HR Articles: Aug-12 (Part-4)

For more article, Visit at : www.amreshanjan.co.cc Indian Job Space Looks Bullish- Antal Global Snapshot Survey Job prospects for professionals and managers seem bright in the country as around 55 per cent of firms have recruited staff in the June quarter and a similar percentage of people are looking to do so in future as well, says a survey.According to the findings of the 12th Antal Global Snapshot, hiring levels across the globe witnessed a slowdown in the June quarter, while the Indian job space looks bullish.This survey indicates that the Indian job market has remained stable this quarter with both hiring and firing rates staying more or less the same during the last three months.The survey states that 55 per cent of Indian companies have recruited staff at the moment, while 56 per cent are looking to do so in the near future. Source : 06-08-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Diversity Quotient In Boardrooms Improves A Credit Suisse research report said the number of women in Indian boardrooms increased 16 percent, from 30.4 percent in 2005 to 46.5 percent in 2011. In 2011, 80 percent companies in Thailand had at least one woman director. This was followed by China at 50 percent and India at 46.5 percent. Almost all firms in New Zealand had women in their boardrooms. Women were present on the boards of 88.2 percent Australian firms and 51.6 percent in Hong Kong. The survey further showed that in the past six years, companies with women on their board outperformed those with no woman director with regard to share prices. According to Credit Suisse, the performance could be attributed to better perceptions such as being regarded ` `a better company, greater diversity and access to a wider talent pool. Source : 03-08-12   Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Google Preferred Employer Among Asian Graduates Google has been named the "most ideal employer" in Asia at the 2012 Employer Branding Awards held in Singapore. The award was given by Universum, a global employer branding research firm, which polled 37,800 business and engineering students in Asia. Google received the largest number of votes from both categories of students. The other companies that came out on top in terms of employer branding were Sony and Toyota. High future earnings were regarded as one of the most attractive features of a job by business students in India, China and Singapore. Indian students, on the other hand, considered employer reputation when picking up a job. Understanding student preferences and expectations is crucial to winning the talent war in Asia, said Rachele Ferri, senior vice president of talent strategy and employer branding, APAC and global brand adviser, Universum. Source : 03-08-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan IT Eyes A Different Talent Pool As Wage Bills Rise With wage bills going through the roof, industry body NASSCOM has started looking for alternative sources of talent. Taking the unconventional route, it is tapping the visually challenged for some BPO jobs and rural graduates in positions which do not need excellent communication skills. The industry is doing away with traditional models of recruitment, says Santanu Paul, managing director and CEO of TalentSprint. The slowdown has put pressure on revenues and the current model is not feasible. Around 60 percent to 70 percent of graduates in the country come from unconventional backgrounds, but are very talented. NASSCOM will start a dialogue with the top IT and ITeS companies to develop and manage this different talent pool. It has set up the HR Forum to collaborate with TalentSprint, a skill development firm. Source : 03-08-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Lay Down Expectations To Make Remote Working Work While working from a remote location is an effective way to cut costs, ensuring its success remain a challenge for companies. It is important to make sure employees know what is expected of them. Cisco offers remote working as long as the employees are able to deliver results. Work schedules are drawn up within teams working remotely, says Seema Nair, head, HR operations, Cisco India. The company also has a comprehensive portfolio of solutions to help extend the office network enabling a telecommuter to work from another location. HR consulting firm PeopleSys has harnessed the power of the cloud. Its entire customer relationship and sales management runs on the technology. Ultimately, the success of the relationship depends on the maturity of employees and the trust between the employer and the employee, says Yashwant Mahadik, vice-president and head, HR, Philips India. Source : 04-08-12   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Cisco Restructuring To Cost 600 Jobs In India Cisco Systems is laying off 600 of its employees in India as part of a restructuring plan. The cuts include 200 employees from its recently acquired video software and content security solutions company NDS. The company had recently announced 1,300 cuts globally due to a slowdown in its enterprise business and integration issues arising out of acquisitions. Cisco has four R&D centres and six sales offices in India. It acquired NDS in March, with a headcount of 1,600. Apart from NDS, engineers working in R&D, switching and the data centre as well as some sales professionals will be laid off too. A Cisco spokesperson said the company was performing a focused set of limited restructurings that will affect about 2 percent of its global employee population. CEO John Chambers had earlier pointed out weakness in its India operations. Source : 03-08-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan U.S. Employment Gains Fail To Make An Impact The U.S. job market recovered slightly with the surprise addition of 163,000 jobs in July. The jobless rate rose marginally to 8.3 percent. Job creation of late is matching population growth but there has only been a slight decrease in unemployment. Friday's jobs report painted a mixed picture. Job gains in May were revised upward a bit, but those in June were revised downward. The gains of last month may have included some distortions relating to the time of year which were not adjusted. Total employment declined by 1.2 million. As per a separate household survey, the number of employed fell 195,000 and the number of unemployed increased 45,000. The labour force shrank by 150,000. As per the survey, employment is up by 2.8 million, while the civilian labour force has increased 1.7 million. Source : 02-08-12   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Employment, Growth Optimism Highest Among Indians Indians are the most optimistic in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region where employment, economic growth and the quality of life are concerned. The MasterCard worldwide index of consumer confidence (MWICC) stood at 82.1 for India compared with 57.2 for the Asia Pacific region. China was ranked second after India, with its MWICC index at 77.4. A reading of 100 shows maximum optimism and 0 signifies maximum pessimism. The index indicates that people are hopeful that markets will either do well or remain stable in the coming months, according to TV Seshadri, division president (South Asia), MasterCard Worldwide. India scored better than other regional peers on employment as well. The index was at 78.3 compared with 54 for the region. Seshadri attributed the score to the huge young population of India, which expects its quality of life to get better. Source : 02-08-12   Mint   Compiled by Amresh Anjan IBM Eyes Small Cities, Banks On Local Talent IBM is looking to tap local talent as it expands operations beyond the big cities. It has set up half a dozen centres in smaller cities and is planning to reach nearly 40 locations in the next year. Over the past one year, it has set up branches in Indore, Guwahati, Dehradun, Raipur, Coimbatore and Kochi. Next on the cards are Madurai and Tiruchi. Substantial markets exist beyond the big cities, according to Girish Vasudevan, branch manager, Chennai, IBM India/South Asia. Access to that potential is difficult when operating from a big city. The need for local appeal has prompted IBM to enter smaller cities and local