Freshers Hiring

Canara bank to recruit 3000 employees during this year

2011-07-25T05:14:00.000-07:00

Banking job aspirants have now a golden opportunity to work with Canara Bank, the bank has announced to recruit around 3000 employees on various posts during this year.

The Executive Director of the bank Ms. Archana S. Bhargava said “We have significant retirements which are to be replaced and branch expansion programme during the current year.”

The bank would recruit employees on posts including clerks, probationary officers, and agricultural officers, specialist positions in areas such as information technology would also be filled-up.

More jobs to follow in banking sector

2011-03-17T03:55:00.000-07:00

The banking sector in the country is on a boom and also this sector will require plenty of trained personnel very soon, as most o of the employees in the nationalized banks about to retire creating a lot of employment opportunities for the young generation.

The Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Bank Mr. T M Bhasin said, “Today, Indian banks employ close to a million people and they will require at least 10-12 lakh trained personnel in the next five years or so, as the average age of employees in the public sector banks is 50. Many of them have been recruited in the seventies and the next two years will see most of them retiring. Approximately, 60-80 per cent of the senior executives and 30-50 per cent middle managers will retire. Banks will need to recruit at least an additional seven lakh persons. Therefore, the youngsters have a great chance of joining the banks.”

Recently the largest lender in the country, State Bank of India announced to recruit more than 20,000 employees in next four years. Various other banks have already issued notices foe recruitment. According to the bank officials the recruitments with the nationalized banks are likely to continue fro a few more years to come.

IMT students get increased salary offers by 12.5%

2010-10-19T08:03:00.001-07:00

The students of Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad, have got high salary offers this year. There has been a 12.5 per cent increase in salary offers for the executive education batch at Rs 18 lakh as against Rs 16 lakh offered last year.

Around 30 percent of offers were made by information technology (IT) companies and HCL Technologies made the highest offer, followed by pharmaceutical firms and banks â€” each at 20 per cent.

Prakash Pathak, head, corporate relations, IMT Ghaziabad said, "HCL Technologies has come to the campus for the first time to hire students of the executive batch. The IT companies are again hiring because their global projects are back on track and we expect this trend to pick up."

The companies that made placement offers include Dr Reddy â€™s, ICICI Bank, Dhanlaxmi Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Deloitte and HDFC Bank.

The average salary offered was Rs 12 lakh for the batch of 59 students and the profiles offered were consulting and business analytics in IT, sales, marketing and research in pharma.

He said, "The interesting trend this year was that cross domain hiring happened with banks hiring for their IT profiles. Similarly, IT firms have hired people with banking and logistics backgrounds. Companies have again started showing interest in lateral hiring."

IT leaders to hire 90,000 software professionals this year

2010-10-13T03:10:00.000-07:00

The IT software professionals in India should now forget about last year’s recession and look and get ready for new opportunities as India’s top IT firms including Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro are set to hire around 90,000 software professionals this year, as against 20,000 last year.

After global economic crisis last year IT companies stopped hiring and shed jobs in December 2008, since then it is the first time that a recruitment of software professionals on such a large scale is going to be done by top IT leader’s.

According to recruitment firms and HR honchos employed with leading IT firms the sector has witnessed the highest ever job creation in September and the staff strength will increase over 50%, similar to pre-recession levels.

E Balaji, director & president, Ma Foi Randstad said, “This is the highest hiring growth recorded in the IT sector since recession. We expect similar momentum till November since companies will be required to complete their annual hiring plan before next year.” According to him approximately IT hiring has grown 20-22% during August-September over the same period last year.

Till 2008, 15% attrition rate was considered conventional in an industry where some firms tried to keep it below 20-30%. Now large GE customers like JPMorgan, Citibank and GE sending more projects to India on the other hand firms such as IBM and Accenture are under pressure to hire more from low-cost countries like India therefore to retain and hire best talent is back.

In addition to recruitment of freshers for new projects, companies have also started building bench strengths for future business. Pradeep Udhas, executive director and head of IT advisory, KPMG said, “IT biggies are stocking up skills and training them in advance in anticipation of new contracts they are expected to bag in the near future.”

He added, “Some of them are also expecting attrition, and hence a preventive measure. All major companies like TCS, Infosys, and Cognizant have exceeded their expected earnings levels.” He is hopeful this renewed hiring momentum will continue for another year.

MphasiS, last year had recruited around 1,156 employees and in its last quarterly results it had declared a manpower base of 38,275 has said at present there are more than 2,000 vacant positions within the company.

MphasiS chief human resource officer Elango R. says, “We never stopped hiring even during the downturn. What is encouraging is that some of the other companies that ceased recruitment have again started hiring.”

The main recruiters say in tier-I companies the recruitment is still at pre-recession levels, and it will take sometime to pick up in the mid-level as the market landscape has changed. They say, but specialist companies like those in product development, analytics and testing are still growing and, also speeding up in recruitment.

Ikya Human Capital Solutions MD Ajit Isaac says, “Recruitment may be back, but there is much more sanctity now.” He says, “Recruitment is much more planned now with a small bench. Companies are also much more disciplined and avoiding employees who frequently change jobs.”

Mahindra Satyam making comeback trail, is also planning to hire around 3,000 by February next year. The company at present has 27,000 employees on rolls, from the past few months has been hiring fresh talent and, during May-July it had hired around 3,000 people.

IIM-A formulated placement reporting standards for all B-schools

2010-10-05T04:20:00.001-07:00

The placement reporting standards for all B-schools in the country have been formulated by the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) so that, there is greater objectivity and uniformity in the manner placement reports in B schools are projected in the media.

The decision in this regard was taken in a recruiter conclave organized by IIM-A on Friday in Mumbai. The conclave was attended by around 160 recruiters, including Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered Bank and Indian Bank.

From B-Schools, placement coordinators from institutes such as IIM-Calcutta, IIM-Shillong, IIM-Lucknow, IIM-Indore, SP Jain Institute, ISB Hyderabad and others were present.

The placement in charges of other institutes and recruiters provided the inputs at the conclave. IIM-A will soon draft a proposal on this and send it to all stakeholders for discussion and get their reviews.

Placements chairperson at IIM-A Saral Mukherjee said: "We'll try for a consensus among B-schools to publish the standards very soon."

“The standards will have guidelines as to what details of the students' placements and the pay packets offered were to be shared with the media by the placement cell and what was the appropriate time to do so."

About the general trend of recruiters offering packages in terms of Cost to Company (CTC), which is very different from what a student will actually get, Mukherjee said, "We will be requesting the companies to be clear on the components of the package like joining bonuses, one-time relocation expenses, variable components and so on, so that there can be more clarity."

Common banking entrance test for public sector banks proposed

2010-09-28T05:50:00.000-07:00

Public sector banks (PSBs) will also be having common entrance test for hiring new talent.

A K Khandelwal committee had recommended the common entrance test which has been accepted by the government. The Indian Banks Association has also accepted a common recruitment program for PSBs which will be conducted by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).

Earlier in January, Business Standard had reported that IBA is working on the process of a common test for job aspirants in PSBs. The banks are planning to recruit around 34,000 officers and 51,000 clerical staff over the next three years, through a common entrance test program the issue of manpower shortage in state-owned banks will get solved.

The finance ministry said in a media statement, “Taking note of the fact that many PSBs are already utilising the services of IBPS for recruitment of clerks and officers, the government has decided to entrust IBPS the responsibility to conduct the Common Recruitment Examination for the PSBs.”

IBPS was established in 1984, it is an autonomous body which is responsible for recruitment and internal promotions in banks and financial institutions. For year 2009-10, for the recruitment in PSBs, IBPS conducted written test for around six million candidates at 125 centers across the country.

The Khandelwal committee presented its report in June. In its report the committee had recommended that bankers can design the content of testing, methodology for conducting such tests and also review the existing arrangements. Government is reviewing the full report.

The banks are facing problem in hiring talent, so a need was felt to formulate a program to solve this problem. It is believed the common test will also help in cutting down the recruitment cost and the consumed. Moreover, the jobseeker will also find the proposed selection process convenient as they will not have to take separate tests for different banks.

Before this, the Banking Services Recruitment Board looked after the selection process of bank employees. At that time banks were on the process of massive expansion. In 2002, after the Narasimham Committee recommendation in view of banks rationalizing their branches, this process was done away. With this banks got more autonomy in choosing candidates.

Nasscom says: Companies should start hiring students only during final year

2010-07-22T04:51:00.001-07:00

The engineering college students have entered into the seventh semester and most of them expect to get hired during this semester but a large debate is going on when is the right time to hire students. According to Nasscom the IT companies should start hiring only during the final semester or at the end of the seventh semester. However some universities are approaching to Nasscom requesting for them to ask companies to start campus recruitment process.

Recently Thanjavur-based Sastra University wrote a letter to Nasscom in which it has requested them to ask companies to conduct their recruitment during the seventh semester. Sastra says in the seventh semester the university encourages doing internships in various universities, companies and premier research labs, inside and outside India.

The letter from Dr S Vaidhyasubramaniam, Dean (Planning and Development), Sastra reads, "Such students miss the opportunity of attending campus recruitment, as an internship of high quality is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity... Students are forced to travel repeatedly in the event of not being selected by the first few companies. This will dilute the quality of internship and strain the relationship between the university and internship partners, who feel such frequent interruptions, upset the internship schedule."

But Nasscom is not ready to change its decision. K Purushottaman, regional director of Nasscom says, "It is in the interest of the industry to hire students in as finished' a state as possible. The end of the seventh semester is the best time, since most of the academic curriculum is completed, with just the project in the final semester to go. So companies can make a better assessment of the candidate at that stage."

Some of the IT majors support Nasscom’s stand. Pradeep Bahirwani, VP of Talent Acquisition at Wipro Technologies says, "We hire from the eighth semester onwards from engineering colleges. We feel this is most appropriate as students are fully groomed around that time. Additionally, hiring around the eighth semester matches our demand forecasting schedules." During the current fiscal Wipro will be hiring about 11,000 freshers with 65% of them being from engineering colleges.

T V Mohandas Pai, head of HR at Infosys said, "Early hiring destroys the spirit of education. Students who get jobs in the sixth semester typically show a drop in interest in academics and this is not good for the student, the university or the industry." According to IT industry only about 25% of the students are employable.

Vaidhyasubramaniam argues that a sudden behavioral change in a student who was just involved in studies for seven semesters is an issue concerning his/her fundamental values. "Such students will behave the same way even if the recruitment happens in the eighth semester," he says. But not many agree with his argument.

Sastra says in the eighth semester curriculum, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) integrates its Initial Learning Program, while in the final semester there is an orientation program conducted by Infosys as part of course work at its Mysore office. Therefore early hiring will be helpful.

Pai says such programs can be conducted even if students are hired at the end of the seventh semester. He says, "Besides, we prefer to hire students as close to the joining dates as possible."

Before economic slowdown, IT companies used to hire students at the end of the sixth semester one year before they graduated but during the financial crisis all over the world many companies were unable to give jobs to the all the students who were given offer letters during campus recruitment. Then most of the companies were also concerned that students are far from industry ready. Thus Nasscom issued instructions that companies should start campus recruitment only at the end of the seventh semester.

The companies also find this right as they have a clearer idea of their recruitment needs. Shankar Srinivasan, chief people officer of Cognizant points out, "We believe it is a win-win situation for all concerned: students, academia and the industry."

Banks offering great opportunities to talented youth, hiring professionals

2010-07-15T05:10:00.000-07:00

Indian banks are offering great opportunities to the talented youth who have plans to make career in banking sector. Many banks are visiting campus for hiring and many of the students have been offered good jobs in the banks, both in public and private sector banks.

In last couple of years jobs in banking sector have increased as many private and global banks have opened their branches in India. Also public sector banks have expanded their operational areas and increasing their strength manifolds.

The banks have created new posts and will hire professionals for the same. Recently, Oriental Bank of Commerce released the recruitment results for the vacancies of clerks in OBC bank recruitment procedure. Canara bank is holding exam for posts of clerks on coming Sunday. The candidates who will be giving Canara bank exam and have not received admit card can download from the official website of the bank.

Although people working in private sector and multinational companies are earning handsome salaries but still in India government jobs are being preferred more, especially after recession. The government jobs in India offer life long security which is not offered in private sector.

LIC will hire 10,000 employees across various cadres

2010-07-06T05:28:00.001-07:00

LIC, country’s largest insurance company will be recruiting around 10,000 employees across the various cadres in the current fiscal.

LIC Managing Director A K Dasgupta said, "We are planning to hire a good number of people this year as well. We intend to hire 10,000 people this year across the various cadres."

Last year also LIC had hired same number of people across various cadres but it had also hired lateral for the first time.

He told, out of the total number of people to be hired, around 5,000 development officers will be recruited in line with the growth plan.

He added, the corporation will also hire people in class I cadre, specialized cadre like legal etc.

At present there are about 1,15,000 employees including about 21,000 class-I officers.

LIC is also planning to open its subsidiary in Singapore as a part of its overseas expansion plans.

More than 10,000 students of IIPM got placed in five years

2010-06-22T06:03:00.000-07:00

The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) has set new benchmarks in B-School placements. In the past five years, more than 10,000 students of IIPM have been place in over 1,500 companies. All the placements were done at campus. IIPM informed, in past three years, more than 250 students have been place internationally.

Since 2006 IIPM has a 100% constant placement record.

In the past two years, from IIPM Delhi most of the placements have been global. In 2008 and 2009, it says, 165 and 55 students were placed globally.

After a long gap, now companies are looking for freshers to put their businesses back on fast track. This year alone, IIPM said 2,480 on-campus hirings have been done and the remaining 140 students are likely to be placed soon.

In 2009 BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) corporations, the biggest on-campus recruiters did not do any hiring from campuses but this year, they were back with atleast 20% placement offers.

IIPM told leading BFSI companies such as Standard Chartered, HDFC Bank, HSBC, Fidelity, Barclays, India Bulls and India Infoline, and financial consulting companies such as KPMG (Delhi), Goldman Sachs and E&Y this year had offered financial/business research profiles to its students.

This year ICICI visited all IIPM campuses and hired 320 students, Yes Bank who has been largest recruiter at IIM campuses, also visited IIPM, Delhi.

IIPM said, FMCG leaders such as Colgate-Palmolive and leading consumer durables brands such as Whirlpool have also offered opportunities to its students, this year. Other visitors to IIPM campuses were UB Group, Zee Enterprises, Business Octane and JDA Soft. They had offered high packages of Rs7.5 lakh per annum.

IIPM student Amiya Ranjan has been offered a domestic package of Rs20 lakh per annum. This year average all-India packages stood around Rs4.63 lakh. According to institute this year its 37 students have been placed globally. International recruiters were from various fields which included travel & logistics, media, advertising, FMCG and manufacturing.

Three important months for fresh job seekers

2010-06-18T06:15:00.000-07:00

Now days, campus recruitments are on full-swing across most colleges in the country. It is good time for fresh job seekers. According to headhunting firm Ma Foi Randstand, this year one third of new jobs in the market are for freshers.

But the freshers have to first analyze in which city they should take up a job. According to reports, this year by end of June, Delhi NCR is likely to add 38,350 jobs Mumbai will be on the second place with 27,650, Chennai rounds off the top three with around 11,900 vacancies

Kolkata will be next with 8,350 new vacancies. IT hubs Bangalore and Hyderabad will add around 6800 and 6200 new jobs, while Pune and Ahmedabad will be adding 5,400 and 3,260 new jobs respectively.

This means around 1,53,564 jobs will be created in the country during the Jan-March quarter and more than 3,47,463 jobs are being created in the current quarter from April to June. From this 75% of jobs will be for experienced ones, the remaining would for freshers.

In the months of April, May and June major portion of hiring is done as most jobs are created during this period every year. In this period over one crore freshers join the job pool every year. In this Delhi is on the first place with large number of jobs for freshers, followed by Ahmedabad and Bangalore.

Sector wise IT-ITes sectors are likely to grow, but neither the IT-ITes, nor the services sectors are going to do most hiring. In the healthcare sector most number of jobs for freshers is getting created with over 46% of new jobs earmarked for freshers.

Then is BFSI sector, will be hiring almost 34% freshers from college. The manufacturing sector will have almost a third of its jobs for freshers. Thus it is a good opportunity for freshers to get a good job.

Dhanlaxmi Bank to hire 500 people for entry, middle and senior management levels

2010-06-16T05:25:00.000-07:00

Dhanlaxmi Bank, Thrissur-based lender is planning to expand its employee’s base to 3,800. Thus it will be recruiting 500 people for three levels - entry level, middle and senior management levels.

Manish Kumar, head, human resources and corporate social responsibility told, the bank will be recruiting 500 people in the current financial year. In 2009-10 bank had re-recruited 2,500 people taking the total staff strength to 3,300. In the last fiscal bank opened 66 new branches taking the branch network to 273 with a pan India presence.

Kumar added for the current fiscal year bank has no plans of opening new branches. But it will be expanding its business in venturing into areas like retail asset business and fee-based income vertical.

He told bank has introduced new Performance Management System (PMS) to motivate their employees in improving skills. The PMS is based on a balance score card.

SBH plans to recruit 2,000 clerks and 600 supervisors this year

2010-06-04T05:06:00.000-07:00

State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), an associate bank of State Bank of India, is planning to expand its human force by recruiting as many as 2,000 clerical and 600 supervisory staff during the current financial year this was confirmed by a top bank official.

During the launch of SMS Feedback facility the managing director SBH, Renu Challu told media persons that, "This is in addition to the 600 supervisory officers, who cleared tests last year and would be joining us in the next two months."

She informed that from the newly recruited employees around 300 of them will be posted in rural areas that will be responsible for the development of bank’s agricultural loan portfolio.

Challu added bank is planning to open 230 branches this year.

She said, SBH has already applied for five licenses for Uttarakhand and two for Chhattisgarh, is likely to open branches by the end of this year.

The bank has also opened its first-ever currency management branch (CMB) in Hyderabad to sort out soiled and counterfeit notes and make cleaner notes available across the counter.

Challu added in the beginning the CMB service will be linked to 28 branches in Hyderabad and gradually it will be extended to other chest branches across the country in due course.

Meanwhile SBH Gen-X, a savings account has been introduced to target youths between 18 and 30 years of age group.

StanChart plans to increase headcount by 2,500 in India

2010-05-20T03:18:00.000-07:00

Standard Chartered Bank- a UK-based major global foreign player announced that it is planning to increase its headcount in India by 2,500 people during the current year to 20,000.

The bank is planning to increase up to $750 million through issue of Indian Depository Receipts (IDR) currently it employs 17,500 people in India.

Standard Chartered's India chief executive officer Neeraj Swaroop told reporters that, "We hire people to meet our growth needs. In 2010, we will hire around 2,500 people for India business. The number was similar last year."

At present the bank employs 75,000 people globally. The bank is looking to increase its branch network in the nation and has applied for the same. It is still waiting for approval from the regulatory.

"The number of branches that we can open is driven by the RBI license. We would be opening 100 new ATMs by August this year and take the total number to 350," Swaroop said.

Barclays bank to offer 140 jobs in India

2010-05-17T03:08:00.000-07:00

Barclays, one of Britain's biggest banks will outsource 140 jobs from Northampton, UK, to India.

Although bank will have to follow strict banking regulations and pay heavier taxes levied by Labor government - so far endorsed by the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition — as a result of the global economic storm.

John Varley, Barclays chief executive, in an interview said London will be damaged by imposing taxes on the bank. Barclay is already having operations in India and is on move of expanding operations. It has launched a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) banking service outside India, including Britain.

Barclays who battered the international meltdown better than rivals like Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds, is likely to reduce outgoings. Vikki Williams, head of Card Fraud Operations, was quoted as saying, "Clearly there are some cost savings involved, but our main driving force is to create a global centre of excellence in India."

The task of collection of dues will be carried out by determined call centre agent in India, who will call customers in the UK continuously demanding payments.

Hiring in IT/BPO is on increase

2010-05-05T04:47:00.000-07:00

After a long break the business in India has started showing signs of normalcy, companies are getting projects from foreign clients, therefore the information technology/business process outsourcing (IT/BPO) sector has also speed up its hiring process after a gap of almost of two years.

For instance India’s second-largest software services company, Infosys Technologies will be hiring around 30,000 this financial year. Another India’s largest IT firm, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), have plans to hire 30,000 (almost 38,000, if one were to include its subsidiares). Then HCL Technologies is planning to hire 5,000 freshers in 2010, compared with the 2,000 it hired in calendar year 2009. In the last quarter, the gross hiring of employees was 7,136, taking the headcount to 58,129.

HCL Tech CFO Anil Chanana said, “We have been doing more of lateral hiring than just freshers. However, going forward, we have decided to rely more on freshers, train them and use them. So, we will be increasingly using freshers in our business.”

Even the mid-size IT/BPO companies have also speed up their hiring process. For instance, Mumbai-based Patni Computers is planning to increase its headcount by 2,500-3,000 employees in 2010 and the normal ratio of engineering to non-engineering graduates is 2:1. Now company is expecting an upswing in the hiring of IMS, BPO and application development.

According to Rajesh Padmanabhan, EVP and Global Head – HR, Patni, “We are anticipating positive hiring, based on our business outlook and we plan to hire 2,500-3,000 employees in 2010. With the economy getting into recovery mode, we will also witness a reduction in bench levels and enhancement in utilization levels this year.”

Nasdaq-listed BPO Company EXL Service is looking for people with at least one year of experience. Although, 10-20 per cent of total hired are the fresh college graduates. The BPO is hiring 200–300 people per month and its headcount was 10,700 as on December 31. A company spokesperson said, “Most of these fresh hires are through direct campus placements. Most of the hiring of people without any experience takes place through campus placement. EXL participates in annual campus placement of a few colleges in Delhi University, IITs and IIMs.”

There is a warning, although the gross numbers of hiring might look good but the net recruitment numbers at both large and mid-size IT firms give a different picture. They are nowhere close to the numbers posted in financial year 2007-08.

For instance, according to software body Nasscom, the IT/BPO sector had hired 3,75,000 (net) employees in FY08. But in FY09, the number fell to 2,26,000, which further came down to 90,000 in FY10 (when the impact of the global recession hit IT companies the most).

Whereas for FY11, Nasscom have predicted a net hiring in the IT/BPO sector to touch 1,50,000. It has not raised these figures. Sangeeta Gupta, Vice President, Nasscom said, “We are hopeful the numbers will go up, but it is too early to predict. We are yet to see an immediate impact of hiring up tick among the mid-cap firms.”

“While the IT industry is hiring, these numbers are not comparable to 2007. This is also evident in the salary hikes announced so far. While there is a hike, it is more to do with retaining the talent within,” explains Rajesh AR, VP, TeamLease Services.

In fact increase in hiring means a revival of the sector, as addition of one employee to the sector creates four more indirect jobs. Thus, the multiplier effect is big, explains Alok Shende, principal analyst and founder-director of consulting firm Ascentius. But this hiring cannot be considered close to the historic peak. Moreover, the net wages have reduced as the entry-level wages are low, says Shende.

According to Rajesh of TeamLease the volume of hiring is at present restricted to the larger IT companies, who have been able to win large deals. He says, “We are yet to see a hiring uptick among the mid-cap firms. Besides, the hiring this time reflects the kind of work these firms are attracting. It is no more about body-shopping work and hence most of the hiring we have is for mid-level managers with four years and above experience.”

On the other hand V Suresh, Business Head, Naukri says the hiring levels cannot be compared to 2007. Even the salary hikes are not up to the level of 2007. Apart from the bench strength (employees without project work) among the firms is very low). But utilization across firms has touched a high. Suresh says, “But, yes, the momentum is positive. Even for us, the homepage inventory, mailer, pop-ins and logins have increased. These are the activities that firms conduct on our site to attract talent.”

TCS hiring lateral, to increasing fresher hiring in Jan

2010-01-19T04:15:00.000-08:00

India's largest IT services company TCS, CEO says his company will be increasing its hiring process, give hike to employees, as well as increase capital expenditure in fiscal 2010-11. These steps can bring improvements in IT industry.

Mr N Chandrasekaran, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services, in an interview to told Business Line, “We are likely to hire more people next year ( vis-à-vis the current fiscal) and we have also increased the quantum of work done offshore. This means we have to create more facilities going forward.”

The group chairman, Mr Ratan Tata, at the company's annual general meeting last year while had said in the year 2010-11 capex of the $6-billion company will possibly increase than the Rs 1,300 crore earmarked for the current year.

But Mr Chandrasekaran did not revealed the exact numbers as the company is still working on its plans for the next fiscal, ahead of its third quarterly results that are to be announced on January 15.

Towards the end of the year the IT spend has been able to recovery from the crisis which has been the driving force for TCS to increase its hiring plans for next year and it is being led by companies in the banking, financial sectors across geographies.

Mr. Chandrasekaran said, the companies from sectors such as manufacturing, hi-tech, telecom and manufacturing are still ‘not out of the woods', then also there are enough indications of things getting on to track next year. He added, “I believe that during the course of the year these sectors will turn positive and deliver growth. The good news is the decline (in these sectors) has stopped.”

TCS is hopeful that 2010 will be better year for the company and for the IT industry as a whole. Also, the growth will be mainly volume-driven.

Mr Chandrasekaran said, “Short term, there may not be a pricing uptake; but I do not expect a (pricing) decline either. As demand picks up, pricing power will return.”

Another, good news is that there has been improvement in the discretionary or optional technology spending among corporations, particularly in the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) space. He stated, TCS Bancs (its financial products suite), which is “positioned against discretionary budgets”, has signed deals across the world, and has been able to secure deals even in geographies such as continental Europe that are yet to see an uptake.

He added, “Fundamentally, there is lot more clarity and there is a systematic way of approaching business from the customers' end vis-à-vis last year. We just hope that Europe as geography also starts showing signs of recovery.”

From January, TCS will be visiting campuses for recruitment for 2010-11. For the current fiscal company has already given 24,888 offer letters for campus recruits, quite a good number, who will be joining in a spread out manner through the fiscal.

Previously, TCS had announced that it had almost frozen lateral hiring for the current fiscal this also, seems to change and the company is in the hiring process of laterals or experienced professionals.

Mr Chandrasekaran pointed out, TCS this year did not give hike in salaries, and is hopeful to be more lenient next year. Internal discussions are being held in the company to see how much wage hikes can be implemented next year.

However by the end of quarter September 2009, TCS had registered a 29 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 1,642 crore against Rs 1,271 crore in the corresponding year ago period.

Bank of Baroda plans to recruit 3,000 from B-School and Engineering/Agriculture colleges

2009-12-29T03:24:00.000-08:00

This year IIM & IIT graduates are seriously considering careers with public sector banks. Mr M.D.Mallya, Chairman and Managing Director of Bank of Baroda told last year his bank had recruited around 50 officers from these premier institutions.

Also, during the last year the bank had recruited about 200 officers directly from various B-School and Engineering/Agriculture college campuses. Considering the last year experience, this year bank has decided to increase its intake to 300. Mr Mallya said, “Contributions from the new recruits has been huge and their adaptability to the public sector environment is admirable.”

When asked what motivated these B-school graduates to take up public sector jobs in spite of huge gap in salary levels (average salary for fresh MBAs offered by competition range between Rs 8 lakhs and Rs 10 lakhs), Mr Mallya said last year there was financial crisis and the lower intake by financial services firms was the reason behind change in the outlook of the B-school graduates. But he added, “The job market position has since improved. MNCs and financial services firms are recruiting again. But our attrition levels are low. That's a welcome change. That indicates that these recruits want to make a career in public sector banks.”

He further added, “Recruits also feel they get wider exposure at public sector banks with a large canvas. Working for an institution that is global gives you tremendous growth opportunities. For instance, in Bank of Baroda, we have 78 branches outside India — and this gives you the opportunity of being placed overseas which improves your horizon and knowledge base.”

Regarding the attrition levels in this cadre, he said, “We have not seen much of attrition. It has been about 25 per cent. This we have seen in the past also. That is not negative.”

While explaining about the bank’s recruitment plans, Mr Mallya said the bank will be recruiting about 2,500 to 3,000 people this year. Last year bank had recruited about 2,300 people (1,000 clerks and 1,300 officers). He added, “The recruitments are being done to replace retiring staff. Besides, our expansion plans and new branches require this recruitment on an on-going basis. We need specialists in various fields — credit, forex, IT, treasury, etc. Based on our current plans, our manpower strength, which is currently around 37,000, is expected to go up substantially in the next two to three years.”

Companies visited JBIMS for hiring interns

2009-12-14T03:08:00.000-08:00

The Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) witnessed active participation by regular recruiters during the recent internship placements for its 120 first-year management students.

Around eighty-eight companies, including JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank, ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, ITC, Britannia, Colgate Palmolive, Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, ONGC, BPCL, and Tata Power, visited the institute for recruitment of interns.

Anupama Jain, JBIMS student and placement committee member informed, "The regular recruiters picked up in big numbers". Mohnish Jacob, another placement committee member pointed out, "The coming of diverse sectors and profiles on the campus is a very positive sign. Things are looking up." "The enthusiasm shown by the companies augurs well for the lateral and final placements".

This placement season various profiles were offered in sectors such as finance, marketing, operations and general management, including consulting, credit risk analysis, treasury, private equity, product development, sales and marketing.

The average stipend offered was around Rs48, 000, while the highest stipend offered was into six figures. Jain informed, "With an array of recruiters to choose from, the spotlight was on the profile, role, and alignment with long-term goals of the students".

Pfizer to hire 200 people in next few months

2009-11-10T02:46:00.000-08:00

Pfizer India is proposed to continue increasing its headcount following this it will be hiring an additional 200 people in the next few months. The company will be merging with Wyeth in India, thus it plans to increase its strength before this merger.

Meanwhile world’s largest drugmaker, top Pfizer official informed that there are no immediate plans of merger with Wyeth India and both the companies will continue to function independently.

Kewal Handa, Pfizer India MD told ET on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, “Legally, Pfizer India and Wyeth India are two separate entities. They have separate boards and will therefore function separately. The products of Pfizer and Wyeth are complementary”.

However globally, Pfizer has taken over $68-billion possession of rival Wyeth. With this in India, it will toss Pfizer India back into the group of top 10 drugmakers. Currently, Pfizer India is positioned among the top 15 drug making companies having 2.2% share, in country’s highly-fragmented Rs 36,000 crore domestic drug retail markets. Globally, Pfizer CEO Jeffrey Kindler had pointed out the company is likely to discharge off 19,000 workers of the duty after the merger.

Recently Mr Handa has taken over the additional role of MD of Wyeth India. Generally when companies integrate, several employees are discharged off their duty due to duplication of operations, thus to reduce cost. In India, Pfizer and Wyeth are selling different set of medicines.

Placements at institutes started picking up

2009-10-30T02:46:00.000-07:00

After recession the placements at various institutes in the state have started picking up in the before the end of the sessions. Premier engineering institutes like BITS and MNIT this year have received better response from the major hiring firms as against the previous year.

Prof Das Gupta, who looks after the placements at BITS said, "There is a noticeable improvement in the recruitment in BITS' Pilani campus as compared to the previous year. Intake of students per company is certainly more this year". Around 1,000 graduates and post-graduates every year pass out from the institutes.

This year in August the companies started visiting the institute and till now 240 students have got placements. This semester the highest package offered is Rs 14 lakh per annum. According to Gupta the package is likely to increase as many high-profile companies such as Amazon, Credit Suisse, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobile are visiting for placement.

He is hopeful that most of the students will get placed through campus placement by year-end. Ishwara Bhatt, media coordinator at BITS told, "Most of the companies have not gone for any major recruitment for more than a year. So we are hoping that they will start recruiting now as the market is showing signs of recovery".

At MNIT although the placement scenario is not much similar to BITs, but this year it is quite satisfactory in comparison to private engineering institutes. Alok Ranjan, placement officer of MNIT informed, "This year core companies have showed interest in hiring students. Till date, 65 students have got placed in major companies against 400 qualified students."

This year new trends can be seen in the placement scenario. The students are ready to get placed in public sector undertakings (PSUs) due to revised pay scales and job security. Moreover the students of non-IT branches like architecture, mechanical and electrical are looking for jobs in their related branches.

While speaking about the students’ preference for jobs this year Ayoosh Bansal, placement coordinator at BITS said, "Gradually, inclination of the students is changing. They are looking forward to jobs in core companies in sciences, engineering, pharmacy and management rather than open IT profiles. Also, of late, there is increasing preference to join PSUs."

However both institutes have agreed there are some branches like electrical and electronics, mechanical and computer science, where the placement has been almost 100%.

Ranjan told that although placement was completed by October last year but it will finally get completed by January this year as most of the private engineering colleges postponed their placement sessions from July to December with a view that companies will start hiring by then.

IDBI Fortis to hire advisers to increase business

2009-10-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

IDBI Fortis Life Insurance a private sector insurer will be hiring the people for the post of advisers, in the next 5 months. The company plans to increase the number of advisers to 15,000.

IDBI Fortis Insurance Head - Marketing and product management, Mr Amish Tripathi told, “We have 7,500 advisers. We plan to increase the number to 15,000 by the end of March 2010 to ramp up business”.

The company launched life venture operations in March last year and at present has over 30 branches across the country. In the first year of its launch it collected Rs 318 crore as first year premium.

IDBI Fortis Life Insurance has been started in joint venture between state-owned IDBI Bank, private sector lender Federal Bank and Europe-based Fortis Insurance International. in this venture IDBI holds 48 per cent equity while Federal Bank and Fortis hold 26 per cent equity each.

While speaking about term insurance policy, Mr Tripathi said under this latest policy company is offering three options at a very competitive market last week.

He informed term insurance Protection Plan is being offered with 3 different life insurance cover options keeping in mind the protection needs of different customers, including an innovative increasing risk cover option designed to help beat inflation

Wells Fargo expands its back-end, opens hiring in India

2009-10-08T03:33:00.000-07:00

Wells Fargo is on a hiring process in India. The fourth-largest bank in the US by assets is in expanding mode of its back-end business processing unit in India, while most of the multinational banks are slimming down their corresponding units. Steve Ellis, executive vice president, wholesale services group, informed among its global services India is a key international centre therefore bank will continue to strengthen up its operations here.

However over the past few years, some of the foreign financial services firms including Citibank, UBS and Aviva have closed their offices or are in the process of selling off their confined BPOs. Most banks think that such operations have limited saving level whereas outsourcing of work to third party BPOs is more beneficial. But Wells Fargo consider its Indian unit of great value and believe its team in India as an extension of US teams.

Mr Ellis’ is coming to India when the San Franscisco based bank is in the process of completion of its merger with Wachovia Bank in India. Last year Wells Fargo had bought Wachovia’s global assets therefore it was least affected by the global financial crisis. But over the years bank has been criticized for its business practices, customer service and fee levels.

Mr Ellis in an exclusive interaction given to ET said, “As we aim to provide our global lines of businesses with a strong delivery capability around technology and business operations, we feel the need to broaden the scope of our search for talent”. He added, “The talent pool in India has been a key success factor in moving us into the future, and further strengthening our customers’ experience”.

Mr Ellis informed recently company has recruited from 1 to 50 or more in a month, in its Hyderabad office and at present there are over 800 people in the company spread across technology and business operations.

At present neither Wachovia nor Wells Fargo are carrying out any retail or commercial banking operations in the country, although Wachovia is providing services in global payments, cash management, trade finance, treasury services and other activities. At Wells’ BPO application development and other business processes related activities like financial analysis, financial modeling and service operation are being carried out.

Slowdown seen in 'India Inc's hiring in August

2009-09-29T22:19:00.000-07:00

A job portal Naukri.com has reported a slow down in the month of August, in the hiring activity by the Indian Inc’s. Although after a long period of recession in India hiring process has started showing signs of revival. The decline of 3.6 per cent has been reported in comparison to the previous month.

According to Naukri.com monthly Job Speak index there has been decrease of 701 in August as against of 727 in July, which shows a decline of 3.6 per cent.

Although a positive trend can be figured from the three-month moving average index and has moved up by 1.7 per cent to 715 in August from 703 in July.

Naukri.com owner Info Edge national head -- marketing and communications Sumeet Singh pointed out, "Hiring activity is steadily picking up across sectors, including Insurance, Banking and IT among others. However, the market seems to be testing waters before consolidating its stance on hiring".

According to survey report, however varied trends have been sited across the cities in the reviewed month, where city’s job index has declined four per cent in August as compared to July,

The survey revealed the drop in hiring activities was witnessed in Delhi-NCR, with city’s job index dropping down to four per cent in August as compared to July.

Whereas since May Delhi-NCR had recovered the most with its average of hiring picking up, according to the three-month moving average.

A slight improvement was seen in the index in August in the four cities, including Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

While comparing sector wise except Banking and Insurance there has been a secular decline in the hiring activity across the industries and experience levels.

Among the cities recruitment activity in Mumbai and Kolkata was stable whereas the index declined by less than a per cent, whereas Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune witnessed a drop in hiring with their city job index dropping by six per cent, seven per cent and five per cent, respectively.

Whereas the sector-wise survey Banking & Financial Services and Insurance has witnessed increase in the sector index by 11 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively.

However there has been increase in the recruitment in the education industry by nine per cent. Even the IT industry saw slowed down in hiring, the index declined by three per cent in IT-Software, six per cent in IT-Hardware & Networking and seven per cent in ITES and BPO segments.

The Construction and Engineering sector also saw a declined of 7 per cent in hiring activity whereas telecom sector declined by seven per cent in August as compared to July.

As per indicators recovery in Banking and Financial Services since December, its average index has been rising.

The index is calculated on the basis of job listings added to the website month on month basis with July 2008 as the base month with a score of 1,000 and the subsequent monthly index is compared with data for July 2008.

Around 51% companies in India to hire professionals and managers

2009-09-17T03:50:00.000-07:00

A global survey was conducted by global recruitment firm Antal International the chances of professionals and managers of getting hired have brightened as more than half of the companies in the country have begun hiring process.

As per a quarterly survey report there are around 51% companies in India looking to hire professionals and managers, after a downfall to 29 per cent at the beginning of 2009.

The survey stated, "As a result job prospects for professionals and managers in India are now better than global average".

In April the hiring percentage stood at 46 per cent but now globally, the hiring levels have moved up to 50 per cent.

For the next three months the hiring outlook seems to be promising because around 66 percent of Indian companies are expected to recruit. Also over the next quarter a drop of 21 percent is expected in the job cuts.

According to Antal International India managing partner Joseph Devasia, "After a substantial dip in hiring levels at the start of 2009, confidence seems to have returned to the Indian job market in a dramatic fashion. Two thirds of the businesses we spoke to are already in the process of hiring for the next quarter".

Moreover globally, there has been increase in the percentage of companies planning to hire engineers in the coming quarter from 44 per cent to 48 per cent. On the other hand there has been decline in the percentage of organizations, from 35 per cent in the spring to 25 per cent that have plans to shack the staff across the globe.

The firm conducted the survey of over 7,000 companies in August this year in major markets such as western and Eastern Europe, Africa, India, China and the US whether hiring professionals and managers.

Ford India to hire people for Chennai plant

2009-09-15T22:28:00.000-07:00

Ford India is increasing the production capacity of the Chennai plant which will be doubled to 200,000 units per annum, which means creation of more jobs, hiring of more people. The spokesperson of the company said the company is also thinking of setting up 250,000 units’ engine-and-power train plan for which an initial capital expenditure of $500 million will be required.

Michael Boneham, President and Managing Director, Ford India informed, “We have already hired 400 new hands, taking the total workforce in the factory to around 2,000. We are in the process of adding more so that the expanded capacity goes on stream early 2010”.

Boneham told that the investments will be done to increase mechanization, through robots; new stamping press line and the new paint process, thus the Chennai plant of Ford will become a strategic advantage over the other Ford plants.

Tom S. Chackalackal, Vice-President, Manufacturing pointed out, “The new plant will make us competitive with Indian manufacturers and give Indian customers a better product than ever”.

IIMs to adapt Computer Adaptive Testing model for CAT - 2009

2009-09-03T00:53:00.000-07:00

This year the Indian Institute of Managements (IIMs) has decided to conduct CAT-2009 online, expecting if this worked out well then it will bring a big change in the testing scenario, in spite of technological glitches. However the Common Admission Test (CAT) is not based on Computer Adaptive Testing model (CAT). Around 3,00,000 candidates are expected to take test which will be conducted in about 30 sessions, 2/3 sessions each day for 10/15 days - with 10,000/12,000 in each session. Therefore, CAT is CBT consisting of Parallel Forms, and these forms will probably be statistically linked.

In India, large number of candidates take tests for high-stake exams and the public is not quite well aware about all the aspects of this new mode. Over the last five years many organizations have conducted computer-based exams. But still the ratio of exams and number of candidates being tested greatly bend towards the paper-pencil mode. The reason behind this is large number of candidates can be tested in a single session with same set of question paper instead of using different sets and then linking them statistically to arrive at equivalence of scores.

In traditional mode (State Bank of India's clerical examination) the number of candidates taking up exam has increased to 6,00,000 in comparison to not more than 5,000 in a session for the computer based testing. As per rule on an average, up to 2,00,000 candidates can be allowed in a single session except in exceptional cases. In the high stake exams one mark makes a lot of difference or mar one’s chances to get his/her name in the list, the insight favors a single session examination. Any major variation is always likely to bring in some preconception. In such conditions, IIMs’ is quite bold to take an initiative to conduct CAT online.

The online tests are tagged differently- on-line tests, computer assisted tests, computer based tests, computer adaptive tests, and tailored tests. From IT view the tests are classified on the basis that how the tests are delivered such as computer based test (CBT) or internet based test (IBT). The difference between CBT and IBT is - CBT can be in a standalone computer or in a LAN with a local server whereas IBT is largely delivered and controlled from a remote centralized server.

In CBT model is basically a distributed model where the questions are loaded on the local server and data is transferred to a central one. While IBT is distributed through a centralized server using internet protocol and data is saved on the server. Thus this is the criteria on which the computer technology will classify testing.

The more remarkable way of classifying tests on computer is the psychometric theory. In India more focus is given on the perceived fairness of the process then the technical issues of reliability and validity. More questions will be raised on fairness and equivalence. According to psychometric theory, the classification is CBT and CAT.

In CBT the test items/questions are displayed on the computer screen rather than on paper. CBT has the following three variations: first one the "same content for all the examinees in one session" the model has the same psychometric credibility as of a paper-pencil test. It is limited only in terms of the number it can manage in a session. This model is known as Simple CBT.

Second, "Different sessions with different but parallel/equivalent content" this can be compared to multiple sessions in paper-pencil mode. Different parallel forms of the test are required to be statistically equated. Questions can be raised about the equivalence and statistical bias. This model is called CBT with Parallel Forms.

Third model has different sessions with randomly selected items from a larger item pool based on different silos of item properties. In this model the complete test for any two examinees will probably be very much different. This model is called CBT with Random Item Selection.

Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT): In this testing is sampling of ability inferred through a sample (represented by test items). Simple rule of statistics is followed - larger the sample better the inference. In accordance to the practical considerations like optimal time, fatigue of test taker, number of items is decided. As all the candidates are given the same test, items of varying difficulty level are selected to generate more individual differences. Thus the effective sample (number of items actually contributing to measurement) gets further reduced depending upon the ability level of the test taker. For instance, if all the candidates with higher ability are given ten easy items, all of them will score very high marks. Similarly, ten difficult ones to lower ability level will generate low score.

In case a test of five easy and five difficult items are given to both the groups then the higher ability group will differentiate from the lower group on the basis of only five items and not the ten actually contained in the test. Five items in this case are superfluous and do not contribute to the final result.

Thus in "conventional" testing the ability or the characteristic is measured via only a small number of items though we use more items. However in actual, the number of items contributing to measurement is much smaller than the actual number in the test. The individual differences are easily noticeable at a broad level and lack micro-precision.

Therefore the better process it to give each candidate items according to her ability. Thus the logic of "suiting to each", it is also called "tailored" or "adaptive" testing. This can be translated as measurement truth after fusion of this principle of tailoring with that of advanced computing facilities giving birth to CAT. So a session will be as follows. An examinee will be given an item of moderate difficulty selected randomly from a large pool. Based on the response, the ability is assessed and accordingly next item of higher or lower difficulty is presented.

The proximity of ability is re-estimated with each item with the testing algorithm of branching off to a next level of difficult item if the response is correct, otherwise to an easier one. After attaining the maximum information about the candidate’s ability the testing terminates. Different candidates are tested through different sets and different number of items and time duration.

Hence the CAT model works on the principle of CBT with Random Item Selection with item characteristics having better accuracy based on Item Response Theory instead of a broader range of characteristics. Moreover, there is an advantage of termination of session with much less number of items yet adding more precision to the score/assessment of ability.

To know about the taste of the dish is to eat it. Some of the questions which might require to be addressed may not get a satisfactory answer. While the test takers will always like to be assured of equivalence. In particular terms they may pose - "If the same candidate were to be tested with any of the parallel forms of the test or from a different pool of randomly selected items or based on CAT, would she get an equivalent score and the same select/reject decision each time?"

Answer of this question is in layperson's language which is difficult to explain. However, there is one practical way to demonstrate the equivalence, is built-in but also to filter out any left over statistical relic from getting the final precise score to be used for select/reject decision. The solution attained from common-sense works equally well with either model.

Here is the rational formula for certifying the equivalence theory and at the same time figure-out statistical and different form variations. From 3,00,000, only the top 6000 or so consider for the further process in IIMs. Believing as if there is no tomorrow and build your Parallel forms as the final forms, the score of which will be used as it is. Check this hypothesis of equivalence when all the 30 forms are completed. Compare statistically the scores to call the top about 10000 to take up the final test using a single form. Then on the basis of this final form the decision will be taken.

Then using the information of earlier forms' statistically corrected score vis-à-vis, the final forms score. In case they match, praise yourself. And if they don't match, of which there is a possibility, feel relaxed that you have been fair to the candidates and have taken extra care about this.

This information can further be used for sorting out the remaining scores of those who have not been able to make to the final round so that the scores are more precise in case the other institutes want to select the candidates. However this require just one more testing session and delay of about 15 days to get the final results. But the payoff will not only do justice but will also appear to be doing so.

Well IIMs have taken a leadership role in guiding in what Andrew S Grove called '10X' Changes ensuing in Strategic Inflection Point (SIP) – indicating to a time in the life of a business or practice when its "fundamentals" are subject to change. The IIMs have to play this role with finesse and responsibility. In the long run, CAT has to be CAT - the new model should be adopted for its advantages as they are too many to let go.

The new model has the possibility to become a norm for all large scale high-stake testing programs irrespective of whether it is CBT or CAT. However the latter, this post testing design is better for a good testing ground for the CAT model itself.

Vijaya Bank doing campus hiring, to hire 1,000 for various positions

2009-09-01T00:41:00.000-07:00

The banks have openings for the fresher as well as for the experienced. Vijaya Bank, the Mangalore-based bank has announced its plan of hiring about 1,000 for various positions before the end of the financial year 2009-10.

The bank at present is in the process of campus recruitments to hire 160 specialists (MBAs), will be starting the process of recruitment of 500 clerks.

After the inauguration of the 1,108th branch at Madhapur Albert Tauro, Chairman and Managing Director, Vijaya Bank, told newspersons, "In addition, we are laterally filling up over 300 positions in Scale III and III for which the interviews are on the anvil".

He added, in addition to catering of the manpower needs of branch expansion program, as during the year over 800 employees will be retiring there is a need for the recruitment of new staff.

The bank is also looking at getting rid of its image as a South India-focused entity. Tauro informed during the year bank will be opening majority of over 92 branches in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Central India and Punjab.

To achieve the target of 22 per cent in total business (which is at Rs 92,000 crore now) the bank will be putting into force technology products.

He informed, "Within a couple of weeks after launching SMS alerts, we had 40,000 registrations which might touch one lakh by month-end. Mobile banking will be launched in next two/three weeks. This will be followed by phone-banking in two months".

Soon bank will be getting Rs 700 crore from the Government as part of previously-announced capital expansion scheme.

He added, "This will help us maintain capital to risk-weighted assets ratio (CRAR) at above 12 per cent". Currently the CRAR is at 13.34 per cent.

GAIL to hire people in phases over the next 4-5 years for pipeline network project

2009-08-13T03:40:00.000-07:00

GAIL a state-run authority is planning to raise its hiring process in phases over the next 4-5 years for its project, a setting up of pipeline network in south and eastern region.

B C Tripathi took over the charge of company chairmanship of Asia’s biggest gas utility from U D Choubey on Saturday. After taking the charge he told TOI that the company will belligerently follow gas supplies from global and domestic suppliers to meet rising demand for clean fuel.

He informed that his main focus will be on project financing and completion of Rs 28,000 crore worth of pipelines within set period of time and also within approved costs besides expanding CNG (compressed natural gas) service in cities. He said, "We already have four cities and another round of bidding is going on and I am positive about results...we will expand (CNG service) wherever (viable) opportunities are there."

Regarding obtaining of additional supplies, Tripathi stated, "We will aggressively look at gas sourcing, be it from domestic fields or LNG (gas imported in ships)." He said GAIL will work "with anyone, be it GSPC, ONGC or RIL for GAIL. Sourcing and securing supplies is one of my topmost priorities."

GAIL is a biggest promoter of India’s biggest gas importers Petronet is looking to autonomously handle the sourcing of gas in ships. The company is planning to import five million tonnes a year of LNG on long-term contract and also to meet the rising demand of fuel, particularly from power plants it will transport one speck cargo of LNG a month.

Tripathi got appointed in GAIL at the time when the company was being separated from ONGC in 1984. He was one of the members of the first team which laid and started the Hazira-Bijaipur-Jagdishpur pipeline system.

Tripathi pointed out, "GAIL has very qualified professionals but we need to strengthen the HR base through fresh inductions from various streams to prepare for the changing market and new challenges. We will need more people to man posts and setups that will crop up as more pipelines are laid".

IT companies to visit campuses in the final semester only

2009-07-31T00:24:00.000-07:00

Previously before getting in to the last year of college the students used to got placed in the companies during campus hiring but this year the scenario has changed.

The biggest recruiters and the most preferred companies amongst the students in colleges is the IT industry, has decided that they will visit campuses only in the final semester which means students have to study hard even in their last year.

Earlier most of the IT companies used to do hiring at least a year or so before graduation which made easy for the students to take it easy in their final year.

Som Mittal, president of software industry body Nasscom informed, “All our member companies have unanimously taken this decision. The change is not only for this year, it is permanent”. Also there is no chance of change in decision taken by Nasscom is even though demand picks up. Indeed, the trend is likely to catch up even with companies other than IT industry.

Nasscom has sent a letter to industry associations, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), which have in line circulated the message among their members.

In 2008-09 the IT industry had hired 2,26,614 people, but the number was much higher in the previous year to around 3,89,000 people. In the last few quarters of 2008-09 and in the current year due to slowdown there has been less recruitments in the industry and also the freshers are being given extended joining dates. Due to uncertainty in demand IT firms are finding difficulty in predicting how many employees they will be requiring to meet their future requirements.

On the other hand students who have graduated in 2008 and have been selected by the companies are still waiting for joining the companies as uncertain demand made difficult for the companies to predict the exact number of employees they will require in the coming year.

Ajoy Mukherjee, Global Head - Human Resources, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) pointed out, “WE felt it would be better if we go to campuses in the eighth semester when we would be in a better position to understand what the demand would be”.

TCS usually have an annual interaction with the heads of some of the top management and engineering colleges informed the colleges have agreed to their decision.

Mr Mukherjee said, “That’s the kind of feedback we were getting from the institutes also. They felt students tend to relax once they have got a job and focus less on studies. Trainee offers were being done a year in advance. For example, the students we made offers to last year will be joining us this year”.

Infosys Technologies board member and director-human resources, Mohandas Pai stated, “It is better for the companies and for the students”. He told Infosys has informed about its decision to all the 500-600 colleges it generally visits. He said, “I cannot comment on how many colleges we will exactly visit. All I can say is that the colleges are happy”.

Mr Mittal, informed that generally companies have been hiring almost three years ahead of demand as they visit the campuses in the fifth semester (around the third year) of engineering.

After the students complete graduation, approximately it takes one year before they actually become productive as they have to undergo training before they can handle any client projects efficiently.

Job portals develop city-specific portals in tough times

2009-07-27T04:19:00.000-07:00

The global economic slowdown has shrink the recruitment market worldwide therefore the job portals are working on new strategies like launching city-specific portals or targeting freshers.

The Times Business Solutions has its own portal www.timesjobs.com
is working on city-specific portals, Info Edge owner of naukri.com and a city-based learning management firm Expertus have developed new job portals exclusively for fresh graduates.

Vivek Madhukar, vice president of timesjobs.com, says the content and the jobs featured in city portals are more centered and attracts both the job seekers who prefer to take up a job in the same city and recruiters who also look for the people staying in the city.

"Both job seekers and employers prefer specific locations," Madhukar pointed out.

Times Business is planning to develop around eight city-specific portals including Delhi and Mumbai which have already been launched.

He informed, "After the launch of the Delhi site (www.delhi.timesjobs.com), the number of hits jumped 38 percent, job listings by 27 percent and applications by 25 percent".

"The next city portal will be Bangalore-centric."

On the other hand Expertus, has decided to be more focused and aim the fresh graduates.

The company's managing director of global operations, Srini Krishnamurthi, while explaining the basis behind this decision, to the IANS said, "Popular job portals like naukri.com, timesjobs.com cater to everybody. A fresh graduate's resume there is like putting a drop of water in an ocean."

He said, it is better if fresher gets a job in the college itself through the placement officer interacting between the campus and the corporate people.

Naukri.com, feels the same that the fresher form a new segment.

According to Deepali Singh, business head at www.firstnaukri.com, "India has over 5,000 recognized management colleges, yet the placement procedure remains offline for most of these colleges."

Singh said, "This would help the recruiters to do first round of short-listing online. Second, there is no specialized portal which allows recruiters to showcase internship jobs or limited period projects for students. Firstnaukri.com will attempt to fill this gap in the online space".

Krishnamurthi of Expertus explained on job portals provide platform to tier-two and tier-three colleges to showcase their fresher students to the corporate world, as leading firms more often visit only the top colleges.

He adds, due to conventional campus hiring the talent supply appears to be short, and also increases the gross bills for firms.

Expertus is proposed to launch a similar type of portal in Malaysia in a tie-up with a local partner there.

Times Business is also working on the similar grounds to serve the new segment.

Singh informed, "It (portal for fresher) does not serve our primary purpose of finding for people the right job, at the right time and place. (But) we have a special section and micro site on timesjobs.com called 'CampusDirect' that showcases fresher to employers".

Fresh job seekers still have a long waiting time

2009-07-24T02:45:00.000-07:00

There is news that the economic condition of the country is improving and some of the big companies are conducting interviews or will be conducting interviews but for job seekers especially freshers the picture is not as rosy as it appears to be. There will be hiring but slow. Moreover the new jobs will be mainly restricted to middle and senior levels so there is hardly any chance left for freshers, or those having three or four years of work experience.

This was reported by India's largest staffing company, TeamLease Services, in its employment outlook report for the period between July and September 2009. the company surveyed 495 companies in the country and in its report it stated that the net employment outlook index is set at 46%, an increase of 22% compared to the previous quarter. The index is the difference in proportion of respondents who report an increase in hiring needs and those who report a decline over the next three months.

Surabhi Mathur Gandhi, GM, TeamLease points out that across all sectors slowly and steadily hiring plans are gaining pace. He said, “The employment outlook, though a bit conservative, is upbeat." The highest hiring target is in the IT companies (40% against last quarter), followed by manufacturing (31%) and pharma (30%). But in sectors like retail, media, FMCG (19%), telecom (16%), infrastructure (15%) and financial services (9%) the hiring is moderate.

According to survey report only 10-15% hiring will be done at the junior level, which will include freshers and those with experience of two to four years. Mathur said, "It would be maximum at the middle management level with 40-50% and 30-40% at the senior level." The reason being the companies are looking for the experienced people who can add value to the organization and start contributing their best from the very first day of their joining. An HR official from a financial advisory firm informed companies hire freshers when it plans to expand its business. Pradeep Bahirwani, VP, talent acquisition stated at IT major Wipro, freshers are introduced in a spread out manner through the year.

In a survey it was reported that in the last three months, the rate of attrition was highest in sectors like IT, ITeS, infrastructure and healthcare, more than 10%.

Employment portal to be beneficial for fresh job seekers

2009-07-23T04:24:00.000-07:00

In the Union Budget 2009-10 Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced that the employment exchanges in the country will be modernized. In view of this the Ministry of Labor and Employment is planning to create a national web portal with common software for employment exchanges. Before the end of this year beta vision of this site will be launched.

Deputy Directorate General of Employment and Training, Amarjeet Kaur told CIOL that the website is an effort to give a single platform to meet the supply and demand of employment market in the country.

"There is no national-level web portal of Employment Exchange. So far, it had been operating at regional level, where individual states maintained their own job portals," informed Kaur.

"This new portal will gather information of 970 employment exchanges and function as a national employment exchange portal, like any other private job portal, providing information of vacancies from all sectors, verticals and regions of the country."

The new website will have section that would provide occasional guidance about career, new opportunities, market trends etc.

Kaur confirmed, "We will have a new section of guidance and counseling in the site. Our teams of consultants are currently working on the development on the site and will soon announce other features."

K S Meena, Director of Employment Exchange, explained that with the modernization of employment exchange the Center will become more strict towards the Employment Exchanges (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act 1959, according to which companies with 25 members or more have to compulsorily notify the employment exchange center about the openings in their office, and any failure to do so will be penalized.

Almost in every state there is employment exchange center. Himachal Pradesh, for example, is having more than 65 centers, Haryana has around 61 employment exchange offices including an overseas employment bureau and private placement service, while Tamil Nadu has around 48 centers, and Karnataka around 39.

In Jammu and Kashmir there are around 14 centers and Chandigarh has got around 6 centers. Many of these states are already having online facility in place, to check their status on the job waiting-list, search for suitable jobs and update their resume. However the process of registering is manual and regional. The candidates have to visit the center and submit the required papers for registration, and can register at only one center at a time.

Currently, around 40 million youths have registered to the center and there will be a gradual increase in the numbers of new registers. The existing members of employment exchange can use their ID to login to the website, while new members will require registering.

No subscription fee will be charged from the job-seekers by the portal, although, the job providers might have to pay around one months salary, which will be used for the maintenance of the site.

The government is yet to register for a domain name for the expected portal.

Meena added, "This is a huge project and will take about three years for completion."

He said the Ministry will be deciding the launch the pilot phase with five states namely Assam, Haryana, Meghalaya, Orissa and Rajasthan.

According to Assistant Director of Directorate of Employment and Training (Government of Karnataka), Veranna T.R, with the launch of the new website the entire process of job-application and recruitment will get smoother.

He informed, "The candidates can prevent the hassle of visiting the center to update the profile. They would receive job alerts on weekly or daily basis, unlike the quarterly-updates provided at present."

Agreeing to this, Roshini Kumar, a software engineer at Bangalore, had never visited an employment exchange center because she preferred the easy access to job openings through newspapers and privately-run job portals. "Employment Exchange is something I read about in books and newspapers, but I never visited any center because it was easier for me to register online and reach to many companies, easily." she added.

Raghvendra Jayram, senior software engineer at Accenture, is of view that the job portal will be beneficial for fresh graduates and young professional with around 2-3 years of experience.

He said, "The recruitments at seniority-level generally happen through internal references rather job portals. The expected government-run portal will definitely be a breather for the freshers, but I wonder how far it will help people at managerial level."

The Finance Minister in his introductory speech of the budget had raised the concern about the employment condition due to the existing economic conditions. There are hopes that new portal will help in appeasing the grim situation of employment market.

Canadian business schools students optimistic regarding getting jobs

2009-07-13T04:28:00.000-07:00

Due to slowdown in economy worldwide there has been slump in job market therefore it is believed many MBA students who will be graduating this year might be unlucky due to depressed job market conditions.

But the Canadian business schools students are quite optimistic regarding getting freshers jobs.

Till now Canada has largely resisted the trend that has witnessed the hiring levels worldwide plunge this year. The overall job numbers has come down but Canada’s biggest banks are hiring and its financial sector has also not observed its job market fading like that of the US.

In the US, business schools have reported as much as of 50 per cent drop in financial sector hiring, partially due to the loss of groups such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. On the other hand in Canada, banks are describing the current conditions as a growth opportunity and are busy selecting top talent from international competitors.

Joseph Palumbo, executive director of the career development centre at York University’s Schulich School of Business in Toronto said, “It’s a tough market,”, where usually half of MBA graduates take up finance jobs. “But Canadian banks are doing better. They’re saying ‘This is great, we’re picking up great talent’.”

Canadian banks have not been fugitive to the turbulence and all have taken significant write downs on their exposure to toxic securities. However their cost has suffered less than their US counterparts and none have hovered their dividend. Last year The World Economic Forum had declared that Canada’s banking system would be the soundest in the world.

Although most Canadian business schools till now have reported a reduction between five and 15 per cent in hiring from a strong 2008, which according to them puts them at about 2005 levels. By September only the true numbers will be known, when schools will be able to track progress three months after graduation.

All the big Canadian banks and overseas banks who are carrying out operations in Canada have continued their campus recruitment programs, according to David Edwards, director of the business career centre at Queen’s School of Business in Ontario.

“All of them came back this year and they all are coming back again this fall”, he said.

The banks informed their overall hiring levels have remained consistent, with some changes in the sections where those new hires are headed.

Leslie Quinlan, vice-president of talent management at Toronto-Dominion Bank pointed out, “People are often surprised that we’re continuing to hire at the same levels as we did two or three years ago”. “In some groups we’re filling more positions, like wealth management, investment advisers and financial planners.”

Therefore universal approach is reflected throughout the banking sector.

“We didn’t even discuss [our hiring intentions] with regards to that being a source of reduction,” informed Rose Patten, senior executive vice-president and head of human resources at Bank of Montreal (BMO).

She added that she has seen “enormous accessibility to experienced people coming out of the US looking to come into Canada”.

Toronto-Dominion has continued to run its associate program, which each year recruit 250 applicants from MBA programs and business undergraduate degrees on eight to 24-month rotations through various departments.

However Canadian banks portray themselves as being in a growth mode, but not all of that growth is going to benefit recent graduates. Banks in Canada are aiming at senior-level staff outside the country that have been without a job or are unhappy with reduced bonuses and other cuts.

Meanwhile BMO has hired senior staff from Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Wachovia and Bear Stearns.

Even though there is a competition from international recruits, Canadian MBA graduates are still finding jobs in the financial sector.

“In Canada we’ve not seen any firms drop their offers,” said Sharon Irwin-Foulon, director, career management at the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business where around 30 per cent of MBA students usually get into the finance sector.

However, “it requires more intestinal fortitude now to go into the finance sector than it did two years ago”, she said.

The similar optimism found in Canada is now more difficult to come across in the US, where it will be difficult to find finance sector jobs.

“All in all it’s rough,” stated Kip Harrell, the US-based president of the MBA Career Services Council.”

TCS freezes hiring, bad news for passing IT professionals

2009-06-28T23:07:00.000-07:00

TCS the largest Indian IT company is one of the largest employment generators in India. The company has over one lakh employee base. For this year the company has decided to freeze hiring and will hire only when there is a need. The sources said already last year commitments are mulling intensely on the company’s financial condition. Last year the company had offered over 24,000 jobs but all the professionals who will be graduating this year should be ready to face the worst in such a situation.

S Mahalingam, CFO of TCS, told, “Because of the last year offers there will be an additional employee cost. We will honor no more increments.”

In a company like TCS employees outline almost 50 per cent of the total cost, thus TCS is not only freezing fresh hiring, but also cutting down heavily on overhead costs.

According to Mahalingam , "There will be no increase in Infrastructure Company. We will move into SEZs".

However it’s not just TCS that is freezing hiring, according to Industry sources in the last one year the IT sector has witnessed a drop in hiring by more than 20 per cent. Combine this with layoffs and postponed campus recruitments, clearly shows that IT pack is on a belligerent cost cutting means.

Aricent to hire people, 60 per cent freshers : says Nandy

2009-06-22T04:41:00.000-07:00

Aricent a global outsourcing and Innovation Company is on the way to increase its global headcount by 10-15 per cent in the current fiscal. The major increase of around 70-80 per cent will be done in India.

The company has clocked recorded high revenue of $460 million (around Rs 2,200 crore) in FY09 at present is having a global headcount of 8,000 of which 6,000 are in India. Aricent’s CEO Sudip Nandy informed, “We will be hiring people this year. Around 60 per cent would be freshers and the rest laterals.”

Furthermore, this year the company does not plan to add any physical infrastructure, and will be utilizing the capacity in its existing centers at Chennai, Bangalore and Gurgaon.

Regarding inorganic growth, Aricent is exploring to have acquisition in the communication services provider space, as previously it has raised about $60 million (Rs 280 crore) last September from KKR and The Family Office.

Nandy said, “We are reassessing targets, geographies and areas where we can make acquisitions”. This fiscal the company’s revenue has grown up to 22 per cent over the previous fiscal and listed double digit EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).