax slabs have also been revised as follows: 10 per cent I-T for income between Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh, 20 per cent for income between Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh and 30 per cent for Rs 5 lakh and above. However, there has been no change in the corporate taxes.
Source: 29-02-08 www.zeenews.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

How To Retain Employees Bitten By Entrepreneurial Bug
It is not uncommon for aspiring entrepreneurs to quit their day job to launch a start-up company. In fact, the start-up craze has spread across the country. Employers, affected by this loss of talent are, coming up with new methods to satiate the entrepreneurial urge of the employees while retaining them. Companies are providing financial, legal and operational support to employees to pursue new business ideas within the firms they work for. This trend has been successfully adopted by firms, such as Intel Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. Intel set up New Business Initiatives (NBI) nine years ago in the US, which produced WiMAX and Visual Computing business units. In India, OnMobile Global, a mobile value-added services firm, was incubated within Infosys Technologies
Source: 25-02-08 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

More IITs To Tackle IT Manpower Shortage
With growing business and expanding horizons, the Indian IT industry is feeling the heat of man power shortage. To overcome this dearth of talent, government is taking significant steps to provide quality engineers in the IT industry. In the Union Budget 2008-09, government has announced that three Indian Institutes of Technology will be set up in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan and 300 more ITIs will be upgraded with an investment of Rs 750 cr. Also, the Ministry of State for Human Resources Development is taking various positive steps. It started finishing schools for unemployed engineering graduates to prepare them for IT and ITeS industry in the current financial year.
Source: 29-02-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Jobs Boom In BFSI Segment For Next Five Years
The banking, financial and services industry sector in India is rapidly growing and so are the jobs in this sector. According to industry sources, this segment will create about a million jobs every year for the next five years. Of these, the highest number of jobs will be generated in the insurance industry pegged at 500,000 jobs per year. Despite such huge job creation, the foremost challenge for the industry is to find people with relevant skills for the jobs at hand. Last year, ICICI hired about 10,000 people from among 300,000 applicants. Also, to overcome the problem of skilled manpower shortage, the ICICI Group has tied up with some universities and colleges across the country to offer courses in banking and insurance.
Source: 23-02-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

National HR Summit on Leveraging Technology for Excellence in HR
Delhi Management Association, in collaboration with AIMA, is organizing ‘National HR Summit on Leveraging Technology for Excellence in HR’ on 14th March 2008 in New Delhi at Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre. The principal sponsor of the event is SAP India and co-sponsors are Adrenalin E Systems and ONGC. The summit will focus on how sophisticated technical tools can be leveraged by HR to analyze and address the issues of culture and skill deployment, which were traditionally regarded as ‘soft issues’. For further details/registrations, please contact:
Rajan Pandhi, Assistant Director (Mob: 9810877615)
Delhi Management Association, India Habitat Centre, Core 6 A
1st Floor, Lodhi Road New Delhi 110003
Tel: 24629555,24649552 Fax: 24649553
E-mail: dmadelhi@sify.com or dmadelhi@ndb.vsnl.net.in
Website: dmadelhi.org
Source: 26-02-08 DMA Compiled by Amresh Anjan

‘Sutta breaks’- Turning Organizational Productivity To Smoke
It is not uncommon for employees to take a break during work hours to de-stress, chat and smoke a cigarette- what we commonly call the ‘sutta’ break. Organizations usually turn a blind eye towards such activities as they do not realize how detrimental it could be to their interests. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), this seemingly harmless practice may be burning a hole in the pockets of organizations, big and small. Along with factors like rising stress, and peer pressure, studies have shown that a casual tobacco and alcohol use habit may also increase the probability of an individual to graduate to the use of other substances. Substance use among employees often translates into a disguised cost for companies, as it may lead to failing job performance, lower productivity, ill health, increased levels of absenteeism, increased disciplinary problems, poor relationships amongst the workforce and many more such problems. The Indian Alcohol Policy Alliance estimates annual loss across industries due to alcohol to be 7000 to 8000 crore rupees. UNODC has taken the lead to conduct a 2-hour workshop on substance abuse prevention so that individuals can contribute holistically and productively to the organizations they work for. For more details, contact- Mr. Pratik Kumar, Tel: (+91-11) 4222-5080, Email: pratik.kumar@unodc.org
website- http://www.unodc.org/india/