talent therefore holds the key, says Mr. Vasudevan. The goal is to address small and medium businesses. IBM is mulling services such as infrastructure (server), system management software or a basic analytics package. Source : 03-08-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan It Is Time BPOs Moved Out Of IT's Shadow The business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is in the middle of an identity crisis. It employs nearly 8.6 lakh people and has made a successful shift from being just a call centre industry to doing some high-end analytics work. Yet, it has been unable to shed the perception that it is highly oriented towards night shifts and is meant only for party goers. Keshav Murugesh, CEO, WNS Group, says BPOs offer a huge opportunity and should be presented as a career choice for youngsters. WNS employs nearly 25,000 people across 10 countries. The sector has never come out of the shadow of the IT sector, despite exports growing by more than 12 percent over the previous year to reach $16 billion in FY12. India should take pride in its BPO sector, the way the Philippines does. Source : 02-08-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan HSBC India Names Shantanu Ambedkar As MD And Head Of Pvt Banking HSBC India said it has appointed Shantanu Ambedkar as the managing director and head of its private banking business in the country. His appointment is effective July 28, 2012. Mr. Ambedkar joined the HSBC Group in 1994 and has experience across various businesses including corporate sales, interest rates trading, balance sheet management and institutional sales. Prior to this appointment he was managing director and head of institutional sales for the global markets business in India.He is a mechanical engineering graduate from Pune University and has done his masters in business administration from Mumbai University. Source : 02-08-12   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Extending Expat Benefits Evenly Gets Tougher Providing expatriate benefits to the growing number of globally mobile employees is proving to be a challenge for companies. Between 2008-09 and 2011-12, the total assignee population rose from 21 percent to 40 percent, according to a Mercer report. About 85 percent of multinationals monitor the success of their expatriate benefit policy. Some 53 percent have seen international medical plan premium rise above 6 percent. According to the survey, provision of expatriate benefits remains a key priority for multinational companies. Only 12 percent of companies have established international retirement plans to ensure continuity of benefits. Some 63 percent of traditional and long-term expatriates are maintained in their home country retirement plans, adds Economic Times. However, employers often face problems maintaining assignees in the home country plan. Many employers thus seek alternative, more flexible solutions. Source : 01-08-12   Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan UB Group Gives Hikes, Bonuses To Some While employees of Kingfisher Airlines have had to forgo pay for six months, a few employees of the UB Group have received annual increments and bonuses in July. The increments are said to be between 16 percent and 24 percent. Bonuses are believed to be as high as 30 percent. Regulations of Securities and Exchange Board of India might be coming the way of payments to some Kingfisher Airlines employees. As per the rules, funds earned by one company in a group cannot be distributed to other companies of the same group unless the company takes a loan from the profit-making company. A Kingfisher employee said while its parent company was paying bonus to some, the airline had not paid a number of its employees for six months. Source : 01-07-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Deutsche Bank Appoints India CEO Deutsche Bank has named Ravneet Gill CEO for India. Mr. Gill will also be a member of the bank's Asia Pacific executive committee. Source : 01-08-12   Financial Chronicle   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Corporate India Plans To Hire Detectives The rising trend of hiring detectives can be judged by the sheer growth in the number of investigators that the country has right now. From around 500 investigators 10 years back, the number has swollen to 15,000 today, says Kunwar Vikram Singh, chairman of Lancers Network, a risk consulting corporation. And while detectives have helped the companies with information they need for their strategies and survival, this practice has not gone down well with the ethics brigade. The sectors that use these services the most are pharmaceutical and FMCG, adds Dinesh Pillai, chief executive officer, Mahindra SSG, since these sectors are such where a single product has the capacity to turn the company's fortunes around. Blockbuster brands and drugs are known to catapult obscure brands to stardom. Therefore, it becomes all the more important to protect information. Also, companies in these sectors are most prone to counterfeiting. Source : 01-08-12   NDTVprofit   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Zengatv Ropes In Sony Entertainment Marketing Head As CEO Mobile television services provider ZengaTV today said it has appointed Mr Abhishek Joshi as its new Chief Executive Officer.Prior to this, Mr Joshi was handling the marketing function for Sony Entertainment Television at Sony Entertainment Network and brings with him more than 11 years of experience, ZengaTV said in a statement.One of Mr Joshi's key responsibilities will be to identify and develop new revenue channels for the ZengaTV platform and reach out to a diverse set of advertisers, it added.ZengaTV already has 65 million video views month-on-month across different channels and has more than 100 TV channels and more than 10,000 movies available on its platform. Source : 30-07-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan

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HR Articles: Aug-12 (Part-3)

For more article, Visit at : www.amreshanjan.co.cc 62% Recruiters Anticipate New Jobs To Be Created In The Second Half Of 2012: Naukri.com Hiring Outlook Survey Concerns of a global economic crunch and rising inflationary pressures are acting as a caution sign for India Inc. A survey conducted by Naukri.com with 1000+ recruiters across India revealed a dip in hiring sentiment across sectors. A similar survey last year showed that 80% recruiters had anticipated addition of new jobs in 2011, while this year only 62% recruiters have said that new jobs will be created in the second half of 2012. In Jan- 12 when the survey was done last about 72% had said that new jobs will be created in 2012. However, the sentiment has further dipped over the last six months. On the flip side, recruiters reported a talent shortage, demonstrating the fact that hiring, managing and retaining talent continues to be a challenge for recruiters. Source : 01-08-12   Naukri.com    Compiled by Amresh Anjan IT Bench Strength Up 25% In A Year Curtailed IT spending and delays in projects have led to a dramatic increase in bench strengths in big IT companies. Nearly 150,000 employees in the top three Indian IT companies were benched in the June quarter. This is up 30,000 from a year ago, an increase of 25 percent. Utilisation rates were down, too, with Tata Consultancy Services reporting 81.3 percent utilisation, minus trainees, during the quarter. In the previous year, it was 83.2 percent. The reason behind the trend is project delays in banking, financial services and insurance in the U.S. and European markets, the prime source of revenue. At Infosys and Wipro, respective utilisation rates were 71 percent and 68.3 percent. About 43,000 and 42,000 employees, respectively, are estimated to be on the bench. Source : 29-07-12   Financial Chronicle    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Alcatel Lucent To Cut 5,000 Jobs Globally Alcatel Lucent is looking to reduce its headcount by 5,000 globally and exit non-profitable markets. The company plans to save €1.25 billion by the end of 2013. The company announced a series of measures to reduce its costs after it reported a net loss of €254 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2012. Revenues during the period declined 7.1 percent. Owing to the deteriorating macro environment and the competitive pricing in certain regions, there is need to undertake transform more aggressively, CEO Ben Verwaayen said. The telecom equipment maker employs 10,000 people in India and manages half of fixed and CDMA wireless lines in the country. It was not immediately known whether the announcement will have any impact on its India operations. A spokesperson declined to say where these reductions will be effected. Source : 28-07-12   Financial Express    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Researchers Develop Measure For Boss Arrogance Scientists have developed a new tool which can help identify arrogant bosses. Researchers say arrogant bosses can drain the bottomline because they are typically poor performers who cover up their insecurities by disparaging subordinates. Researchers at the University of Akron and Michigan have developed The Workplace Arrogance Scale. The test asks questions such as whether the boss demonstrates different behaviours with subordinates and supervisors, says Stanley Silverman, dean of UA's Summit University Colleges. A "yes" response spells trouble and signals arrogance. Mr. Silverman says arrogance is correlated with lower intelligence scores and lower self-esteem. Left unchecked, arrogant leaders can be a destructive force within an organisation, spreading negativity. Such bosses do not mentor junior colleagues, nor do they motivate a team. Arrogance can be addressed through coaching if a leader is willing to take it. Source : 28-07-12   Financial Express    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Astrum Homes Hires COO Astrum Homes, a private equity-funded real estate development firm, has appointed Irenaeus Vincent as COO. He has more than 30 years of experience in the international real estate development sector. Source : 28-07-12   Hindu Business Line    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Sun Group's CEO Puts In His Papers Sun TV Network Ltd's group chief executive officer Tony D'silva has decided to step down by the end of the month. The media company is yet to decide on a successor. Mr. D'silva joined as chief operating officer of Sun Direct, the direct-to-home television arm of Sun TV Network, in 2007 and was later elevated as CEO of the company. Before joining Sun Direct he had a stint with Star India as its head of distribution. Source : 24-07-12   Mint    Compiled by Amresh Anjan EPFO Portal To Make Claim Settlement Easier The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has launched its website, allowing more than 50 million subscribers to access their accounts online. To avail this facility, the active subscribers would have to register themselves on the EPFO portal by furnishing their account details. An e-passbook will be available for active EPFO members. It will not be available to those whose accounts are inoperative, settled or have a negative balance. EPFO is also introducing a facility of online settlement of provident fund claims in a couple of months, Central Provident Fund Commissioner RC Mishra said. At present, subscribers can apply only manually for claims, which is time-consuming. These claims take more than the mandated one month to settle. To process claims online, EPFO would require a central database, Mr. Mishra said. At present, databases are maintained separately at regional EPFO offices. Source : 24-07-12   Financial Chronicle    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Small, Midsize IT Firms Ride Out Slowdown Industry body NASSCOM said small and midsize IT companies have performed well, posting up to 20 percent growth. These companies were hit most by the 2008 downturn and changed their business strategy, which has paid off, says NASSCOM President Som Mittal. The fundamentals of the domestic IT industry are strong. While the U.S. and U.K. remain the biggest markets, companies are looking at newer geographies. Many are also looking at leveraging mobile platform and cloud computing to remain competitive. Mr. Mittal says it is unlikely companies' recruitment plans would head downward this year. Campus hiring has had a good run. The majority of those who got offers in 2011 and graduates of 2012 would get on board by March. He expects the hiring pattern of on-campus, off-campus and lateral followed by global at the end to continue. Source : 25-07-12   Financial Chronicle    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Gujarat Trails Andhra, Uttar Pradesh In SME Jobs Gujarat stood 14th in job creation among states despite being home to the largest number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). A survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry said the state has generated a little more than 8,000 jobs between April 2011 and February 2012, well behind economically weaker states such as Bihar, Odisha, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. West Bengal was at the top, generating 43,000 jobs, followed by Andhra Pradesh at 33,115 and Uttar Pradesh at 30,880. Some 8,058 jobs were generated in Gujarat. The state government assisted about 1,494 SMEs utilising a margin money subsidy topping Rs 52 crore. In fact, Gujarat trailed Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala, which created 9,800 and 12,400 jobs, respectively. Gujarat has 300,000 SME units, each with 10 to 15 employees on an average. Source : 23-07-12   Indian Express    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Uninor Cuts India Services, May Sack 2,000 Globally Some 2,000 jobs in Uninor stand to be affected as the operator curtails its services in the country. Operations in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Orissa circles will be cut and the 400 employees affected would be relocated to other circles, the company said. It has 6.8 million subscribers in these circles, but only 47 percent use the network. Uninor has been hit by the Supreme Court order and has tried every possible measure to take its business forward. However, the decision to shed jobs was difficult but had become necessary, Managing Director Sigve Brekke said. The move would allow it to break even by 2013 instead of 2015. This would make Uninor self-financing, Jon Fredrik Baksaas, Telenor's group CEO, said in Oslo. It has managed to cut its India operating losses to Rs 569 crore in the April-June quarter Source : 25-07-12   Financial Express    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Employers Put FB Profiles Of Candidates Under Lens New research has found that Facebook profiles are increasingly being used by employers to screen candidates. U.S. scientists have found that the social networking site, which displays the user's lifestyle, attitude and even appearance, is being used to eliminate unsuitable candidates. Vanessa de la Llama of the Florida International University, North Miami, said employers are using the website as a screening tool. The trend has been visible in the IT, healthcare and wellness, education, law enforcement, food and drink, travel and advertising industries. This has led to the debate on the issue of whether or not employers should be using social networks to filter candidates. A question that must be asked is whether employers are assessing on the online "image" ahead of interviewing candidates, researchers involved in the study said. Source : 25-07-12   Hindu Business Line    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Global IBank Moelis & Co Enters India, Hires Manish Girotra As India CEO Manisha Girotra, former head of UBS in India, has joined Moelis & Company, an investment bank founded in 2007 by Ken Moelis, her former boss at the Swiss bank.Mr. Girotra, who quit UBS as its CEO and country head in India last November, will head Moelis & Company in India as the firm plans to advise large Indian corporate houses on cross-border deals and initial public offerings.. Source : 12-07-12   Financial Chronicle    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Wipro Hikes Employee Salaries By 8%, Signals Hiring Wipro said it has given salary hikes of up to 8 percent to offshore employees and hiring plans for the year are "on track". "We have given wage hike of eight per cent to offshore employees and three percent hike (to those in western markets).Overall about 1.6 percent has been the impact in terms of all the manpower cost related increases that we have given because there were some promotions etc in Q1," Wipro Executive Director and CFO Suresh Senapaty said. He added that the country's third largest company is "on track" with its hiring plans for the year. He, however, declined to give specific numbers. Larger rival Infosys had said it will stick to its plan of hiring 35,000 people this year, but has pushed the decision on wage hikes to October on account of global economic uncertainties. Source : 24-07-12   Firstpost    Compiled by Amresh Anjan HCL Hikes Salaries; Overseas Hiring Plan On Track HCL Technologies will give increments of up to 8 percent to its offshore employees. It plans to hire 10,000 people in the U.S. and Europe by 2015. Offshore employees are getting hikes of about 8 percent and onsite employees will get a 2 percent increase, said Vineet Nayar, vice chairman and CEO. The hikes are in line with those announced by other big IT firms such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which will hire 50,000 people this year. Wipro has not disclosed its numbers. Infosys plans to hire 35,000 and has deferred its wage hike decision till October. With the rising anti-outsourcing sentiment against IT, companies have stepped up recruitment abroad to counter criticism. HCL's BPO arm has cut its losses, and will be shedding positions in its pure voice-based work as it transforms into a platform-based business. Source : 24-07-12   Financial Express    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Infosys To Hire 2,000 People In US This Year India's second largest software firm Infosys today said it planned to hire around 2,000 people in the US by the end of this year."Infosys hired 1,200 people in the US in 2011, and has already added more than 1,000 employees in the country this year. Total US recruitment is expected to be close to 2,000 by the end of 2012," the company said in a statement.Over the past few months, Indian technology companies have been feeling the heat of an anti-outsourcing campaign in the US and the EU, which are the main markets for domestic software and IT service companies. Source : 24-07-12   domainb.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan

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HR Articles: Aug-12 (Part-2)

For more article, Visit at : www.amreshanjan.co.cc Industrial Relations Suffering Due To HR Focus Shift The violence at Maruti Suzuki India's Manesar plant which claimed the life of HR executive Awanish Kumar Dev is a reflection of a breakdown of communication between top management and workers. It highlights the decline in industrial relations (IR) among HR practitioners in India. Young HR professionals are more interested in managerial positions, says SY Siddiqui, COO administration, Maruti Suzuki. That is the natural shift that has happened. Most of the HR talent has gone to the services sector. The trend has been seen in Japan, China and Indonesia, where shop-floor assignments are on the decline. HR has been focusing more on areas such as organisational development, strategic initiatives and leadership pipeline management. They have taken the eye off the ball in IR, says Aquil Busrai, an HR veteran with 30 years at Unilever, Shell and IBM. Source : 23-07-12   Business Standard    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Demand For Risk Professionals On The Rise Companies with an eye on managing risk are increasingly hiring risk managers. Demand for these professionals has increased by at least 30 percent to 40 percent. Companies are now looking at specialists to dig deeper into all the facts. Talent across skill sets is being recruited as risk managers, says Mritunjay Kapur, country managing director, Protiviti Consulting. Risk managers carry out risk assessments tests in a company. They could be generalists with a CA degree or specialists in sales and marketing. Their responsibilities range from presenting the internal audit report to the board of directors to having a say in the functions of the organisation. Large companies have three to four people as risk managers. People in the core operations area are the most sought after. A manager about 28 years old can expect some Rs 25 lakh per annum. Source : 23-07-12   Business Standard    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Survey: Business Confidence Down In June A survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM) says the macroeconomic situation of the past six months has led to a sharp decline in business confidence in June. As many as 51.6 percent respondents said the situation is worse than six months ago. However, a majority expected it to improve in the next six months. Some 36 percent felt profits would shrink during the period. However, more than 40 percent respondents said investment would not change in the next two quarters from the present level. A large majority felt prices will remain stable. The country's GDP growth fell to 6.5 percent during 2011-12, with fourth quarter growth dropping to 5.3 percent, the slowest in the past nine years. ASSOCHAM polled 1,000 companies in sectors including manufacturing, finance and IT. Source : 22-07-12   Asian Age    Compiled by Amresh Anjan TCS Pips Infosys In Employee Utilization Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has surpassed Infosys in terms of employee utilisation, volumes and deal pipeline. Currently, TCS has an 81 percent to 83 percent employee utilisation rate. By comparison, at Infosys utilisation ranges from 67.2 percent to 71.6 percent. The number of people on the bench at Infosys is also greater. This is largely due to the kind of clients in the TCS portfolio. IT has won eight large deals, one of them above $100 million. Infosys added 51 clients, but most were in the $1 million-plus range. In terms of volume growth, defined by the number of people billed, TCS was higher at 5.3 percent compared to Infosys where volumes grew 2.7 percent. TCS is also expected to achieve NASSCOM's growth estimate of 11 percent to 14 percent for FY13, but Infosys may grow 5 percent. Source : 19-07-12   Hindu Business Line    Compiled by Amresh Anjan British Gas Mulls Off Shoring Jobs To India British Gas is planning to move more jobs to India as more positions are made redundant in its office in Leicestershire, Financial Chronicle reports. The cuts are part of efforts to keep gas and electricity prices low. The company has launched a 90-day consultation period with 300 members of staff and employee unions, reports from Leicester said. The energy supplier did not confirm how many jobs will be lost or where they will be moved, but trade union Unison said they will be shifted to India. A spokeswoman announced that the company had explored alternative options, but would now be moving forward with the offshoring of a number of non-customer facing roles from the Leicester office. British Gas employs about 2,000 people in Leicestershire. Those who might be affected are in administrative positions dealing with business customers. Source : 18-07-12   Financial Chronicle    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Tata, Wipro Among Top H-1B Gainers In 2011 Companies such as Tata, Wipro and IBM India, which provide IT professional and technical services to U.S. clients, account for a large chunk of H-1B visa applications. Half of the requests by top 25 employers came from those with headquarters outside the U.S., the Brookings Institute said in a report on H-1B visas. Most visa holders come from the science, technology, engineering and maths fields, and mostly Asian countries. According to the report, the highest demand for these visas was for the New York metropolitan area, that is, nearly 53,000 on average over 2010-11. This translated into more than 16 per cent of national demand. The highest number of applicants granted H-1B visas in 2011 came from India, the latest report by the Department of Homeland Security said. This accounted for 58 percent of all approved petitions. Source : 17-07-12   Financial Express    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Hyundai Marketing Head joins Volkswagen German car maker Volkswagen AG has asked Hyundai India's marketing head Arvind Saxena to come on-board to manage its passenger cars business. He will replace Neeraj Garg, director and member of the board. Source : 20-07-12   Business Standard    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Planning Commission rules out 9% growth Achieving an average growth rate of 9 percent in the next five years is not possible, said Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission. Given the worsening global economic situation over the last one year, growth may even be 8 percent to 8.5 percent. He said an average of 9 percent in the 12th Plan (2012-17) was difficult to achieve. Somewhere between 8 percent and 8.5 percent was feasible, Ahluwalia added. He was speaking on the sidelines of a conference of state planning boards and departments. Last year, the commission had got approval for a 9 percent annual average economic growth target in the 12th Plan Approach Paper. The world economy had deteriorated sharply since. The rate of growth this fiscal, the first year of the 12th Plan, is 6.5 percent to 7 percent, he said. Source : 18-07-12   Mint    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Indians Prefer Security, Nice Colleagues To More Pay A Randstad Workmonitor survey for the second quarter of 2012 says that a majority of Indians are willing to trade a higher salary for job security and pleasant colleagues. Around 82 percent of the employees surveyed in India attach a premium to pleasant colleagues. The number is the second highest in the world after China. The world average is about 60 percent. However, some 68 percent say a better salary is more important than enjoying the work they do. The findings are based on 400 online interviews in more than 32 countries. A salary is often not enough to keep employees happy, says Randstad India managing director and CEO E Balaji. HR managers need to create a sense of community at the workplace. Source : 18-07-12   Financial Chronicle    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Temp Staffing Trend Gains Ground Amid Uncertainty In US A growing number of businesses in the U.S. are turning to staffing companies for temporary workers with the economic outlook worsening. Data from the Labor Department shows that the number of people on the payrolls of temp-staffing businesses increased to 2.5 million in June, an increase of 10.7 percent from a year ago and the biggest increase since May 2011. Companies are looking for more flexible staffing arrangement, says Tobey Sommer, director equity research, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. A not-so-easily forgotten recession has made employers wary of hiring, he adds. A "historically disproportionate" share of new jobs is coming from temporary staffing, according to Michael Blackman, chief corporate development officer for Kforce, a Florida company. A shortage of highly skilled candidates in IT and "extraordinary uncertainty" among employers is leading them to seek temp resources, he says. Source : 17-07-12   Financial Chronicle    Compiled by Amresh Anjan IMF Trims India's Growth Outlook To 6.1% The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lowered India's growth forecast for the current financial year to 6.1 percent from 6.8 percent projected in April. For 2013, the IMF's World Economic Outlook report has lowered the forecast to 6.5 percent, from 7.2 percent forecast in April. Global growth has shown further signs of weakness. The forecast for 2012 has been trimmed to 3.5 percent from 3.6 percent projected earlier. Similarly, the 2013 forecast has been reduced to 3.9 percent, which is slightly lower than the 3.6 percent projected in April. Growth has slowed in a number of major emerging market economies, notably Brazil, China and India. Many of these economies have also been hit by increases in investor risk aversion and perceived growth uncertainty. This has led to a decline in equity prices, and reduced capital outflows and resulted in currency depreciation. Source : 17-07-12   Hindu Business Line    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Consumer Confidence Falters As Job Prospects Fade A survey by Nielsen found that consumer confidence in India fell for the first time in nine quarters. The consumer confidence index fell four points from the first quarter of 2012 to 119. The country is still at No. 2 in the list of most confident countries in the world. The drop from the top position for India after nine quarters indicates a growing anxiousness among consumers regarding job prospects and spending habits, said Piyush Mathur, president, Nielsen India. Rising inflation and fuel prices which directly affect the wallet, along with a comparatively low GDP and fall of the rupee, have had an adverse impact on consumer confidence. India still ranks at the top when it comes to job prospects, but the index has declined seven points to 77 during the quarter, he said. Source : 30-11-99   Hindu Business Line    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Hinduja Global Looks To Expand Workforce Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) is planning to hire 2,000 to 3,000 people this financial year. The company has about 24,000 employees in 51 centres across 11 countries including India, the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Italy. The BPO firm has been relatively unaffected by the global economic crisis. It plans to start new operations in Jamaica and Columbia and in West Asia. CEO Partha De Sarkar said HGS will provide services to one of the largest banks in Jamaica with 50 people by end of this month. It will also serve as a near-shore option for some of the clients in the U.S. and Canada. While companies across the world are cutting costs, companies such as HGS are gaining businesses from public sector firms and retailers in the U.K. and consumer electronics companies in Canada. Source : 17-07-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan

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HR Articles: Aug-12 (Part-1)

For more article, Visit at : www.amreshanjan.co.cc Job Growth Drops Across Five Sectors In Q4 The fourth quarter of 2011-12 recorded a moderate decline in employment in five of the eight sectors surveyed. The quarterly survey by the Labour Bureau showed that leather, metals, automobiles, gems and jewellery and the handloom/powerloom sectors gave employment to less numbers in January-March compared to the October-December period of 2011. In the leather sector, employment slipped during the latest three quarters after increasingly marginally by 1,000 jobs in the quarter ended June 2011. However, the decline was moderate, from just 1,000 jobs less in automobiles to 16,000 in handloom/powerloom. It was compensated by the IT/BPO sector, which generated 104,000 additional jobs and the transport sector, which added 16,000 more people. However, the job increase in IT/BPO was the lowest in any quarter of 2011-12, indicating worsening demand from abroad. The quarterly surveys are being conducted since October-December 2008. Source : 16-07-12   Business Standard    Compiled by Amresh Anjan IIMs Admit More Women Non-Engineers The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) saw higher numbers of women applicants from non-engineering backgrounds. At IIM Bangalore, a quarter of the 2012-14 PGP batch consists of women, and 15 percent of them are non-engineers. IIM Lucknow said the key focus this year was to ensure gender diversity without compromising on merit. The institute has admitted a record 167 girl students in its PGP and PGP-agri-business management batch. About 20 percent of these are non-engineers. At IIM Ahmedabad, 16.8 percent of the batch consists of women and 364 of the total 381 are non-engineers. These numbers indicate the efforts made by business schools to rebalance the gender and profile scales. So far, engineers had monopolized admission into the institutes. Of the 226 students at Delhi's Faculty of Management Studies, 41 are girls and 32 come from backgrounds other than engineering. Source : 16-07-12   Financial Express    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Employees Want Less Commute, More Family Time A survey by Regus International has found that Indian employees prefer family and fitness over long hours of commuting. A large number of employees in India are spending the time saved with partners, family members or exercising. Around 85 percent wanted to spend time with their partner and family, followed by 83 percent wanting to devote time to exercise. Charitable or voluntary work was also high on the list, with 70 percent of those polled wanting to get involved in charitable work, extending their educational qualification (65 percent), reaching out to more friends (61 percent) and spending more time sleeping (41 percent). According to the survey, a little over half of Indian employees (51 percent) were free to work from locations other than their company's main offices. The survey covered more than 16,000 professionals in more than 80 countries. Source : 16-07-12   Financial Chronicle    Compiled by Amresh Anjan MD & CEO Of Motilal Oswal AM Resigns Mr Nitin Rakesh, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company, has put in his papers. Mr. Rakesh said that he was moving on for better prospects. However, his exit will not be effective immediately. Mr Rakesh joined Motilal Oswal AMC in September 2008. He has also worked with TCG Investments and Unit Trust of India (UTI Mutual Fund). This is the fifth exit by the CEO of a mutual fund house in the last four months. Mr Navin Suri resigned as CEO of ING Investments India last month. Mr Piyush Surana of Daiwa Asset Management, Mr Rajan Krishnan of Baroda Pioneer Asset Management and Mr Arindam Ghosh of Mirae Asset put in their papers in April this year. Source : 16-07-12   Hindu Business Line    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Survey: 35% Indians Are Avid Job Hoppers A survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Saratoga concluded that 35 percent of the workforce in India quit their organisation in less than two years. The ratio compares with 30 percent for the Asia Pacific region and 15 percent for the West. Voluntary employee turnover was the highest in the banking and ITeS sectors. The resignation rate in banks was 2.9 times more than that for engineering and manufacturing. The survey also noted that organisations had increased their learning and development initiatives. Companies invested 17 man-hours per person on learning initiatives, an increase from 13.5 man-hours last year. Sankar Ramamurthy, executive director and head, people and change practice, PwC India said organisations which were better able to manage talent turnover gained more from investments in employee development. Companies maximising their human capital contribution will gain exponentially. Source : 15-07-12   Financial Express    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Citrix, Keste Looking To Raise India Headcount Citrix India is planning to recruit 200 people for its new facility in Bangalore. The company is a provider of cloud and collaboration solutions and currently employs 1,000. Citrix is optimistic about India and expects to grow faster than other regions, according to David Henshall, executive vice president of operations, CFO and treasurer of Citrix. The Bangalore R&D centre is the largest outside the U.S. All major product work of Citrix is handled out of its Indian R&D centres in Bangalore and Hyderabad.U.S.-based Oracle solutions firm Keste is also expanding its development centre in Hyderabad. The centre has 75 employees and will double the number to 150 in the next 15 months. Howard Moore, president and CEO, said Keste will increase its focus on South Asian and the Gulf markets from the development centre. Source : 12-07-12   Hindu Business Line    Compiled by Amresh Anjan MNC's Using Online Games To Spot The Right Talent A number of multinationals are reaching out to candidates through virtual games. India has close to 10 million Facebook users, making it a goldmine for recruiters looking for "gamification", or hiring by using virtual games. Marriott's Facebook game, My Marriott Hotel, allows aspirants to try their hand at running the hotel's kitchen operations virtually. They earn or lose points depending on customer satisfaction. L'Oreal recruits close to 30 percent of its managerial cadre through gaming channels. In its virtual game L'Oreal Reveal, business management aspirants get to work on projects and solve business tasks across finance, sales, marketing, operations and research and innovation. Another game, Brandstorm, targets candidates for marketing roles. Successful players get an opportunity to be interviewed by the company. Mohit James, director HR, L'Oreal, says gaming allows candidates to fast-track the recruitment process. Source : 12-07-12   Hindu Business Line    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Hiring Plan On Track, No Decision On Wage Hike: Infosys Software services major Infosys said it will stick to its target of hiring 35,000 people this fiscal but is not looking at wage hikes for now. The hiring plan, which includes 13,000 jobs for its BPO operations, will be adhered to despite an uncertain global economic growth environment and the wage-hike freeze."We are going to add 35,000 more people this year, the same number as we guided last quarter for the full year," Infosys Chief Financial Officer V Balakrishnan said here, after the first quarter results announcement.The number includes 13,000 people for the BPO operations, he added. Source : 12-07-12   IBN Live.com    Compiled by Amresh Anjan U.S. Firms Pitch For More Green Cards To Indians Some 300 U.S. technology firms have called for removal of per-country quota in the allotment of green cards to Indian IT professionals. The cap is stifling innovation and putting ideas on hold, say companies which include AMD, Cisco Systems, Oracle, Symantec and Microsoft say. They have written to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security, asking it to support a piece of legislation that seeks to remove the per-country limit. "Under the current law, 1.40 lakh green cards are awarded annually to immigrants. But the cap for any one country is fixed at seven per cent," the letter said. The cap does not distinguish countries based on their merit and numbers. The same number of green cards is being given to people from India and China, as to Greenland. Source : 10-07-12   Hindu Business Line    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Huawei Puts 300 Employees On Overseas Accounts With the country's telecom sector in the doldrums, Huawei India has shifted more than 300 employees to manage global operations from its India centre. Existing employees are being redeployed to its Global Service Resource Center (GSRC) and Global Competence Center (GCC). The move will help curb attrition rate in the company and keep employees engaged, Huawei said. It employs 6,000 people in India. Many of these employees in the GSRC and GCC platforms are already involved in supporting Huawei's international telecom clients in Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa and Middle East, said A Sethuraman, Huawei India executive director. The Supreme Court's cancellation of 122 telecom licences has affected telecom equipment makers. Source : 10-07-12   Hindu Business Line    Compiled by Amresh Anjan TVS Capital- Backed Om Pizza Appoints New Leaders Om Pizza, a portfolio company of TVS Capital Funds Limited, announced the appointment of two key veterans in leadership positions to lead Om Pizza, the master franchisee for Papa Johns Pizza in India as well as Chillis, the popular Tex-Mex restaurants in South and West India. The appointment follows fresh investments made by TVS Shriram Growth Fund 1A in Om Pizza.. Tejpavansingh Gandhok, who was the co-founder and CEO of Litebite Foods, will provide strategic leadership to Om Pizza. Apart from Mr. Gandhok, V Kannan joined the team as general manager, Commercial and Operations. Source : 10-07-12   Business Standard    Compiled by Amresh Anjan India Consumer Confidence Down: Nielsen Consumer confidence fell across major emerging economies — China, India and Brazil — in the second quarter, according to a survey by global information company Nielsen.A worsening euro zone crisis, sluggish US jobs growth and slowing growth in China and India combined to dent consumer confidence globally in the second quarter with concern over the economic outlook and job security the biggest concerns.It also showed that Indonesians have overtaken Indians as the most upbeat consumers. Global consumer confidence dipped in the second quarter from the previous three months, the survey said.According to Nielsen, 53 per cent of global respondents were optimistic about their personal finances, but that was down 2 percentage points from the first quarter.Asia-Pacific respondents reported the biggest decline in favourable financial perceptions, declining four points to 59 per cent. Source : 17-07-12   Financial Express    Compiled by Amresh Anjan GE Healthcare To Add 400 Jobs In India This Year Global medical technologies major GE Healthcare will increase its workforce by about 10 per cent in India to 4,400 people by the end of this year as it look to strengthen research work in the country. "We will be adding 10 percent more to our present strength of 4,000 employees in India by the end of this year," GE Healthcare South Asia president and CEO Terri Bresenham said.This will take the company's manpower strength to 4,400 in the country, she added. Ms. Bresenham said the company has plans to enhance its research and development team of 1,200 people in India."Out of these 400, between 150 to 200 people will be in research and development (R&D)," she added.GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company. Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people. Source : 09-07-12   Firstpost    Compiled by Amresh Anjan More Reforms, Obama Urges India; IT Feels Pinch U.S. President Barack Obama voiced concern over the deteriorating investment climate in India and called for another "wave" of economic reforms. He was, however, positive about the Indian economy "which continues to grow at an impressive rate". To a large extent, the slowdown could be attributed to the slowdown in the global economy. Citing some concerns of the U.S. business community, he said investors thought India was too hard to invest in. The country limits or prohibits foreign investment necessary for job creation in both the U.S. and India. One of the most effective ways for creating jobs by continuing to expand trade and investment, Obama said. The time may be right for another wave of economic reforms. Meanwhile, the adverse effects of tough U.S. visa rules have begun to tell on the Indian IT industry, with first quarter operating margins showing a contraction. Source : 15-07-12   Financial Chronicle    Compiled by Amresh Anjan Stay Connected With Your Campus Hires Before They Join In the current campus hiring scenario, companies invest a lot of time and money in visiting premium campuses, negotiating with the placement cell for a day one slot, identifying the best talent and giving lucrative offers. The joining date is usually at least six months from the date of offer. During this time period, the student could get multiple job offers and might be having second thoughts about joining the company which gave the first offer. Many companies would prefer these students to be engaged with their brand throughout this period. Firstnaukri.com – the fresher hiring portal from Naukri.com, has added iJoin – a powerful fresher onboarding tool, to its suite of fresher hiring solutions for employers. The tool has features like customizable micro-site, advanced query management, online content sharing and targeted communication to make sure that the employer can communicate its employer brand to the new hires while they are at campus. Firstnaukri offers fresher recruitment solutions to corporate clients hiring for internal requirements. For more details email sales@firstnaukri.com or call 1800-102-5558 (Toll Free). Source : 15-07-12   15   Compiled by Amresh Anjan

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HR Articles: Jul-12 (Part-6)

For more article, Visit at : www.amreshanjan.co.cc   India Inc Witnesses Stable Hiring Activity Consecutively For The Last Three Months- Naukri Job Speak Index Hiring activity in the country has been a mixed bag with sectors such as Construction, Insurance, Oil & Gas and ITES going slow on their hiring plans, but others like Auto and Pharma continuing to hire fresh talent. Most industries have started feeling the brunt of a slowdown with sectors like Construction, ITES, Oil & Gas and Insurance witnessing a 17%, 10%, 8% and 6% dip in hiring levels in June-12 when compared to the same time a year ago. Software Services, Banking and Pharma sector however has seen their hiring levels pick up by 9%, 16% and 19% respectively in June-12 over June-11. Auto and the Heavy machinery sector has seen hiring numbers similar to what it was last year. Source : 10-07-12   Naukri.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Joblessness Rate In FY12 Pegged At 3.8% The unemployment rate stood at 3.8 percent in the last financial year, according to the annual survey by the Labour Bureau. This was a steep decline in comparison with the earlier survey which found the rate to be 9.4 percent. The difference was due to the sample size. Unemployment in rural areas was at 3.4 percent and 5 percent for urban areas. The majority of those earning a livelihood were self-employed or casual labour. About 48.6 percent were self-employed and 31 percent were casual labourers. DS Kolamkar, director general of the bureau, said the high rates of self-employment were striking. The survey was done to assess the impact of global economic events. Joblessness in India was found to be much lower than global trends. Data was collected from a sample of 128,298 households. Source : 10-07-12   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan IT Results, Hiring May Disappoint In Q1 Trends in IT hiring and benching will be keenly watched amid expectations of muted first quarter growth. Infosys, along with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), will be the first to report numbers that may not be as anticipated because of the slowdown. Infosys is expected to pare the revenue guidance for the current financial year to 7 percent to 9 percent from the 8 percent to 9 percent forecast at the end of FY12. Analysts expect Wipro Technologies to clock 1 percent growth over the previous quarter. TCS and HCL Technologies are expected to grow 4 percent. Pankaj Kapoor and Apoorva Oza, analysts at Standard Chartered, expect muted revenue growth at Infosys and Wipro despite a strong Q1. Macroeconomic conditions in both the U.S. and Europe may continue to affect the industry, with outsourcers delaying decisions on technology spending. Source : 10-07-12   The Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Yes Bank, Federal Bank, GE Healthcare To Hire More Yes Bank is on a recruitment drive and plans to add 7,100 people in the next three years. The bank is going retail in a big way and is adding to its workforce and branch network. It expects its employee strength to grow to 7,200 in 2012-13, which means an addition of 1,500 people in the current year. Federal Bank is also planning to hire between 1,200 and 1,400 people this year. The bank currently has 978 branches and is expected to hit the 1,000 mark soon. The plan this year is to add 150-200 branches. Meanwhile, medical technologies and services provider GE Healthcare will hire 400 people in India by December. Half of these will be recruited for its R&D centre in Bangalore. The company's India revenues grew 25 percent last year. Source : 10-07-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan GTL Looking To Prune Workforce By 1,500 Telecom tower company GTL may be planning to lay off 1,500 employees as it seeks to cut costs and service its debt. A set of employees has reportedly been asked to leave by July 31 and another set by August 31. The company has 35,000 employees. It has closed down several units and has undertaken a massive downsizing drive. A GTL official denied any large-scale lay-off and said the churning was due to a shift in focus to the power business. GTL is under a corporate debt restructuring scheme, under which it can repay its Rs 6,000 crore debt at 11 percent interest rate over eight years. It reported a loss of Rs 453 crore in 2011-12 and has been laying off people for the last five months. Half of its employees in Mumbai have quit. Source : 09-07-12   Hindustan Times   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Training Gets Extended, Pay Shrinks In Crunch Time Midsize IT firms are tweaking training programmes for the fresh engineering graduates they recruited this year. Bangalore-based MphasiS is planning to almost double its training duration from three months to six months. It will include the concept of blended learning this year, with domain training being introduced at the entry level, said Usha Subramanian, vice president and head, technical and domain learning. Organisations are increasingly acknowledging that engineers need to be trained in skills other than technical. NIIT Technologies has increased its training period by 20 percent since last year. This year, the focus will be on non-technical and soft skills. As the training period gets longer, salaries will get lower. Amit Bansal, CEO at PurpleLeap, an Educomp and Pearson joint venture, says a midsize IT company typically pays Rs 25,000 per month as salary but Rs 15,000 as stipend. Source : 08-07-12   Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Differently Abled Staff Boosts Diversity Agenda Industry is recruiting differently abled people in keeping with the spirit of "inclusion and diversity". Sectors such as IT/ITeS, banking, financial services and insurance as well as retail and telecom are hiring staff with disabilities. They see two advantages, a diversified workforce and lower attrition rate. It also enhances the company's brand image. Vidya Rao, programme manager, employment, EnAble India, says diversity is the buzzword in the recruitment space. Companies are also sensitising their employees. EnAble India is an NGO that trains persons with disabilities and prepares them to join the mainstream workforce. Wipro has been hiring between 80 and 100 employees with disabilities annually. It recruits candidates from technical and management campuses, direct enquiries and lateral hiring drives. Niranjan Khatri, general manager, Welcomenviron Initiatives, ITC Welcom Group, says the differently abled workforce performs very well if given niche opportunities. Source : 08-07-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Services Record Slower Pace Of Expansion In June The services sector grew at a moderate pace in June, recording eight months of growth, Financial Chronicle reports. HSBC's services purchasing managers' index, which gauges the activity of about 400 firms in India, dropped to 54.3 in June from 54.7 in May. However, it has topped 50 since November, signifying growth. Driven by domestic consumption, order flow was the strongest in four months. However, weak demand from the U.S., the euro zone and the U.K. does not bode well for Indian companies. Firms also added jobs at a faster pace in June to deal with the surge in new business and reduced backlogs. The jobs index for the services sector rose to 51.1 in June, from 50.5 in May. Businesses are relatively optimistic about the outlook for the coming 12 months, but sentiment has eased a bit from the previous month. Source : 06-07-12   Financial Chronicle   Compiled by Amresh Anjan European Tech Firm To Treble India Engineering Headcount European technology, consulting and engineering specialist Alten Group is looking to boost its headcount in India. The company currently employs 800 engineers and plans to increase the number to 2,500 by 2016. Alten is focused on engineering research and development in aerospace, railways, energy, telecom and healthcare. It had a turnover of €1.07 billion. The company acquired Calsoft Labs in May 2011, enabling it to expand its expertise in telecom product engineering and cloud computing. Gerald Attia, deputy CEO, said it plans to make strategic acquisitions in India in wireless communications, VLSI design and big-data analytics. Alten expects growth in its India operations to ride on the increased use of electronics, demand for greater fuel efficiency, greater localisation and lack of availability of skilled personnel in advanced countries, Attia said. Source : 15-06-12   The Hindu   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Manpower-Rich Biotech Sector Faces Skills Gap The biotechnology sector is confronted with a unique problem. It has excess manpower, but lacks skilled people in certain areas. There is enough by way of numbers, but skilled manpower is in short supply, according to Nandita Chandavarkar, director operations of the Association of Biotechnology-Led Enterprises (ABLE). There is confusion regarding the definition of biotechnology, says Shyam Suryanarayan, CEO of HR firm C-Drive, which focuses on placements in the science sector. Biotechnology is only correlated with biopharma, but the field is in fact quite vast, covering biofuels, nutraceuticals, drug discovery, medical equipment and biosimilars. There is a need for courses and curriculum to suit the requirements of the different segments of the biotech industry. ABLE is planning to launch an online portal which will allow biotechnology students to gauge their skills. Source : 04-07-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Kotak Life Names Appointed Actuary Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance has picked Sunil Sharma as appointed actuary. He has worked with companies like Swiss Re and GE Financial Assurance, among others. He has experience of more than 21 years in life insurance and reinsurance practice areas in India, USA, UK and South East Asia. Source : 04-07-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan World Bank: Euro Crisis Threat To Global Economy World Bank CEO Jim Yong said the crisis in the eurozone was a serious threat to the global economy and European countries should act to restore stability. The world's economy "remains highly vulnerable", Yong said on the first day of his new job as CEO. He added that the World Bank had an economic and moral imperative to help address risks to global growth, no matter where they happen. When a crisis hits and no safety net is in place, the effects can be devastating. His immediate priority in the current volatility would be to assist developing countries maintain progress against poverty, he said. Mr. Yong's predecessor Robert Zoellick too had pointed out a number of times the danger that the euro crisis and indecision among European leaders posed to the rest of the world. Source : 02-07-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan IIT-B Students Going In For Offbeat Roles Several students from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) are opting for jobs in institutions or organisations unrelated to their fields. Mundhadha, 18, a first-year electrical engineering student, has chosen not to intern with a traditional, core discipline-related company. Instead, he has joined a newspaper office. Sarvesh Kumar, 21, a third-year civil engineering student, has completed a two-month internship at an advertising agency this summer and is happy with the experience. The institute's students are also venturing into the social sector. Avanti Fellows, a two-year-old non-profit group, has hosted a number of interns from IIT-B. The company helps poor children get admission into top medical and engineering institutions. Urjit Yajnik, dean of student affairs at IIT-B, says students put their analytical training into whatever they decide to do. The institute encourages them to pursue their aspirations. Source : 02-07-12   Hindustan Times   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Bofa Cutting Commercial Banking Jobs Bank of America Corp has been cutting jobs in its commercial banking unit in recent weeks even as it tries to boost the group's business, people familiar with the situation said, reflecting the bank's broader struggles to grow in a tepid economy.The job cuts are the latest round in the bank's cost-cutting program, known as Project New BAC, and focus on the unit that makes loans to mid-sized companies around the country. Analysts expect Bank of America to disclose more about the current round of New BAC when it posts earnings on July 18. Source : 30-11-99   Reuters.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan

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