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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Can I Withdraw Money from My Employee Provident Fund (EPF) Account?

For more article, Visit at : www.amreshanjan.co.cc   Can I Withdraw Money from My Employee Provident Fund (EPF) Account? Almost all of us are working for a company and we contribute a small percentage of our monthly salary into our EPF accounts. We all know that PF is a great saving instrument and it will help us generate a corpus for our retirement. All that being said, many of us do not know the fact that we can withdraw money from our PF account for emergency cash requirements. Yes, you read me right. WE CAN withdraw money from our PF accounts. After all, it is our money and we definitely have the right to take it when we need it the most. A Word of Caution before we proceed: The Purpose of the PF account is to generate a corpus for our retirement. So, we cannot and should not treat it like a bank account. We cannot try and withdraw every few months of whatever is left in our account. If possible, try to manage the situation without having to dip into the PF Savings. If nothing works, then check if you meet any of the below mentioned criterion and if you do, get the money from your PF Account. Premature withdrawals can be made from your EPF corpus if the reason falls under any of the below mentioned categories and you satisfy all the necessary requirements. Justified Reasons for PF Withdrawal Reason Requirements Amount You Can Withdraw No. of Times allowed Marriage or Education 1. Must have completed 7 years of Service 2. Can withdraw for self/children/siblings marriage 3. Can withdraw for self/childrens education 50% of the corpus 3 times during your Total service Medical Treatment 1. Can withdraw for medical treatment of self/children/spouse/parents 2. No Restrictions on No. of years of service Total corpus or 6 times your Monthly Salary (Whichever is lesser) No Restrictions (Anytime) Purchase or Construction of House 1. Must have completed 5 years of Service 2. House must be registered in your name or spouse's name or jointly owned Upto 36 times your Monthly Salary Only Once in your Total Service Repayment of Housing Loan 1. Must have completed 10 years of service 2. House must be registered in your name or spouse's name or jointly owned Upto 36 times your Monthly Salary Only Once in your Total Service Purchase of Plot 1. Must have completed 5 years of service 2. House must be registered in your name or spouse's name or jointly owned Upto 24 times your Monthly Salary Only Once in your Total Service Alteration of House 1. Must have completed 5 years of Service 2. House must be registered in your name or spouse's name or jointly owned Upto 12 times your Monthly Salary Only Once in your Total Service Pre-Retirement 1. Must be 54 years of age or 2. One year before Retirement whichever is Later 90% of your Total Corpus Only Once in your Total Service Documents Required: In the below section, the most important documents required to apply for the withdrawal facility is mentioned. Note that, the term Member here refers to the person on whose name the Employee Provident Fund account is held (a.k.a The Employee/You/Me) Marriage: Marriage Invitation card should be submitted along with form as proof for marriage through employer. Education: Member should apply in Form 31 through employer. A Bonafide certificate duly indicating the fees payable from the educational institution must be submitted as proof. For Medical Treatment: Member should obtain certificate from ESI or from employer that E.S.I. facility are not available for the member. A doctor of the hospital certifies that a surgical operation or hospitalization for 1 month or more is/was necessary. Incase of TB or leprosy etc, a specialist doctor should certify the disease. A certified proof for the said disease has to be submitted along with the application in Form 31 through employer. Purchase of Flat/House: House/Flat should be free from encumbrances or Legal Issues. An Agreement with the Flat promoter should be registered under the Indian Registration Act and submitted as proof along with the application form. Alteration / Modification of House: The Member must have resided atleast 5 years or more in the house that he/she wishes to alter/modify. I could not find any concrete evidence about the documents required in this case. I assume you will need some sort of quotation that will state the amount you will incur in the alteration of the house from a registered contractor/builder. Without this, there is no way to know if you really are going to alter your house. Repayment of Loan: Property must be singly or jointly owned by the Member. Proof of owning the property & repayment of the loan must be submitted along with the application form. The amount will be paid directly to the loan lending agency and will not be released to the member. To Conclude: As mentioned in the beginning of the article, the purpose of the EPF corpus is to help us post Retirement. It is advisable to leave it as such and reap the full benefits of compounding post retirement. Of course, if it is an emergency the money is all yours to spend. Happy Saving!!! An Appeal: If you feel this article would be useful to all your friends and colleagues employed in India, please share the link to them. Let them also get this important information that maybe useful in future.