Source: 26-02-08 UNODC Compiled by Amresh Anjan

IT Professionals Going Out Of The Way To Work For A Purpose
The general perception of IT professionals is that of geeks raking in big moolah. Shattering that image, some IT professionals are doing commendable work for society beyond the call of duty. For instance, Mr Noel Sequeira, a Web developer, has set up a website that serves as a common platform for willing blood donors and those in desperate need in Mumbai. The portal, www.mumbaiblooddonors.org, came up after Mr Sequeira himself faced a harrowing experience in his personal life. In another instance, Mr Mayur Gupta has developed a hands-free, voice enquiry system in regional languages, targeted at Indian farmers, that retrieves prevailing prices of commodities and other such queries from the Internet and displays it to the user after recognising speech instructions. Joining the league, Mr Sanjeev Sarma pioneered an online centralised ticketing system for Assam State Transport Corporation.
Source: 25-02-08 www.sify.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Skill Shortage Leading To High Wages, Inflation: Economic Survey
The Economic Survey has revealed that a lack of skilled workforce is resulting in high attrition and cost-push inflation. If not checked in time, this trend could hurt the economy. The survey says that skill shortage can also lead to eroding of price advantage in some of the tradable sectors of the Indian economy. The most affected areas reeling under skill shortage are technology, outsourcing sector, semi-skilled labour intensive sectors such as manufacturing, and modern services like organised retail, civil aviation, construction and finance. To meet the enormous demand for professional education and employable skills, the survey suggests introduction of liberalised norms for the entry of reputed foreign universities in the country.
Source: 28-02-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Campus Hiring Figures Drop At IITs
This year, campus recruitment figures by prominent Indian and foreign IT firms at IITs have dipped, fuelling fears of an industry slowdown. Hiring by Tata Consultancy services, Wipro and Infosys dropped, while IBM, HCL, Hughes Software and CSC opted out of placements this year. Accentuating the trend, IIT Kanpur revealed that recruitment has gone down from 130 students in 2007 to 72 in 2008.
Source: 25-02-08 Business Standard Compiled by www.naukri.com

Domestic Airlines Hiring Expats For Top Management Posts
Domestic carriers such as Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines are increasingly hiring leading expatriates with years of experience in global airlines for top management posts. Jet has already roped in 14 expatriates from major foreign carriers, including five senior management executives from Singapore Airlines and three from Gulf Air. Kingfisher has five expatriates on its advisory board, out of which two are from Cathay Pacific and one from KLM Royal Dutch Airline. Cheaper carriers such as SpiceJet, Simplifly Deccan and IndiGO have expats heading their engineering and technical departments.
Source: 26-02-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Govt Incentives To Create More Jobs For Disabled In Pvt Sector
The Ministry of State for Social Justice and Empowerment has approved incentive schemes to generate 1,00,000 employment opportunities a year for the physically challenged persons in the private sector. Under the scheme, government will take care of the employer's contribution to Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Employees State Insurance (ESI) for providing employment for the first three years to persons with disabilities. The scheme is valid for persons with monthly income up to Rs 25,000. It covers all persons with disabilities defined under Disabilities Act, 1995 and National Trust for welfare of persons with Autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999.
Source: 28-02-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

More Than 50 IIM-B Graduates Get Offers Before Final Placement
For IIM-B students, there are options galore even before the final placement on March 04. About a fifth of the 250-odd students of the 2006 batch have already secured job offers in lateral placements concluded in February. Companies such as KPMG, Aditya Birla Group, Barclays Bank, Microsoft, Infosys and Capgemini have issued the maximum number of offers. However, students are keeping their cards close to the chest and have not accepted any offers till the final placements as consulting firms and investment bankers would come only then. Consulting companies including Oliver Wyman will come for the campus interview for the first time. This year, about 69 per cent of the Post Graduate Programme in Management students have prior work experience.
Source: 29-02-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

XLRI Students Being Wooed By Top Companies At Top Salaries
It is boom time for XLRI students who are getting big offers from prestigious companies during lateral placements this year. This is for the second time consecutively that the annual salary offered to an XLRI student has crossed the $100,000-mark.While Novartis offered this package to a student in 2007, Infosys has given at least six such offers to students this year. Infosys would place selected students in the US or Europe after training them in India for a year. Students of finance, consultancy, operations, marketing and human resource have received best offers this year. The average salary package offered at the recently concluded lateral placements at XLRI was Rs 15 lakh.
Source: 25-02-08 www.telegraphindia.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Licensed Coolies To Become Permanent Railway Employees
In his good-for-all railway budget, Railway Minister Mr Lalu Prasad had something for the humble coolies as well. All licensed railway porters will get permanent employment as "gangmen" in the railways. According to the railway data, there are 38,000 licensed porters in the country. Authorities believe that the move to induct them would help the railways to meet manpower needs since it faces a shortage of 140,000 personnel. Also, they can be groomed easily as they are already familiar with the ambience of the railways. The licensed porters will be mainly deployed in field and operational work.
Source: 26-02-08 www.sify.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

