Indian jobs market remains optimistic

Indian jobs market remains optimistic

There is a spurt of layoffs worldwide which has been triggered by tough business conditions. But Indian employment market, even in such conditions, remains optimistic about the buoyant hiring prospects in the retail sector.  

In India companies are now focussing more on getting the right talent rather than recruiting in large numbers.  

Staffing services firm, Ma Foi Randstad, is of the opinion that till now India remains insulated from the phenomenan of worldwidelayoffs happening at present.  Thus the Indian employment market seems "cautiously optimistic."

It is estimated that about 1.5 million new jobs are being created annually in India, which is way less than the number of people entering the labour market every year.  

Global HR major Hay Group's Mayank Pande said, "Hiring activities are still on the accelerator, with recruitments expected to grow exponentially in the retail sector."

Companies, in India, are now more serious about getting the right talent... many are looking for lesser number but more skilled and efficient people. Companies are also now weighing expenses before recruitment.  

Sectors like defence, hospitality, nuclear power and retail are likely to increase hiring activities in the coming years. Here, small and medium companies increase their workforce by about 10 to 15 per cent every year, while large corporations increase their head count by around five per cent every year, says an estimate.  

Many global corporations  like Cisco, Nokia, Research In Motion (RIM), Credit Suisse, and US-based Merck & Co have decided to have massive job cuts in the wake of tough global economic  conditions. There are also aggressive cost cutting measures that are being taken. 

American pharma major Merck & Co has recently announced their plans to slash around 13,000 jobs. In the same way Blackberry-maker Research In Motion said it would cut 2,000 jobs while Cisco intends to reduce its workforce by about 6,500. 

Source: The Economic Times

Outsourcing demand fuels TCS to hire 60,000 more

Demand for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)'s outsourcing services is increasing tremendously. The company has hired 70,000 workers during the last fiscal year and looking forward to add 60,000 more this year.
Tata Consultancy projects annual sales have quadrupled since 2005 to $8.4 billion. There are further expected to increase 20 percent this year.  Being the rivals, Infosys Technologies and Wipro are also rushing to find large number of qualified candidates beacuse global IT purchases are growing by 7.1%.

TCS specializes in using low-cost IT workers to replace more expensive labour in developed countries. Due to this it succeeded in having contracts with Deutsche Bank, Hilton Worldwide and Air Liquide last fiscal year. TCS which is regarded as Asia's largest computer-services provider by market value reported record annual income of $2 billion.

TCS' vice-president for human resources said, "What we're trying to do is make sure the supply chain is large enough to meet our growth requirements in the future."

Since Microsoft and International Business Machines are going to open facilities in India, and the local banking, finance and manufacturing industries also are hiring their own computer engineers, TCS wants to keep the pipeline of talent filled. One can also see that attrition at TCS, Infosys and Wipro rose to its highest annual levels in the year.

There is rise in attrition over the last four quarters is essentially due to the pent-up demand. There is a race for hiring from each other.

It is expected that TCS will offer raises of 12% to 14%, which the highest in three years.  Following the trend, Infosys is expected to raise salaries for domestic workers by 10 percent to 12 percent this fiscal year.

The International Monetary Fund said that our economy would grow by 8.2% this year after expanding 10.4% in the previous 12 months. India's software industry now employs about 2.5 million people and there is still a hiring spree in the IT companies.

Source: The Economic Times

Fees hiked for many professional courses

Fees hiked for many professional courses

Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ranchi, and Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Mesra, have hiked the fees, making professional courses expensive by up to 50 per cent from this academic session.

The PG program in management at IIM-Ranchi now costs Rs 9 lakh (for two years) from the 2011 academic session. It has increased by 50 per cent. In the last session, the fee was Rs 6 lakh.

Tuition fees, room rent, course material and library and computer charges will now be Rs 1.5 lakh per semester. Working executives with five years of experience will have to pay Rs 4.5 lakh for the 18 month post graduate executive programme in management.
BIT-Mesra has also hiked fess by 25 per cent for the undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

The new fee structure would be effective from July 2011. For BE and BPharm studies, the per semester fees would be Rs 65,000. Apart from this there is one-time admission fee of Rs 5,000 and caution money (refundable) of Rs 10,000. This a BE or BPharm student ends up paying Rs 80,000 per semester.

Per semester of bachelor of architecture (BArch) has increased by Rs 5,000. The total semester fee is now Rs 70,000. Bachelor of hotel management and catering technology (BHMCT) students need to pay Rs 60,000 a semester while BSc in food production technology (FPT) will cost Rs 40,000 every six months. 

Fees for postgraduate programmes like masters in engineering and master in pharmaceutical sciences, besides MTech and MSc programmes, has also been raised at BIT-Mesra. 

Jamshedpur-based XLRI has increased the for its two-year postgraduate programmes in business management and human resource management from Rs 8.5 lakh to Rs 9.8 lakh from this academic session. 

XLRI’s course fee for one-year general management programme has also been jacked up to Rs 13.7 lakh from Rs 9.9 lakh i.e. almost a hike of 40 per cent.

This hike has been there due to salary hikes of the teacher according to the Sixth Pay Commission

Source: Telegraph