HR Headlines: Jul-10 (Part-4)

For more article, Visit at : www.amreshanjan.co.cc     Alumni Hiring Is In With companies back in the growth track, employees who quit, voluntarily or involuntarily, may be seen on their old turf again. In the coming season, alumni hiring will be one of the pipelines that recruiters would look into to strengthen their pools. "I'm a big fan of alumni hiring," says Mr E Balaji, CEO and Director, Ma Foi, HR consulting firm. Boomerang hiring does have advantages such as ex-employees comprise a ready-to-use resource that requires very little training (and so a company saves on that cost) and on-boarding is easier. However, according to Mr Venkatshastri, Client Partner, Technology and Office, Managing Director, Korn/Ferry International, Bangalore, companies should watch out for the 'fatigue factor' that the employee carried when he or she quit the organisation. "A new role in the same company should re-energise the individual to perform," Mr Venkatshastri explains. Source : 15-07-10   The Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Infosys To Keep A Watch On Its Employees On Social Media Platforms If you are an employee of Infosys Technologies, better be careful. A casual banter about a colleague or a project on Facebook or Orkut might get you in trouble. August onwards, whatever you post on the social media network will be under the company's watch. The IT bellwether is planning to introduce a social media policy, a first in India, to make employees more responsible in their expressions. In the worst case, an Infoscion could lose his job if his post on the social media network breaches the company's code of conduct. "We are addressing our concerns on privacy of client data that could be leaked out in the social media circles (by employees). We also want our employees to understand that they are accountable and responsible for what they express (about the company) in that space," Ms Nandita Gurjar, senior vice-president and group head, human resources, Infosys, said. Many major global companies like Microsoft, Yahoo and Intel already have a similar regulation in place. Source : 14-07-10   DNA   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Employees Provident Fund Interest Rate May Be Fixed At 8.5% For 2010-11 The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) may retain the interest rate for its six crore account holders at 8.5% in 2010-11, with a formal announcement expected to be made in August. "I hope that the recommendation of 8.5% by the Finance and Investment Committee of the EPFO will be retained," Central Provident Fund commissioner Mr S Chatterjee said. "The EPF rate will hopefully be finalised in the next EPF Board meeting, which is expected in August," he added. Source : 11-07-10   DNA   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Attrition Rate Rises In Infosys The attrition rate in Infosys Technologies shot up to a whopping 16 percent during the first quarter (April-June) of this fiscal (2010-11), the company said. "With the market opening up, attrition has increased this quarter. We have taken several steps, including a compensation hike to reduce it," said Board Member Mr T V Mohandas Pai. The company's attrition increased to 15.8 percent from 11.1 percent a year ago and sequentially from 13.4 percent a quarter ago. Though the gross addition during the first quarter under review was 8,859 people, the net addition was 1,026 only, as 7,833 employees left for various reasons. Considering the attrition, the firm is on a hiring spree, aiming to boost its software army to cope with a rebound in industry demand. It plans to hire around 36,000 people in the current financial year, of which 14,000 will come in the July-September quarter alone. The hiring is important because Infosys, with 114,000 employees globally, hired only 18,000 between January and June. Source : 13-07-10   ibnlive.in.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Nokia Employees Strike Disgruntled employees of Nokia went on a strike last week, which affected production at its factory at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai. The union asked for better pay terms and reinstatement of workers who were suspended in January. "The wage settlement offered by company is quite low. We are not happy with that," Union sources revealed. On the other hand, the company said the wages offered were after due consideration, including benchmarking with the industry standards on similar skill sets and experience. Source : 14-07-10   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Courts In Village Mooted For Job Scheme Issues To complain against undue delays in getting work or non-payment of wages, among other things, beneficiaries of the government's flagship rural jobs scheme may soon be able to move village courts. The rural development ministry offers to set such gram nyayalayas, or village courts, to exclusively address grievances relating to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The Act assures a minimum 100 days of work every year to at least one member of every rural household. The scheme came up in 2006 and has since provided work to around 1.6 million rural households. But it has also faced charges of poor execution and corruption. Rural courts will provide an independent mechanism to address workers' grievances, according to a senior official at the rural development ministry, which looks after the scheme. Source : 15-07-10   livemint.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Singapore Goes On A Hiring Spree Singapore said it must hire more workers from abroad to help keep inflation low. The government plans to allow over 100,000 foreign workers into the city-state this year, Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong said. Some part of Singapore's decades-long boom, which has made it one of the world's wealthiest countries, has been fuelled by foreign labourers who are ready to do jobs in areas such as construction and hospitality for lower wages than locals. The country also tries to entice what is known locally as "foreign talent" — educated professionals from abroad to work in the finance industry and other high-paying sectors. Source : 15-07-10   Hindustan Times   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Retail Sector Faces Talent Crisis As retailers map expansion plans to grab a slice of the estimated Rs-20 lakh crore retail sector, they are going to find at least one irritant — trained manpower. The severity can be understood from the fact that retailers continue to employ from other sectors like fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), hospitality, telecom, IT, and the sector is witnessing an attrition rate of 40 per cent. "The number of people required in the organised retail sector will double over the next five years," said Mr Ramesh Srinivas, executive director, KPMG. Currently, organised retailers employ around 6 lakh people. Bharti Retail, for instance, plans to hire 60,000 people by 2015. On the other hand, RPG Retail, which owns and operates the Spencer's brand of retail stores, aims to add 2,500 people by 2010-end. Retailers confirmed lack of trained manpower. "Each function and each level requires a unique skill set. While these skills may not be available in the context of the retail sector, due to an abundance of talent in India, people with the required skills set can easily be found across other sectors and industries. We face a staff shortage at senior and middle levels in our back-end operations," said Mr Thomas Varghese, CEO, Aditya Birla Retail. Source : 15-07-10   Hindustan Times   Compiled by Amresh Anjan AIG Names Mr Robert Miller As Chairman American International Group Inc named director Mr Robert "Steve" Miller as its new chairman. He has replaced Mr Harvey Golub who resigned after clashing with Chief Executive Mr Robert Benmosche over the botched sale of the insurer's Asian life unit. "Mr Robert Benmosche has informed the board that he believes our working relationship as Chairman and CEO to be ineffective and unsustainable," Mr Golub, 71, wrote in a July 14 letter to Mr George Miles, an AIG director. Source : 15-07-10   DNA   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Mr Avtar Sangha Joins Patni Patni Computer Systems, a major global IT and BPO services provider, has named Mr Avtar Sangha as its new head of delivery for the Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. He will be based in Patni's EMEA headquarters at Heathrow and will be responsible for the delivery of services to all clients in the region. Source : 16-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Mr Vir S Advani Promoted As ED At Blue Blue Star has promoted Mr Vir S Advani as executive director. He has been in the Blue Star Group for a decade, after a two-year stint in New York. In 2000, he joined Blue Star Infotech and then founded Blue Star Design & Engineering in 2003, designated as its CEO. Source : 16-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Honeywell Appoints New President Mr Pritam Bhavani has been appointed as president of Honeywell Aerospace in India. Mr Bhavani relocates from Honeywell Aerospace, Phoenix, Arizona, US. Source : 16-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan CSDL Names Two Directors Central Depository Services (India) Ltd has named Mr N Rangachary and Mr TS Narayanasami as independent directors on its board with effect from July 7, 2010. Source : 16-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Facebook Announces Appointment Of Two Directors Facebook has announced the appointment of Ms Kirthiga Reddy as director of online operations and Mr Manoj Varghese as director of user operations in the company's operations office in India. Source : 16-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Uninor MD Quits Norwegian telecom major, Telenor said Uninor managing director, Mr Stein-Erik Vellan, who was instrumental in launching the group's India operations, has resigned. Uninor is a joint venture between Telenor and Indian group Unitech, in which the Norwegian firm has a majority stake. Source : 10-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Mr Shalabh Jain Is Firstsource COO Business process outsourcing firm, Firstsource Solutions, has appointed Mr Shalabh Jain as Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the Asia Business Unit. Before this, he was Head, India Business at Mphasis. Source : 15-07-10   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan EIL Gets Two More Independent Directors The government has announced the appointment of two more independent directors on board of consultancy firm Engineers India Ltd (EIL) to pave way for a public offering in the last week of July. Orders for appointment of Mr K D P Nigam, Professor of Chemical Engineering in IIT Delhi, and Mr Adit Jain, the Chairman of IMA, were issued on July 9, the company said. Source : 14-07-10   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Lowe Gets New SE Asia President Lowe + Partners has said that Mr Rupen Desai, currently the network's operating director for Unilever's worldwide business, has been elevated to a newly created role of president, SE Asia. His role will extend to include leadership of the Lowe Singapore agency. In this role, Mr Desai will focus on all SE Asia-Pacific territories, including Australia and New Zealand but excluding China and India. Source : 16-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Nissan India Appoints New Deputy CFO Nissan Motor India named Mr Sunil Rekhi as Deputy Chief Financial Officer. Prior to this, Mr. Rekhi was the CFO at General Motors based in Gurgaon, as per a release. He will now report to Mr Richard Ito, Chief Financial Officer for Nissan Motor India and Renault Nissan Automotive India. Source : 13-07-10   The Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan

 

HR Headlines: Jul-10 (Part-3)

For more article, Visit at : www.amreshanjan.co.cc   The Naukri Job Speak Index Moves Up By 4% In June-10 Over May-10 The improving business sentiment among recruiters coupled with growing market optimism indicates a cheerful employment scenario as indicated by the Naukri Job Speak index which moved up to 947 in June-10 as compared to 913 in May-10. This evidently reflects that hiring is on a growth mode on a month on month basis as indicated by the upward moving indices of majority of industry sectors, functional areas and cities. The ITES sector has been bullish on hiring as the sector registered a notable growth of 25% in June-10 over the May-10 index. On a year on year comparison, the job index moved up by 21% in June-10 as compared to June-09. Source : 09-07-10   naukri.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan IT Companies Looking For Job-Ready Freshers Mr Arun Rao, vice-president, global HR, at Hyderabad-based software firm AppLabs, is looking for freshers with some prior training, unlike his counterparts at Infosys or Wipro, who stress on extensive training programmes for freshers to make them job ready. The logic behind this decision is simple - such recruits can be productive and start delivering results in a short span of time. Likewise, Mr Gopalji Mehrotra, global HR head, Zensar Technologies, which is looking to hire about 800 freshers this year, says the attempt would be to recruit individuals with prior training. There are quite a few other HR heads, specifically those from mid-rung companies, who are looking for fresh graduates with some training in say java, networking, testing, etc, who can facilitate quick delivery of results and thereby cut down on the time and money spent by employers. Source : 06-07-10   DNA   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Hire Indians First! India has new rules regulating the issue of work visas for foreigners. While these remove a cap on the number of foreigners a firm can hire and scrap a minimum stipulated salary, they intend to explicitly articulate the philosophy that should guide the hiring of foreigners: Indians first. Earlier, Indian firms had to limit their foreign recruitments to 1% of their workforce and pay them at least $25,000 a year (Rs11.68 lakh). In the new rules, both restrictions have been scrapped that were communicated to the ministry of external affairs by the ministry of home affairs in a letter dated 31 May. After that, the ministry of external affairs communicated the same to all Indian diplomatic missions. The new rules came into effect immediately. Source : 05-07-10   livemint.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Karnataka To Increase Job Hunt Tie-Ups With Private Companies Mangalore's employment exchange got a facelift late last year. The state-run exchange started advertising its services, even reached out to students through meetings held in city colleges. Much of this was the result of a so-called public-private partnership between the state and staffing services firm TeamLease Services Pvt. Ltd. Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa, Karnataka chief minister, will inaugurate a similar exchange in Bangalore, again in association with TeamLease—indication that the Mangalore experiment has worked. Similar experiments are being considered across the country. India has 968 government-run employment exchanges that have helped people in finding the people registered with them relatively few jobs. Source : 06-07-10   livemint.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Cong Wants Release Of Wages Of MCD Workers The issue of regularisation of more than 25,000 safai karamcharis and their pending wages continued to control the Standing Committee meeting of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), with the opposition Congress members demanding that the agency release the pending payments of all its safai karamcharis and 35,000 daily wagers. MCD Leader of Opposition Mr Jai Kishan Sharma alleged that the ruling BJP in the MCD could not "manage its budget allocations and other funds, due to which it is left with no money to pay wages to a large number of safai karamcharis". However, Standing Commitee chairperson, Mr Yogender Chandolia clarified that the issue has already been resolved and that the MCD has started the first phase of the regularisation involving around 425 safai karamcharis. Mr Chandolia also claimed the MCD has started releasing the pending wages along with the arrears. It will regularise safai karamcharis working with the MCD from 1994 onwards, against a sanctioned strength of 7,000 workers. Source : 08-07-10   indianexpress.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan DPs Fight For PSU Staff Accounts The coming initial public offers (IPOs) of public sector units (PSUs) have given top depository participants (DPs) a reason to fight. Nine PSUs are going to hit the capital market with IPOs and follow-on offers (FPOs) this fiscal as part of the government's disinvestment plan. These companies will allot shares to employees at a discount to the IPO price. DPs are planning to corner these demat accounts of PSU employees. At present, a few top institutions which are also major DPs, including Stock Holding Corporation of India (SHCIL), UTI Securities, State Bank of India and United Bank of India, are said to be lobbying hard for demat accounts of Coal India Ltd (CIL) employees. CIL has about 400,000 employees and it will reserve one per cent equity of the IPO for them, according to market players. The government is planning to raise Rs 12,500-15,000 crore by diluting 10 per cent stake (selling 631 million shares) in CIL. The IPO is expected to come up around Diwali. "The senior management of CIL is of the view that every employee of the company should be given an opportunity to apply in the IPO. Even the lowest paid mine worker in CIL has a PAN card," said a source. Source : 08-07-10   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan IT Firms Wake Up To Fight Against Malpractices After the recent exposure of 800 IT professionals in Bangalore with fake experience certificates, the Indian information technology (IT) industry is waking up to fight organised malpractices. Top IT firms are even taking the legal route to preserve brand image. Some companies have come up with separate cells to audit internal hiring processes. According to a senior executive from a large IT firm, "We have been cautious about it, though cases of laterals showing fake experience certificates isn't new. As a precautionary measure, we have banned employees coming from certain smaller black-listed firms." At Wipro Technologies, there is an in-built Talent Quality Group (TQG), which frequently evaluates the internal recruiting process. "Since the inception of TQG, the background verification failures in the organisation have seen a drastic drop. However, if candidates are later proved to have provided incorrect documents, we take it up legally," said Mr Pradeep Bahirwani, vice-president, talent acquisition, Wipro. Mr Mukund Mennon, vice-president, HR, at Mahindra Satyam, said that random audits and reference checks are a common practice. "Besides termination, we would look at legal action if the candidate has brought any material damage to the business," he added. Source : 08-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Air India's CMD Plans To Create A New Team Mr Arvind Jadhav, chairman and managing director of National Aviation Co. of India Ltd (NACIL), announced that he is planning to build a team whose members will be placed in key positions as part of his efforts to turn around the struggling national flag carrier Air India. He is looking for a chief strategy officer, a chief information officer, a chief human resource (HR) adviser and a chief communications adviser, all of whom will report to him. Source : 07-07-10   dailyme.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Two Independent Directors Appointed At Religare Religare Enterprises (REL) said it had inducted two global financial sector experts on its board as independent directors. The firm inducted Mr Stuart Pearce and Ms Kathryn Matthews to its board, shortly after its promoters, Mr Malvinder Singh and Mr Shivinder Singh decided to step down from the board of REL. Source : 08-07-10   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Govt Raises Death Payout In Insurance Of Employees The existing limit of the Employees Deposit Linked Insurance amount has been raised by the government from Rs 60,000 to Rs 1,00,000. The amount will be given to the next of kin of an employee in case of his death. The government in the newly modifed Employees' Deposit Linked Insurance (Amendment) Scheme, 2010 said the benefits will be for employees of both the public and private sector. The government said if an employee, who is a member of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation or a provident fund exempted under Section 17 of the Act, expires, the persons entitled to receive the PF amount will get an additional amount equal to the average balance in the employee's PF account in the last 12 months, if it is less than Rs 50,000. However, if the amount is more than Rs 50,000, the relative will be paid 40 per cent of the excess amount, not exceeding Rs 1,00,000. Source : 08-07-10   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan War Of Attrition Waged By CEO Of BA British Airways Plc Chief executive officer, Mr Willie Walsh may be relying on strike fatigue among 12, 000 cabin crew to allow him to force through cost cuts and weaken union influence at Europe's third-largest carrier. As flight attendants start voting on a pay offer that ignores union grievances over the removal of travel perks, the firing of strikers and the use of volunteer staff, the appetite for stoppages is probably diminishing, said Mr Andy Cook, CEO of Marshall-James, which advises companies on employee relations. Source : 08-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Two New Independent Directors Join CDSL The Central Depository Services Ltd has named former Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Chairman Mr N Rangachary and former Bank of India Chairman Mr T S Narayanasami as its independent directors. The appointment is part of BSE's strategy to revamp the depository after it acquired a majority stake last month. Source : 09-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Zee News MD Steps Down Zee News said Mr Laxmi N Goel, its managing director, has resigned from the company. He has been replaced by Mr Punit Goenka with effect from July 5, the company said. However, Mr Goel will continue as a non-executive director of Zee News. Source : 07-07-10   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Gammon Infra Hires Executive VC Gammon Infrastructure Projects announced the appointment of Mr Himanshu Parikh as executive vice-chairman of the company. In the new assignment, Mr Parikh will look after the executive responsibilities of the company. Source : 07-07-10   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan New Head Of Research Appointed At Aditya Birla Money Aditya Birla Money, the broking arm of Adity Birla Financial Services Group, has named Mr Vivek Mahajan as head of research. Before this, Mr Mahajan was senior vice-president and head of equity research and advisory function at HSBC investDirect securities. Source : 09-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan HSBC Names Fin Services Head HSBC India named Mr Gannesh Bhardhwaj as its new head of personal financial services. He will be responsible for HSBC's premier and advance propositions, wealth management, liabilities, consumer assets and NRI businesses and its distribution network, HSBC India said. Source : 09-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Qatar Airways Gets A New Manager Mr Henry Moses has been appointed as country manager for Qatar Airways India. He has also worked with Malaysia Airlines in the past. Source : 09-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Blue Star Appoints A New Executive Director Blue Star has named Mr Vir S Advani as wholetime director of the company with effect from July 1. He is designated as Executive Director, as per a company release. In his new role, Mr. Advani will be looking at corporate finance and accounts and the professional electronics and industrial systems business. Source : 08-07-10   The Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan GM India Names New Vice-President, Marketing General Motors has appointed Mr Sumit Sawhney as Vice-President, sales, marketing and aftersales with effect from August 1. As per a release, he will replace Mr Ankush Arora, who has been transferred to GMDAT Korea as Vice-President, sales, service and marketing. Source : 09-07-10   The Hindu   Compiled by Amresh Anjan New President And COO Appointed At NIIT GIS NIIT GIS has appointed Mr S. Sridhar as President and COO, based at the corporate office in New Delhi. Mr. Sridhar has more than 30 years of experience in managing IT, CAD and GIS organizations. Source : 08-07-10   The Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Cisco To Recruit 3, 000 Employees In Two Years In order to provide enhanced ICT services in India, Cisco Systems plans to appoint 3,000 professionals over the next two years, a top company official said. "We are quite happy about our Indian operations. As Bangalore is the second head office for Cisco after California, we want to increase our headcount here. We plan to hire 3,000 more in the next two years," Cisco's Chief Globalisation Officer and Executive Vice-President, Mr Wim Elfrink, said. Source : 07-07-10   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan

 

HR Headlines: Jul-10 (Part-2)

For more article, Visit at : www.amreshanjan.co.cc     Indian Workforce Is Most Mobile In The World According to a study by Ma Foi Randstad, the country's largest HR (human resources) services company, Indian workforce continues to remain the most mobile in the world. The company has just released the second part of Ma Foi Randstad Work Monitor, which is a quarterly review of 'mental mobility' status of employees. It studies the readiness of the employees to change jobs. The 'Work Monitor' survey covers 25 countries across Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas. The state of mind of workers in these countries is studied and presented in the form of an index, which shows the extent to which employees in a country are thinking of changing their jobs in a short-term as compared to those in other countries. As per the study, the Indian workforce continues to remain the most mobile in the world with an uptrend as compared to the first quarter (147 in the second quarter and 140 in the first quarter). It finds India to be a place where the maximum employee movement is happening. India is followed by China and Mexico. Source : 26-06-10   The Hindu   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Govt Introduces Biometric IDs To Block Leaks In Rural Job Scheme To stop misuse and leakages from its flagship rural employment programme, India is planning to introduce biometric-aided identity checks that can be verified remotely. This move has come at a time when the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has been criticized for leakages. It is the government's largest social sector spending programme with allocation for this financial year pegged at Rs 40,100 crore. The proposal aims at rolling out a GPS (global positioning system)-enabled plan of biometric attendance for the job-guarantee scheme workers within one year once accepted, according to a ministry official. Source : 28-06-10   livemint.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Increase In Number Of Job Seekers Adds To Punjab's Unemployment Woes Unemployment in Punjab has increased tremendously, and now government statistics indicate this too. From April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010, the department of employment generation and training of the state added 67, 587 job seekers on its 'live registers' at employment exchanges. The department managed to place only 3,855 aspirants, despite the fact that it had notified around 14, 800 vacancies in both the public and private sector. The total number of job seekers registered with the employment exchange stood at 4.80 lakh as on March 31, 2010. The department of employment generation will conduct a survey under the supervision of district administration at district level to know the exact magnitude of unemployment in the state, according to sources. The survey will collect information on educational qualification and economic status of male and female unemployed persons in the age group of 16-40 years. The purpose of the survey is to help the government to form policies for tackling unemployment in the state. Source : 30-06-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Infosys Celebrates Its 30th Birthday By Rewarding Staff With Shares To mark the 30th year of its operations beginning July 2, Infosys Technologies announced that it will reward its employees with equity shares. "All employees on the rolls will be eligible for a minimum of five equity shares with an incremental allocation of one share for each year of service," the company said. The company will allot shares in the second week of August. Source : 30-06-10   ibnlive.in.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan UK Becomes A Distant Dream For Indian Skilled Workers The new British government introduced a controversial cap on migrants from outside the European Union region - a move that will hit Indian skilled workers the hardest. However, visiting Commerce Minister, Mr Anand Sharma said he has been assured Indian interests will not be harmed. Mr Sharma said he raised this issue with Foreign Secretary, Mr William Hague - just as Home Secretary Ms Teresa May was announcing the cap that fulfils an election pledge. The minister, who is leading an Indian business delegation, told Mr Hague the cap must not be allowed to stop the movement of Indian professionals and business people, as many Indian businesses use Britain as a hub for Europe. The immigration cap is controversial because it is opposed by British businesses. According to them, a decline in the numbers of foreign skilled workers will affect economic growth as Britain struggles to recover from its longest and deepest recession in more than 50 years. Source : 29-06-10   Hindustan Times   Compiled by Amresh Anjan French Youth Rebel Against Higher Retirement Age Students in France who haven't even entered the job market yet are already worried about what happens when they retire from it. In France, workers' rights are so deeply entwined into the culture that even teenagers are unsettled about plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, which is still among the lowest in Europe. The reform protest brought nearly a million people out into the streets across the country last week on Thursday. Youth fear that they will lose the most from President Mr Nicolas Sarkozy's pension reforms, which aim to cut France's increasing deficit and make the money-losing pension system break even starting 2018. Source : 28-06-10   Hindustan Times   Compiled by Amresh Anjan US Jobless Claims Rise New claims for state unemployment aid unexpectedly increased last week, heightening fears the US economic recovery is stalling. According to the Labor Department, initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 472,000. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected claims to fall to 452,000 from the previously reported 457,000, which was revised slightly up to 459,000 in Thursday's report. Source : 01-07-10   moneycontrol.