New CEO For Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund
Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company has appointed Mr Anil Kumar as its new Chief Executive Officer. Mr Kumar possesses varied experience across all facets of retail banking, with Citibank NA and track record of starting-up new businesses.
Source: 27-02-08 www.dnaindia.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mr Nitin Paranjape Appointed MD & CEO Of Hindustan Unilever
Refurbishing the top management, Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) has appointed Mr Nitin Paranjape as the company's new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. He replaces Mr Douglas Baillie who will join the Unilever Executive, taking over as the new president for Western Europe. Joining the HUL as a management trainee 21 years ago, Mr Paranjape has come a long way serving as the Executive Director, home and personal care. He has handled various departments with different responsibilities and has considerable experience of managing business and functional strengths in sales and marketing.
Source: 28-02-08 www.indiaenews.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Jobless Rate In Germany Touches 16-yr Low In February
According to the German Federal Labour Agency, jobless rate fell to 3.3 million in February, the lowest level since 1992. Despite fears of a US slowdown and high energy costs, the labour market remained robust. Companies added 75,000 jobs in February. Market experts were surprised at the strength in the labour market but were not sure whether the trend could sustain itself. Last week, the International Monetary Fund cut its 2008 German growth forecasts from 2 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
Source: 28-02-08 news.bbc.co.uk Compiled by Amresh Anjan

5,600 Jobs To Be Trimmed At BMW This Year
In a bid to trim its cost base further, BMW plans to cut 5,600 jobs by the end of this year. Of these, 2,500 will be full-time manufacturing positions, another 2,500 will be part-time factory roles, and sales and distribution jobs will comprise another 600. BMW believes that these job cuts will reduce annual costs by 500m euros. The company has already eliminated 2,500 positions placing the total job cuts at 8,100, which equates to 7.5% of the firm's workforce.
Source: 27-02-08 news.bbc.co.uk Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Siemens Telecom Unit To Trim 3,800 Jobs
Announcing its biggest job cuts in years, Siemens will lay off 3,800 jobs in its corporate telecom unit and shift another 3,000 to partners or other units. The decision will affect nearly 40 percent of the unit's 17,500 workers. The move is a part of the company’s plan to restructure its Siemens Enterprise Networks unit, also known as SEN, and accelerate the company's transformation from a hardware supplier to a software and solutions provider. According to company sources, the job cuts and shifts will be global and 2,000 of the 3,800 jobs cut will be in Germany; and of the 3,000 jobs that are expected to be transferred elsewhere, 1,200 are in Germany.
Source: 26-02-08 www.huffingtonpost.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Ms Nooyi Adds Another Feather In Her Cap
PepsiCo’s chief Ms Indra Nooyi has been named among America’s top ten female CEOs by Forbes magazine. The list was compiled on the basis of their company’s total return to investors since each of them came at the helm. Ms Nooyi has been placed at the 10th position in the list. The top place in the list was grabbed by Ms Catherine Burzik of Kinetics Concept, followed by Ms Meg Whitman of eBay and Ms Linda Lang of Jack in the Box.
Source: 24-02-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Microsoft Allays Job Cut Fears Of Its Employees
Microsoft Corp has assured its employees that there will be no major layoffs if it succeeded in buying Yahoo Inc. The company has said that there are plenty of employee opportunities throughout the company. Microsoft has hired over 20,000 people since 2005 and is looking to place talented employees throughout the company. On the other hand, Yahoo has put in place generous severance benefits for all those employees who might be laid off if the company was sold.
Source: 24-02-08 Hindu Business Line Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Ford Workers’ Union Gives A Thumbs Up To Tata
The workers' union of carmaker Ford in Britain has once again shown its support for the Tata offer to buy the Ford-owned Jaguar and Land Rover. The union believes that its members' long-term future is best served by Tata. The support is based on the promise by Tata which totally ruled out offloading Jaguar or building Land Rovers in India. Tata had assured union officials that engines would still be taken from Ford and that British manufacturing would be maintained.
Source: 24-02-08 www.sify.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan