Infy to hire 25,000, attrition up

BANGALORE: IT software major Infosys Technologies said that it planned to recruit 10,000 fresh hands in the second quarter of this fiscal and and a gross of 25,000 for the year.

"Hiring has been planned and attrition is under control," T V Mohandas Pai, member of the Board and Head-HRD and Education and Research of Infosys, told reporters.

Infosys plans to recruit 10,000 in the second quarter of the fiscal. Out of these, 8,000 would be campus recruitments.

He said that nearly 3,000 of the recruits were BSC, BCom graduates. "Most of these BSC graduates recruited are the cream and can be trained", he said. The software major was looking at deploying these graduates in positions like infrastructure management and independent validation.

Stating that attrition was under control, he said that the attrition figure this quarter was 13.6 per cent as against 13.4 per cent in the last quarter. Nearly 16 per cent left the company to pursue higher studies and 47 per cent for other firms.

The total projected employee strength for the first quarter of the current fiscal was 94,379 against 91,187 in the last quarter of 2007-08. The strength of software professionals was 87,816 as of this quarter as against 85,013 the last quarter of 2007-08.

Gross addition this quarter was 7,182 and net addition was 3,912 for this quarter with laterals being 2013.

Capital Expenditure of Rs 337 crore was incurred this quarter. As on June 30, 2008, the firm had 1, 78, 56,088 sqft of space capable of accomodating 80,880 emploees and 70,19, 986 sqft is under completition, capable of accomodating 23,945 employees.

indiatimes.com dt. 13 7 2008

Left readies action plan to topple govt

NEW DELHI: Admitting that ruling establishment is pulling all stops to get smaller parties and individual MPs to vote in favour of UPA during the trust vote, Left is also attempting to rally political parties so that the government can be toppled on July 22.

On Saturday CPM general secretary Prakash Karat had a meeting with party's parliamentary leadership to decide on the strategy inside and outside Parliament.
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee is likely to resign early next week. "Its all a part of well-thought out plan. We will not lose a vote," a source said. Senior leaders are also reaching out to various parts of the country to tell people how Manmohan Singh-led government has betrayed the country on the issue of nuclear deal and how it falls short of PM's promise in Parliament.

As for Left's efforts to garner support, so far apart from TDP no party has committed. JD (S) MP Veerendra Kumar has also promised support to Left even if party goes with the government. Left is also not relying on Deve Gowda.

But National Conference is undecided. On the other hand Left feels Jharkhand Mukti Morcha cannot be relied upon. Parties like AGP have gone over to NDA and will vote against the government.

Explaining NC's dilemma, a left source said, "National Conference does not want to antagonize Congress before assembly election. NC sees itself as filling the slot left by the PDP in J&K and team with Congress after the election results."

CPM also denied that senior leaders like Jyoti Basu do not agree with party's stand to vote against the UPA. Calling it "fabricated", CPM said "such motivated reports are being floated to hamper the rallying of all the forces who are committed to oppose the nuclear deal and bring to book UPA's failure to tackle price rise and other problems of the people."

The Times of India dt. 13 7 2008

When Sensex falls, leave the Toyota at home

Investors are not the only ones to be hit by the free-falling Sensex. Brokers at the Bombay Stock Exchange have been at the receiving end of the downslide as well. Though they go through the motions and check out every penny stock that moves up or down, there is no excitement.

Sapan Patil, whose JNP Shares and Stock Brokers Private Limited was started by his grandfather 60 years ago, said many brokers have cut down on staff and are delaying capital expenses.

“I am trying to get employees for lesser salaries and am thinking about not renewing certain software contracts,” said Patil. “At a personal level, too, we are thinking of cutting costs. I have sold two of my four cars that run on petrol and opted for diesel ones.”

Biswanath Muralidhar Jhunjhunwala, one of the senior-most brokers the city, now takes the train from his Malad home to his office instead of commuting in his Toyota Innova. The austerity measures extend to his office as well: tea and snacks are served twice a day instead of three times, as was done earlier.

Business is so dull that several brokers have been forced out of business. “Brokers now have few orders to execute as clients are staying away,” said Madhukar Sheth, a broker who now concentrates on consultancy to listed companies and his personal investments.

“People are worried and nervous. Sub-brokerships and dealerships are being cancelled,” added Rahul Nangalia (26) who joined his father’s brokerage firm about four years ago.

Naresh Bhalerao, a sub-broker, said business was down by 70 per cent while Nangalia put the slump in revenue at 40 per cent.

The Hindustan Times dt. 13.7 2008