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Mr BK Birla's Daughter To Be Named As Vice-Chairman In Kesoram Mr BK Birla, who is 90 and the chairman, announced that his daughter, Ms Manjushree Khaitan, will manage Kesoram, but under his grandson, Mr Kumar Mangalam Birla. "Manjushree will look after the company and will be in constant touch with Mr Kumar Mangalam. I would want Kumar Mangalam to be the chairman of the company; Manjushree can be the vice-chairman," said Mr Birla. Source : 02-07-10   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Morgan Stanley Plans To Hire Bankers Morgan Stanley recruited 100 bankers to offer more products such as jumbo mortgages and structured loans to structured loans to Morgan Stanley Smith Barney clients and may quintuple their numbers by the end of 2011, a source said. The firm is building a private bank to squeeze more revenue from clients and encourage them to hold deposits at the company. Morgan Stanley's wealth management group had $191 million of interest income in the first quarter, a fraction of the $1.1 billion at Bank of America's Merrill Lynch unit. Merrill Lynch has been successful in offering mortgage products to their retail customers. Source : 02-07-10   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan RCF Names New Chief Mr J Kohareswaran has been appointed as the new chairman and managing director of Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers, with effect from July 1. Mr Kohareswaran has worked in different capacities in the finance section in both divisions of the company and also in the audit department. Source : 02-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan RK Swamy Appoints Mr Ghosh As Director Mr Partha Ghosh has been named as the director of business development, the media division of RK Swamy BBDO. He will report to Mr Les Margulis, president Media Direction. Prior to this, he was general manager of GroupM Motivator. Source : 02-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan RED FM Gets Two New Heads Red FM has named Mr Krishnan Menon as national activation head, Mumbai, and Anand Raj as station head, New Delhi. He brings with him an experience in sales & business management of about 11 years, whereas Raj was earlier involved with the national promotions and client solutions portfolio for Red FM in Mumbai for the past two and a half years. Source : 02-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Bahwan Cybertek Announces The Appointment Of A New Director Mr Mohanbir Sawhney has been appointed as a Director in Bahwan Cybertek (BCT). Till now, Mr. Sawhney was a consultant to BCT and after seeing the growth, exclusivity and commitment of the top management team, he agreed to come on board as director, Strategy, Marketing and Innovation. The company plans to increase the number of employees by taking an additional 200 professionals to augment resources for its clients in the U.S and Middle East. Source : 29-06-10   The Hindu   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Spicejet CEO Mr Sanjay Aggarwal Steps Down Spicejet Ltd 's chief executive officer, Mr Sanjay Aggarwal has resigned within a month of Sun TV founder Mr Kalanithi Maran's acquisition of a huge stake in the aviation firm. Sun TV's Mr Maran and his unlisted aviation firm Kal Airways have decided to buy 37.7% in the carrier and have also made an open offer for an additional 20%. Source : 01-07-10   DNA   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Netxcell Hires New Senior V-P Netxcell, engaged in providing telecom application services, has announced the appointment of Mr Sarvesh Asthana as senior vice-president – technology. He will bring a new focus to Nextcell's VAS & Enterprise solutions. Source : 02-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan ACC Managing Director Resigns Cement maker, ACC's managing director Mr Sumit Banerjee stepped down from the company. He is expected to join Anil Ambani Group to spearhead the latter's cement business. Source : 01-07-10   The Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan ESPN Start Sports India MD Quits ESPN Start Sports India said that the company's managing director, Mr RC Venkateish has decided to part ways with the company. Chief operating officer, Mr Vijay Raput, will act as general manager ESI in the interim period till Mr Venkateish successor is appointed. Source : 30-06-10   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan NASSCOM HR Summit 2010 NASSCOM is holding a two-day HR Summit on 28th and 29th of July, 2010. The summit is themed around Time to Reinvent where the HR heads, CXOs, Academicians and Motivational Speakers will talk about ways to: • Balance employee's aspirations and align them with company's objectives • The key issues faced today in the on-going war for talent • Acquiring the USP to be the employer of choice • Planning succession strategies to ensure an on-going leadership development pipeline • Discovering retention plans to keep talent • Leveraging company's development and training plan as a tool to build employee loyalty • Educating managers in effective talent management • Sharing experience with your peers and networking with experienced and successful practitioners The event will take place at Hotel Le Meridien, Chennai. Source : 02-07-10   naukri.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan