HR Headlines: Oct-08 (Part-1)

SEZs Anticipated To Create Eight Lakh Jobs Next Year
Mr. GK Pillai, Commerce Secretary, government of India, announced at a two-day international seminar on ‘SEZs in India – Major Leap Forward’, that SEZs would create eight lakh jobs next year as compared to 2.15 lakh currently.
Source: 23-08-08 Hindustan Times Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Ms Indra Nooyi - The World's Most Powerful Business Woman
Chennai-born, Ms Indra Nooyi has moved up to the third rank in this year's Forbes list, from the fifth last year, as one of the top corporate chiefs. The list has been topped by Germany's Chancellor, Ms Angela Merkel, followed by Ms Sheila C Bair, who chairs the US government agency Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The other prominent Indian on the list is Biocon's Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. Ranked at the 99th place in the Forbes Powerful Women list, Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw founded Biocon in 1978 to make industrial enzymes with a small Irish company, Biocon Biochemicals.
Source: 28-08-08 rediffnews.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mr. Anil Ambani's Pay Package Grows Six Times
India's second richest person Mr. Anil Ambani’s pay package has grown by close to six times over past fiscal. From about Rs 2.4 crore (Rs 24 million) in the year ended March 2007, Mr. Ambani's full-year pay surged to Rs 13.4 crore (Rs 134 million) in the latest fiscal from the four listed group companies. He got a commission of Rs 11 crore (Rs 110 million) and sitting fees of Rs 60,000 at Reliance Capital, but his salary was nil at the company, according to its annual report. At Reliance Infra, he got a salary of Rs 10.95 lakh (Rs 1.0965 million), sitting fees of Rs 2.6 lakh (Rs 260,000) and commission of about Rs 2.22 crore (Rs 22.2 million), making a total of close to Rs 2.36 crore (Rs 23.6 million).
Source: 25-08-08 rediffnews.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Jobs For 36,000 In MP – An Initiative By World Bank
To meet the labour (primarily the non-skilled category) shortage in Madhya Pradesh, corporate houses have taken an alternative route. Around 36,000 rural youth have been issued job offer letters since the past eight months by various companies, from manufacturing to service, courtesy a World Bank sponsored scheme District Poverty Initiative Project. "We organised job fairs in 14 districts and provided platforms to companies and the unemployed non-skilled rural youth," said Mr. Ravindra Pastore, project coordinator, DPIP. A number of textile companies, diamond cutting and polishing units, insurance companies and security service providers participated in the job fairs and offered jobs to a significant number of people.
Source: 28-08-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Escorts Heart Institute Gets A New Head
Dr Ashok Seth is all set to join Escorts Heart Institute, New Delhi, as the Chairperson. The medical fraternity is considering this shift as an attempt to fill in the void created by the departure of renowned cardiac surgeon, Dr Naresh Trehan two years ago. Dr Seth has already worked with the institute as the chief of the invasive and interventional cardiology of the institute at the time of its inception in 1988. He left Escorts to set-up Max Devki Devi Heart & Vascular Institute, Saket about three years back.
Source: 25-08-08 Hindustan Times Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Bengal Tea Workers To Get Higher Wages
About three lakh workers employed in 280 gardens in West Bengal will get higher wages retrospectively from April 2008. This decision is followed by a tripartite agreement, which says the daily wage of each worker will rise by Rs 4.10 with effect from April 2008 and by Rs .50 from April 2009. The workers will get the revised wages from September and the arrear payment for the period from April to August 2008 will be made by December 25, 2008.
Source: 26-08-08 The Hindu Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Ms Kalpana Morparia Ends 33 Year Old Association With ICICI, Joins JP Morgan
After serving ICICI Bank for 33 years, Ms Kalpana Morparia has decided to join JP Morgan As head of the Corporate Centre of ICICI Bank till 2007, she was responsible for a range of functions such as planning and strategy, financial reporting, risk management and human resources management. She was also the official spokesperson for ICICI Bank. The Bank in a statement said that Ms Kalpana, who was the group’s vice-chair for Insurance, securities and asset management and the chief strategy and communication officer, is leaving to pursue other opportunities.
Source: 29-08-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Accenture To Set HR Academies In Other Asian Countries
Accenture, which launched its HR Academy in India in partnership with XLRI (Jamshedpur), is planning to replicate the effort in other parts of Asia. “We are finalising details on starting similar tie-ups in two other countries where Accenture, in partnership with HR schools in these regions, would create a human resource talent pool for the company,” Mr Rahul Varma, Senior Director, Human Resources Strategy, Accenture Pte Ltd, Singapore said. Accenture India partnered with XLRI to launch a two-year programme work-study programme to impart industry-relevant skills with academic fundamentals. This programme aims at creating a new HR talent pool with skills relevant to the industry. Currently, Accenture India has 100 HR people on the job.
Source: 29-08-08 rediffnews.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

How Companies Are Balancing Out The Talent Pool Amidst The Slowdown
As per the study by HR firm Hewitt Associates, companies are tightening HR processes to deal with the economic slowdown. Its study of 150 leading corporates in India, on the impact of the economic slowdown on compensation and salary trends, found that 63% organisations had factored in inflation and rising input costs in their salary increase budgets for 2009. The global economic slowdown, US sub-prime crisis and rising inflation have adversely impacted Indian companies and the average salary projections for 2009 are lower by a percentage point at 13.9% from the previous year. It mentions companies are looking to balance the pressures of inflation and lower HR budgets by raising productivity (57%) and redeploying manpower (31%). Meanwhile, 30% companies stated they had increased performance linkages to counter fixed-pay increases. Only 20% mentioned a hiring freeze or a slowdown in recruitment. Mr. Sandeep Chaudhary, leader of Hewitt’s Rewards Consulting Practice in India, said, “Flexi-work pattern is followed by some of the best IT companies in India, such as Wipro and Infosys, to have a proper work-life balance, which may not be linked to the economic slowdown. Several companies have outsourced work to cut costs. Outsourcing of work to India and East Europe by MNCs is part of that strategy.”
Source: 30-08-08 The Financial Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Workers Not Too Sure About The US Job Market
The confidence of the American workers in the US job market is as low as it was during the 2001 recession. When asked whether it is a bad time to find a quality job, 65 percent agreed, matching the level of the 2001 recession, according to the survey by Rutgers University's John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development. As per the survey, only half of respondents are working the number of hours they want to work and one-third say, there has been a change in the number of hours they work in the past three months. Eighteen percent were working more hours, and 14 percent worked fewer. Contrary to this, 91 percent of workers say they're "very" or "somewhat satisfied" with their jobs. A majority of American workers hold favorable attitudes toward their health and retirement benefits (62 percent), the number of hours they work (83 percent), and their annual income (74 percent).
Source: 28-08-08 CBS News Compiled by Amresh Anjan

ANZ Bank To Post Back Office Job Requirements To India
ANZ India is planning to transfer 400 back office jobs from Australia and New Zealand to India in the next eight to 10 months. After this, it has plans to shift similar jobs from Asian countries as well. At present, ANZ India operates out of Bangalore, which earlier used to be a software development centre, and does back office work and shared services such as job evaluation and payroll management. “We expect growth in our Bangalore operations to come from back office work in Asian countries. However, it is too early to define from where and how much,” Mr. Shane Freeman, ANZ India Managing Director said.
Source: 29-08-08 The Telegraph Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Now, MBA Students Can Assess Their Employability
After devising an IT skills assessment programme for Nasscom and a computer skills proficiency test for the Karnataka government, Bangalore-based MeritTrac Services has introduced a new initiative to address the “employability” challenge among the MBA talent pool in the country. Out of 1,400 MBA colleges producing 100,000 MBA graduates annually, only 23 per cent of the MBA grads are employable, reveals a PAN India study by MeritTrac — an independent assessment company. Called ‘TracSkills MBA’, the initiative is a sustained assessment programme to provide direction to MBA students and complement their education in order to increase their employability. It helps MBA students prepare themselves holistically on every aspect. The focus of the programme is to improve communication skills, analytical abilities and the behavioural aspects to create a win-win situation for all the stakeholders in the MBA arena.
Source: 26-08-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

HDFC Gets A New Executive V-P
HDFC Bank has appointed Mr. Sanjeev Patel as Executive Vice-President and Head, Direct Banking Channels. He would be responsible for driving the bank’s phone-banking, ATM, net banking and mobile banking channels. Prior to this, he has worked with HSBC and ANZ Grindlays.
Source: 28-08-08 The Hindu Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Satyam Announces New COO
Satyam BPO, business process outsourcing arm of Stayam computer, has announced the appointment of Mr. Vijay Rangineni as Chief Operating Oficer. According to a company statement, he will be responsible for driving business transformation across customer engagements. Before this, he was Chief Operating Officer with GE Money, India.
Source: 29-08-08 The Hindu Business Line Compiled by Amresh Anjan

ASK Group Announces A New CEO
ASK Group has appointed Mr. Sameer Kamdar as CEO of its proposed asset management company. He has moved to ASK from Mata Securities where he was the Country Head in the mutual funds distribution business.
Source: 26-08-08 The Hindus Business Line Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Avantha Group Appoints Mr. Ash Gupta As President
Avantha Group has announced the appointment of Mr. Ash Gupta as President – Group Strategy and Business Planning. He was earlier working with Honeywell India where he was President and CEO. His previous experience includes heading global functions at GE.
Source: 26-08-08 The Hindu Business Line Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Pyramid Saimira Gets New Heads
Pyramid Saimira Group has appointed Mr. Prakash Iyer as head – finance and business development and Mr. Naveen H as general manager, Games Arcades & Retail Business. Mr. Iyer will spearhead from New York and would be in charge of various business verticals within the group, as well as all international business development initiatives for the group.
Source: 29-08-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Some Positive News For Aspiring Pilots
The Director General of Civil Aviation has reduced the minimum hours of flying experience required to appear for the commercial pilot’s test. As per the recently issued Civil Aviation Requirement, the aviation regulator has said that applicants appearing for the written exam to acquire a Commercial Pilot License should have acquired a minimum of 25 hours of flying training experience.
Source: 29-08-08 The Hindu Business Line

Compiled by Amresh Anjan