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HR Articles: Jul-12 (Part-7)

For more article, Visit at : www.amreshanjan.co.cc   Too Few Women In Asian Boardrooms: A Mckinsey Report A McKinsey report said leading Asian economies have fewer female members on their boards, which is hurting growth. Women hold 8 percent of executive committee seats in Asian firms, lower than the corresponding 10 percent in Europe and 14 percent in the U.S. Half of Asian graduates are female, and Asian companies can ill afford such a waste, the report titled "Women matter" said. Australia, Hong Kong and China were among those with reasonable woman representation at the board level, at 13 percent, 9 percent and 8 percent, respectively. South Korea, Japan and India were at the bottom of the list, with women accounting for 1 percent, 2 percent and 5 percent of the boardroom strength, respectively. The main reason for women quitting was the double burden of holding a job and running a household. Source : 28-06-12   Financial Chronicle   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Crompton Greaves Plan Staff Reduction Crompton Greaves is cutting back staff in its Belgium operations as it evaluates the viability of its various businesses. Some 260 of the 730 employees will be affected. The company is looking to right-size its workforce and cut down on administrative costs. It has begun discussions with the Belgian Works Council. Reductions are also imminent in private equity firm 3i as it seeks to turn around its performance and fix its reputation, adds Financial Express. The firm will cull 160 or more jobs, shrinking its headcount to less than two-thirds its size, and save annual operating costs exceeding £40 million. The cuts are a part of new CEO Simon Borrows' strategy to pacify shareholders, who have voiced concern over 3i's performance. Offices in Barcelona, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Milan and Shanghai will be closed as part of the plan. Source : 29-06-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Jaguar Land Rover, BMW On Recruitment Drive Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is planning to create 4,500 manufacturing and engineering jobs in the U.K. over the next five years. The company, owned by Tata Motors, will generate 2,500 manufacturing jobs and 2,000 engineering jobs, executive director Mike Wright said. Wright was addressing a conference on India-U.K. Partnership focused on reviving economic growth. He said JLR was the largest employer in the U.K. in the automotive sector and needed a talent pool with global expertise to compete with Germany. BMW is also looking to hire thousands of permanent staff and cutting its temporary workforce by half, Business Standard reports. Car makers have used temporary and short-term contract workers in recent years to balance out swings in production and demand. With the latest move, the share of temporary workers will fall to 8 percent to 10 percent from 17 percent. Source : 29-06-12   Indianexpress   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Bloated Bench Strength Delays Hiring In IT IT companies are delaying hiring, pushing back joining dates or asking staff rendered redundant to quit. This has resulted in a record number of CVs doing the rounds of the job market, staffing companies say. Bench strengths have been increasing on a number of prominent campuses because projects from overseas clients have dried up. A number of companies were not even honouring offer letters issued almost a year ago. Infosys had almost 30,000 employees on the bench as of April. The company was reportedly delaying boarding new recruits. More people are uploading their CVs. About 17,668 employees of Tata Consultancy Services updated their CVs last month, compared to 31,770 CVs in the past three months. Cutting employee numbers helps firms to improve rates of utilisation. At MphasiS, the total headcount of 40,426 shrank to 37,179 by April. Source : 29-06-12   Financial Chronicle   Compiled by Amresh Anjan NSSO: Workers In Services Sector Are Paid Better According to a Government survey, workers in the services sector are better paid than those in trade and manufacturing in urban as well as in rural areas. A worker in the manufacturing sector in an urban area was getting an annual average salary of Rs 48,768, followed by trade (Rs 47,060), the 2010-11 National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) study of unincorporated non-agriculture enterprises said. At an all-India level, an urban worker employed in unincorporated enterprise was making Rs 51,603. The average annual emolument at the national level worked out to be Rs 47,020, both for urban and rural workers. The annual gross value addition by such enterprises during the year ended June 2011 was Rs 6.28 lakh crore, the survey said. The gross value addition per worker in rural areas was Rs 37,241 compared to Rs 78,527 in urban areas. Source : 27-06-12   Indian Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Capgemini Taps Talent Pool In Tier III Centres Capgemini is addressing talent shortage by setting up centres in tier III cities. The company has opened a centre in Salem with about 500 people, where it found good talent with good accounting background, said Aruna Jayanthi, CEO India. Attrition rates in the city have been zero. Following this success, it is looking to open a centre at Trichy, she added. It is mulling global delivery centres in smaller cities that will be hooked on to the bigger delivery centres. The Salem and Trichy centres will be used for Capgemini's BPO operations. Besides the availability of good talent, the move would help in bringing down costs. Besides, there is a 20 percent to 30 percent difference in salary payouts. Infrastructure costs are also lower, according to Hubert Giraud, Capgemini CEO. Source : 25-06-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Rcom To Hire 6,000 For Sales, Marketing Roles Reliance Communications (RCom) will be hiring 6,000 sales and marketing persons across India. To hone the skills of potential candidates, RCom is also starting a training programme School of Employment (SOE) with the National Institute of Sales (NIS). It will be run by NIS and Reliance Human Resource Services. The programme is being rolled out with 300 candidates in pilot locations of Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Kolkata from the first week of July. Rather than empowering individuals to make decisions for themselves, RCom is going ahead and telling people exactly what to do, said Rajan Dutta, president, corporate HR. Candidates who successfully complete the course and achieve the certification will be given the option of joining the business. The programme will be launched in tier II cities as well. Source : 29-06-12   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Perfetti Van Melle Picks India MD Ramesh Jayaraman will be the new Perfetti Van Melle India managing director. He succeeds Sameer Suneja, who is moving on to an international assignment as executive vice president. Mr Suneja, 40, will now be based in the Netherlands and take on a larger responsibility in the global operation of the company. He will report to the global CEO of Perfetti, Mr Ubaldo Traldi. In his 15-year stint with the company in various capacities, he has played a key role in the company's growth and has been heading the Indian business for the last four years. Source : 28-06-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan IT Wants Mandatory Test In Campus Placements This year onwards, recruiters in the IT industry want students to take the Assessment of Competence-Technology test conducted by NASSCOM. Companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant, Wipro, Accenture and HCL are among those who have made the demand. S Viswanathan, HR country head, Wipro, said a test that will be an industry benchmark was being considered for some time now. Students will not be required to take separate tests in individual companies. The test has been put together by companies responsible for 90 percent of campus placements in the industry and will help sift the best students, said K Purushottaman, regional director, NASSCOM. Many colleges say they will not agree to the proposal but admit they have little choice as major recruiters want the test. Only companies such as IBM and Capgemini have not agreed to it. Source : 28-06-12   The Hindu   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Study: Family-Run Businesses Ceding Control A study by Indian School of Business (ISB) has concluded that family-run businesses are giving up control and are delegating decision-making. The study covered 300 family-run businesses, whose annual revenues varied from Rs 50 crore to Rs 300 crore. More than 70 percent of the Indian businesses were less than 40 years old. Family hierarchy is not the only criterion for assigning business responsibilities now, the study noted. Personal capabilities and skills are playing an important role. The younger generation was joining the family business and taking up leadership roles. However, there was a need to adopt professionalisation, according to K Ramachandran, professor at ISB and author of the study. More midsize businesses were looking for professionals from within the family. Other challenges faced by family businesses were leadership, succession planning, wealth management and managing family relationships. Source : 27-06-12   Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan MF Top Deck In Exit Mode As Pressure Increases The mutual fund industry is witnessing top-level exits, with four CEOs having left in the past four months. Daiwa Asset Management lost its chief Piyush Surana. Arindam Ghosh of Mirae Asset quit in April this year. While fund houses attribute the trend to personal reasons, observers impute it to declining profitability. Assets under management have been declining and schemes have been performing poorly, creating pressure for top management. There is increasing pressure on fund houses to lift performance, leading to a churn at the top, said E Balaji, CEO of Randstad India. The profitability of the bigger asset management companies such as HDFC Mutual Fund and Reliance Mutual Fund may have risen. However, smaller firms continue to face the challenge of rising operating cost, analysts said. Source : 27-06-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Survey: Pay Matters More To Indians Than Ideal Job Indian executives are the least willing to take a pay cut for an ideal job. Executives around the world were willing to take a 28 percent pay cut for their ideal job, according to the findings of a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers and London School of Economics. By contrast, Indian executives were fine with a 24 percent pay cut. The survey polled 1,106 senior executives across 43 countries, including 83 participants from India. A key conclusion that emerged was the complexity and ambiguity around incentive plans that often destroyed their perceived value. About half of the executives in India preferred a simple pay package to an ambiguous one. They also preferred deferred shares to cash, whereas a majority of global respondents opted for cash. Some 55 percent of Indian executives perceived their firm's long-term incentive plan as effective. Source : 28-06-12   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Aerospace Firms Chase Scarce Engineering Talent Aerospace companies the world over are scrambling for talent, particularly engineers. Demand is expected to increase to 20,000 aircraft in the next 20 years. The pool of talent however, is limited. Of 12,000 jobs available in the sector in Europe last year, only 9,000 were filled. Airbus is using Twitter accounts to talk to potential recruits and will hold an international recruitment day on June 30. Companies have to fight fiercely in the international market to get the best talent. When Boeing closes a factory putting engineers on the market, they are chased by competition, including Airbus and Bombardier, said Thierry Baril, vice president HR at Airbus. His company will hire 4,000 people this year. About 90 percent of these will be hired in Europe and the rest in India, the U.S., China and Russia. Source : 27-06-12   Financial Chronicle   Compiled by Amresh Anjan India-U.S Coalition To Boost Jobs & Growth The U.S. India Business Council (USIBC) has launched the Coalition for Jobs and Growth as part of the bilateral investment treaty (BIT) between the two countries. The coalition would leverage the collective strength of industry, academic experts and the Indian American community to make sure the BIT is completed and ratified. The BIT will engender greater cooperation and collaboration, protect and promote foreign investment and ultimately lead to economic growth and job creation in both countries. Such treaties provide protection from arbitrary, discriminatory or confiscatory foreign government measures. They create a welcoming environment for capital inflows and serve to strengthen investor confidence. India has entered into 70 such agreements, while the U.S. is party to more than 40 bilateral investment treaties around the world. Source : 29-06-12   Indian Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Talent Pool Makes Chennai Attractive To Start-Ups Companies are drawn to workplaces which boast a large pool of educated people, loyalty among employees and a culture of innovation. These are the very reasons why Chennai has attracted many technology start-ups, with an average of 10 start-ups coming up per day, according to K Thirugnanam, CEO, Ascenders Technologies. He was speaking at a NASSCOM event. The large number of technical educational institutions in Chennai gives the city an edge, said Som Mittal, NASSCOM president. It starting out as a centre for software services, but Chennai has now become a hub for product development. A key challenge in the city was difficulty in finding mid- to senior-level sales personnel. People were not willing to relocate from other cities to Chennai, Umesh Sachdev, co-founder and CEO of Uniphore Software Systems, pointed out. Source : 26-06-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan NASSCOM Says IT Fundamentals Remain Strong Industry body NASSCOM said it would monitor the performance of Indian IT over the next two quarters before revising any forecast. The fundamentals of the industry, however, are very strong, President Som Mittal said. Because of the economic slowdown, the industry would only create 160,000 to 180,000 jobs, compared to the 200,000 jobs created last year. In February, NASSCOM had said IT exports would grow 11 percent to 14 percent this fiscal. Revenues had crossed $100 billion last fiscal. According to McKinsey, the industry may grow nearly three times to reach $300 billion by 2020. Growth will ride on upgrading unique services and improving quality. Newer geographies such as Latin America would also be important for short-term opportunities. K Natarajan, NASSCOM vice-chairman, said IT could grow to nearly $500 billion in a few years. Source : 26-06-12   The Hindu   Compiled by Amresh Anjan

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HR Articles: Jul-12 (Part-5)

For more article, Visit at : www.amreshanjan.co.cc   Prime Minister Says 6.5% Growth Amid Downturn Reasonable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed confidence that the country would soon get back to an annual growth rate of 8 percent to 9 percent. However, given the global slowdown, a 6.5 percent growth seemed reasonable, he added. He said at the G-20 summit that Indians were getting impatient for a return to high growth and faster job creation. The fundamentals of the economy were strong, and 8 percent to 9 percent growth rate was achievable, he added. The government was determined to create an environment that would boost investor sentiment and promote an atmosphere conducive to enterprise and creativity. He also reiterated his commitment to reining in subsidies to narrow the fiscal deficit, even if it meant taking tough decisions. India was also focused on infrastructure investment and resolving bottlenecks in policy implementation. Source : 20-06-12   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan IT Fosters Entrepreneurship, Secures Loyalty IT companies are harnessing entrepreneurial skills within the organisation, leading to greater employee retention. At Cognizant, the initiative Cognizant Capital follows a venture capital model. Employees are encouraged to come up with innovative business ideas that are then funded and incubated by the company. An internal board screens, selects and reviews business plans, allocates funds and resources in a model that follows a pattern by Silicon Valley venture capitalist firms, says Sukumar Rajagopal, senior vice president and global head of innovation. Similarly, Wipro has a dedicated innovation office or chief technology office to cater to innovative ideas in business and technology. The company also has a dedicated fund to invest in new ideas. Tech giant Mahindra Satyam also has a fund on similar lines, which supports employee ideas. This has led to employees remaining within the company. Source : 16-06-12   Deccan Herald   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Fitch Downgrades Rating Outlook Fitch has downgraded India's rating outlook from "stable" to "negative" while retaining the current rating at BBB. It is the lowest investment-grade rating issued by the agency. A downgrade to BB+ is considered junk grade. India's outlook had earlier been revised to negative by Standard & Poor's (S&P). However, S&P had put the likelihood of a rating downgrade at one in three. Fitch has warned of a credit rating downgrade on concerns over India's economic growth, inflationary pressures and public finances. Fitch said India's medium- to long-term growth potential will further slide if structural reforms are not put in place. This includes creating a more positive operational environment for business and private investments. Fitch expressed concern over fiscal consolidation, which remained slow at the Centre while states were faring better. The government said the agency's concerns were "out of context". Source : 14-06-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Brokerages Feeling The Pinch, Lay-Offs Begin CLSA, a brokerage owned 65 percent by French firm Credit Agricole, has let go 10 employees from its India office as the slowdown forces it to trim operations. The brokerage has shut its newly formed India Reality Research (IRR) unit and its investment banking division. The unit was formed in 2011 and modelled on the CLSA's China Reality Research. It collected grass-roots data from across the country and identified key trends. Increasing employee costs are forcing brokerages to trim business, experts say. Employee costs are huge and unless they are not directly contributing to the profit, lay-offs will happen, said Rohit Bammi, partner, financial risk management at KPMG India. Brokerages typically hire employees to cover more stocks when the economy is good. In 2007-08, brokerages covered 400 stocks, but scaled these down to 100 after the Lehman Brothers collapse. Source : 19-06-12   Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan More Execs Choosing Self-Financed MBA Education Executives are willing to sponsor their own MBA courses as they prepare for global opportunities. This also allows them to retain flexibility when they want to shift jobs, experts say. The 2010-11 executive postgraduate programme at IIM Kozhikode had only 158 self-sponsored candidates. The number jumped to 341 the following year. In some cases, companies want to sponsor education programmes but candidates do not want to take up the offer, says C Raju, faculty for quantitative methods and operations management at the institute. They might want to change jobs after their education but are hesitant when it is sponsored by the organisation. From 60 percent to 65 percent of the executives being company-sponsored for MBA and other courses two years ago, the number has fallen to 30 percent to 35 percent, with the majority of the executives relying on personal funds. Source : 15-06-12   Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Infosys Benches Fresh Recruits For 3 Months Infosys has delayed taking on board fresh graduates hired from campuses by three months, Deccan Herald reports. New recruits normally join between March and April, which has now been delayed to June. Students who received offer letters in 2011 will join from September 2012 to June 2013. Infosys has reportedly made offers to 28,000 candidates from campuses already. For freshers, this delay will mean a wait of one more quarter to join the six-month training programme offered by the company. The delay may be mainly due to excess staff on its bench. The move may buy Infosys some time before it recruits more people for the projects it gets, BS Murthy, CEO of search firm Leadership Capital said. Infosys is looking to hire 35,000 people this financial year, down 22 percent from 45,000 in 2011-12. Source : 10-06-12   Deccan Herald   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Motilal Oswal Names Wealth Management Chief Motilal Oswal Financial Services has appointed AV Srikanth CEO, private wealth management business. He was previously executive director with Anand Rathi PWM. Source : 19-06-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Thousands Of Jobs To Go As Firms Recast Globally Companies are planning massive lay-offs, with the numbers running into thousands. Unilever and PepsiCo are among those planning large-scale cuts. The cuts have been announced by companies across industries during the first half of 2012, and the technology services sector is the most affected. Unilever plans to cut 500 jobs in the U.K. as part of a restructuring programme. It is looking to move some jobs to its R&D centre in Bangalore. Swedish ball bearing manufacturer SKF said it would cut around 400 jobs in Germany. Computer device maker Logitech International, camera maker Olympus, LM Wind Power and mobile network operator Verizon Wireless are others planning large-scale cuts. Together, these companies have announced job cuts totalling 71,000 in units spanning the world. More than half of the job cuts have been announced in May alone. Source : 10-06-12   Financial Chronicle   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Employee Referral Programmes Get More Lucrative Employee referral programmes are becoming popular especially with the IT industry, with many companies offering attractive incentives to employees who refer candidates. Employees at Infosys get an iPad for every successful onsite referral. At PayPal India, they may even win a motorcycle. Companies are using employee referral as a motivation tool with attractive payouts, says E Balaji, CEO, Randstad India. They have started offering incentives such as laptops, tablets, overseas trips and even appraisal points for hard-to-fill positions. At Cognizant Technologies, the programme is called Bring Another You. The company offers incentives such as a vacation, a brand new car or double the referral money for niche skills, says Sriram Rajagopal, vice president HR. Infosys believes employees can make a good referral decision. They know the aspirations of the candidate and the requirements of the company. Source : 11-06-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Women Leaders More Likely To 'Pay It Forward' A global study by Catalyst has busted the "queen bee" myth, that women are reluctant to help other women progress in their careers, The Hindu Business Line reports. The study titled "Leaders pay it forward" found that 65 percent of women who received support during their career are now developing new talent, compared to 56 percent of men. Moreover, 73 percent of these women leaders are helping women progress, compared to only 30 percent of men. The notion that women executives are "queen bees" unwilling to support other women thus needs to be put to rest, says Catalyst president and CEO Ilene H Lang.High-potential talent who were themselves mentored or coached in their careers are more likely to "pay it forward", the study noted. They recognise that others once took a risk on them, and now it is their turn. Source : 14-06-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan H-1B Visa Application Limit Exhausted Mid-Year The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said the cap on the mandated 65,000 H-1B work visas for this financial year has been reached. This is the first time in recent years that the limit has been reached the middle of the year. In the past, it was reached later in the year or carried forward to the next year. The last date for receipt of new H-1B specialty occupation petitions requesting employment in FY13 was June 11. USCIS will reject petitions arriving after this date. The H-1B visas are visas for technology professionals and the most sought after by Indian workers. Meanwhile, the denial rate of L-1B visas rose from 2.8 percent in 2007-08 to 13.4 percent in 2010-11. New Delhi is planning to take the matter to the World Trade Organization, a Commerce Ministry official said. Source : 13-06-12   Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Skill Development Initiatives For IT Under Way Industry body NASSCOM is looking to define and develop occupational standards (OS) for entry-level jobs and roles in various verticals in IT. The Sector Skill Council India set up by NASSCOM in partnership with the National Skill Development Council has invited requests for proposal for development of OS and career paths for IT/ITeS. The council aims at meeting the growing need for skilled manpower. Occupational standards are performance standards that individuals must achieve at work. In the short term, the IT/ITeS Sector Skill Council will focus primarily on supplementary skill development. The goal is to improve standards, education and employment and help in designing a National Qualification Framework for India. The objective is to address skill gaps, generic and domain, that is, industry and academia, and standardise existing programmes to bridge gaps in all aspects. Source : 12-06-12   Deccan Herald   Compiled by Amresh Anjan PJ Nath Is CEO & Executive Director At Nelco Nelco, a Tata Group company, said it has designated PJ Nath as its executive director and chief executive officer with immediate effect. "The board has appointed PJ Nath as director and designated as executive director and CEO with effect from June 13, 2012," Nelco said in a filing to the BSE. Source : 11-06-12   Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan EMC India Appoints Country Manager For Division EMC India today announced the appointment of Mr Surajit Sen as Country Manager of its Backup Recovery Systems (BRS) division in India & SAARC. In this role, Mr Sen will manage operations for the BRS unit work towards maximising productivity, growth and revenue course in India. The BRS unit is a key driver of EMC's growth in the region this year. He joins EMC from NetApp India, where he headed Channels, Marketing & Alliances. Prior to NetApp, Mr Sen held several positions at Wipro Infotech and HCL Infosystems. He holds an engineering degree from IIT Roorkee and an MBA from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. Source : 18-06-12   Hindu Business Line   Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan

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HR Articles: Jul-12 (Part-4)

For more article, Visit at : www.amreshanjan.co.cc   Naukri Job Speak Index For May-12 Grew By 10% As Compared To The Previous Year, Maintains Stable Hiring Levels Month On Month Despite uncertain economic conditions and low GDP growth, the overall hiring activity of India Inc is moving at a stable rate. The Naukri Job Speak index for May-12 is 10% higher than what it was a year ago, but monthly growth has been negligible owing to a mixed hiring sentiment across sectors. In May-12, both IT- Software and ITES the largest job creators in the country have seen a marginal dip in hiring levels when compared to the previous month. Hiring activity has been positive for Auto, Oil & Gas and Banking sectors with the job speak index moving up by 8%, 6% and 3% respectively in May-12 over Apr-12. The Software services and Pharma sector has seen stable hiring levels over the last one month. On the contrary, Construction, BPO and Telecom sectors have been staggering with low hiring figures for the last few months and have seen dips within the range of 4% and 9% in May-12 when compared to Apr-12. Source : 11-06-12   Naukri.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan CII Seeks Revival Package Amid Sputtering Growth The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) called for an economic revival package as industry sentiment deteriorated further. Industrial growth shrank to 3.5 percent in March compared to last year. Economic growth is seen declining this fiscal, though not many expect it to be negative, according to a CII survey of 100 industry leaders. About 40 percent say growth in net sales is likely to remain stagnant or decline this fiscal, the poll said. Half the respondents have put their hiring plans in abeyance. A majority of them said their plans to expand domestically may remain at the same level as last year. A large number said they would increase their investments abroad. This is a clear indication of lower business sentiment domestically and the need to improve the investment climate in the country, the report said. Source : 10-06-12   Financial Chronicle   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Downturn Spurs Hiring Of Senior Managers Hiring of senior executives is likely to grow 12 percent this year. Vinay Grover, CEO of search firm Symbiosis Management Consultants, says companies are averse to taking risks now and prefer to take a balanced approach. Being risk-averse and assuming multiple roles are qualities that senior managers bring to the table. According to Deepti Yogi, assistant vice president at Elixir Consulting, companies are also looking for experienced professionals to tide over economic fluctuations in the current slowdown. Senior executives are mainly being hired in banking, finance, followed by steel, engineering, power, real estate and infrastructure among others. The trend started during 2008-09 when the financial markets were in turmoil. It is likely to sustain as companies seek to hire a mix of talent. However, the salary offers may be somewhat below the level usually given to senior managers. Source : 10-06-12   Financial Chronicle   Compiled by Amresh Anjan More Techies Getting Chance To Work From Home The concept of allowing employees to work from home has finally got a boost. The concept is catching on with IT. Companies such as IBM, HP, Oracle, Cisco, Accenture and Dell have set the trend. Pune-based Zensar is looking to allow 30 percent of its employees work from home, locally and in towns and cities near its centres. Besides being cost effective, the move will allow company access to good talent unwilling to relocate, said Ganesh Natarajan, vice-chairman and CEO of Zensar Technologies. The RPG Group firm already has nearly 200 people working from home in Pune. The practice will also be introduced in Hyderabad, Zensar's second largest centre in the country. It aims to have almost 50 percent of its employees working from home for its newest centre in Bangalore, which will specialise in developing intellectual properties. Source : 09-06-12   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Maruti To Increase Headcount By 1,900 Maruti Suzuki announced it will add around 1,900 employees to its workforce this year. Around 900 of these will be in the engineering and management divisions. It also plans to hire 1,000 technicians on the shop-floor. This fiscal, Maruti has hired 200 employees so far. The auto maker will launch a web-based training academy with an investment of Rs 25 crore by October, COO SY Siddiqui said. Apart from functional and technical training, soft skills and customised training will also be included. About 75 percent of the training will be provided from the location itself, Mr. Siddiqui said. Maruti also plans to hire about 1,600 employees for the upcoming plant in Gujarat. The facility is being set up with an investment of Rs 4,000 crore. The company currently has a workforce of 9,350. Source : 10-06-12   Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Shift Focus Of Higher Education For Real Growth Higher education in India suffers from a serious quality problem, says a report. Only 15 percent of the population in the 18-23 years bracket enrolls for higher education. Despite its various strategies, the government is clueless about the kind of economy that higher education is supposed to serve. For India to attain solid growth, the government has to bring down the current account deficit to a more sustainable level. This can only be achieved through reduced import-dependency in areas such as energy, electronics and project equipment, areas where higher education can step up contribution. Instead, fresh job seekers come geared for financial services, consumer goods and IT, because that is where employment is to be found. The focus instead should be on creating a job market in areas crucial to the country's future. Source : 09-06-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Wipro BPO Head Steps Down Wipro's BPO head Manish Dugar has resigned. The reason for Mr. Dugar's resignation was not immediately known. Mr. Dugar took up this position from Ashutosh Vaidya as the global head of the IT firm's BPO operations, a year ago. Manoj Punja, Wipro's Latin American sales chief, will replace him.In his earlier position, Mr. Dugar was the chief financial officer (CFO) of Wipro's IT business. Prior to his role as the IT business CFO, he headed the finance function for the BPO division where he played a critical role in the group's global expansion. Source : 08-06-12   Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Wages In India 10% Of Pay Packages In West A study said workers in India make just about 10 percent of what their counterparts in the developed countries make for the same amount of work. The research, conducted by Orley Ashenfelter, a professor at Princeton University, documented wages of workers at McDonald's. It found that a McDonald's worker in India gets just $0.46 per hour, while counterparts in the U.S. working under identical conditions earn nearly 16 times more. A McDonald's employee in the U.S. earns about $7.33 per hour and in India just $0.46 per hour. A large majority of workers in India, China, Latin America and the Middle East are paid much less than those in the U.S., Canada, Japan and Western Europe. Although there has been noticeable growth in wages, it has halted since the start of the recent financial crisis, the study noted. Source : 06-06-12   Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Paypal Picks 80 IIT Techies In Campus Debut PayPal has hired 80 graduates from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) in its first-ever campus recruitment drive. The intake is the largest by any multinational company from the IITs this year. The company has about 2,250 employees at its Chennai centre. It plans to hire 900 more before the first quarter of next year. Also on the cards is a centre in Bangalore, for which it will hire 1,000 over the next three to five years, according to Anupam Pahuja, head, India Development Centre. The recruits are "high-end technologists" and will focus only on product development. The average pay is expected to be around Rs 7 lakh per year. PayPal intends to visit the IITs and other top engineering colleges every year for recruitment, Mr. Pahuja said. The Chennai centre accounts for nearly 60 percent of PayPal's global product development work. Source : 06-06-12   Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan SBI To Hire 9500 Employees The country's largest bank SBI has said it plans to hire 9,500 employees this fiscal and its main thrust will be on retail banking in the coming years. Noting that the current economic environment warrants greater prudence, State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Pratip Choudhuri has said the bank would remain vigilant to new opportunities and challenges."In the coming years, your bank's main thrust will be on retail, and, as shown by our achievements, we are well positioned to meet the competition," he said in his letter to shareholders, published in SBI's Annual Report 2011-12.The state-owned bank also disclosed in the report that its overall staff strength declined by 7,452 employees during the last fiscal, but it has decided to offer jobs to 9,500 clerical staff during 2012-13 to meet the growing needs of the bank. Source : 12-06-12   Financial Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Air India To Hire 100 New Pilots Air India is going to induct about 100 new pilots in the next few months, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said while virtually shutting the doors for striking pilots, asking those sacked to apply afresh. Indicating that the 101 sacked pilots could be replaced by new ones, Mr. Singh said 90 pilots were currently undergoing training and would be available for flying in August."We're making sure we have enough resources - pilots and engineers to operate the new flights we have planned," he said in reply to a spate of questions on the month-long pilots' agitation spearheaded by the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG). Source : 06-06-12   DNA   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Women Doctors Make Less Than Men: Study Female doctor-researchers make an average of $12,000 per year less than their male counterparts, even after their work hours and area of specialty are taken into account. The wage gap between men and women is nothing new, but among doctors in particular it wasn't clear if the disparity was due to different career choices and work habits in men and women that could have affected their pay. "Disturbingly, even after we controlled for all those other factors, we found that male doctors were paid more than female doctors for doing the same work," said Dr. Reshma Jagsi, the lead author of the new study from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She and her colleagues sent questionnaires to 800 doctor-researchers in the United States, all of whom had previously won a mid-career award from the government. The doctors were an average of 45 years old at the time of the survey and three-quarters of them were white. Men reported making an average of slightly over $200,000 per year and women about $168,000, according to findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Source : 13-06-12   Reuters.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Firms Seek Internal Candidates For Corner Room Companies are increasingly scouting within for C-suite talent. Adil Malia, HR head at Essar Group, says chances of success are higher for internal candidates. Talent from within the system has a track record of performance. After the CEO position fell vacant in the group, Dilip Oommen, who heading a facility in Gujarat, was elevated to the role. Companies are realising that the cost of a hiring a new person and then training them is much more than sourcing the candidate internally, says Sangeeta Lala, vice president at TeamLease Services. For the candidates, the lucrative rise while switching jobs is a thing of the past, says R Suresh, managing director, Stanton Chase. Normally, C-suite executives come at a 30 percent to 40 percent increment. However, this figure has come down by half in the slowdown. Source : 14-06-12   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Servion Global Names VP Servion Global Solutions has appointed Samir Sayed as the vice president and head of sales. Servion is a customer interaction management provider. Source : 16-06-12   Financial Chronicle   Compiled by Amresh Anjan

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