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