Infosys is recruiting 18,000 people in 2009-10 compared with 28,231 a year ago and will freeze wages to rein in costs. Of the 18,000 new recruits, about 2,000 will be lateral hires, with the rest being freshers. "Our offer letters have gone out over two-and-a-half months ago and we expect most of the new employees to join soon. The conversion rate will be 80 per cent," said HR Director TVM Pai. He ruled out any revision of the salary offers to freshers.
The company has told its employees that there won't be wage hikes for the financial year ending July 31, 2009, due to tight demand in the US and Europe, declining volumes and the need to further tighten expenses across business divisions. In a harsher step, the company has slashed retainer bonus, which averages 10 per cent of an employee's salary, from April 1. Travel allowance has been sharply reduced, if not curbed, in most cases.
iGate had in a statement on Friday evening said that it had dropped its bid for Satyam on 'further analysis'. Clarfying his stand last week that iGate would be keen to bid for Satyam at an offer price of below 90 cents a share, Murthy said, "Had we decided to pursue the bid, the share price would have had no bearing on our offer price as we would have bid at a price we thought was a fair valuation."
The company is said to be cutting back on recruitment for its consulting and services divisions and postponing expansion as it struggles to cut costs in a worsening global economic climate. Accenture employs around 40,000 people in India.
Terminates services of over 600 contract workers in February.
HP employs around 60,000 people in India, including former employees of EDS, which it had acquired for $13.2 billion in May last year. However, a good number of EDS India employees who were transferred to HP India will not be so lucky, industry sources said. "HP CEO Mark Hurd's plan to effect pay cuts between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent will affect all EDS employees who were moved to HP," an industry source added.
Anticipating weakening demand from the US market, coupled with pricing and margin pressures in the fourth quarter of the current financial year, Infosys Technologies will look at slashing variable pay-out to its employees.
Come January, employees of IT services company MphasiS could be in for an off-schedule New Year surprise -- a 20-40 per cent salary cut across the board.
Having successfully completed the $13.9-billion acquisition and merger of IT consultancy EDS a few months ago, IT services giant Hewlett-Packard is now taking steps to integrate both organisations.
Apple's next killer application for the iPhone could justify its price-tag among the harshest of critics. The iPhone has had something for every user, but to take social networking to the next level, the services of a Bangalore firm were needed.
Infosys Technologies generates over 60 per cent of its revenue from the US, which is witnessing a slowdown. A falling rupee did help the company tide over the quarter, and S Gopalakrishnan (popularly addressed as Kris) says that new opportunities, geographies and centres of excellence will have to be balanced against billing cycle delays and other pitfalls of the market.
Intel Capital, the investment arm of Intel Corp, is seeking further investment opportunities to support its WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) strategy, since it believes the technology could shake up the wireless data market.
Technology start-ups in India garnered an estimated $6-10 million in 2007, but most are struggling to break-even on their initial Reserach & Development investments. Does the problem lie with what are supposed to have developed as the seedbeds of innovation -India's universities?
The Cupertino, California-based company, according to Apple retail sources, said initially the 8 GB version of the much-hyped touchscreen device -- which combines Wi-Fi capabilities with a powerful email client, TV feeds, online music store and map-based location guide -- will be launched at a price ranging between Rs 27,200 and Rs 28,000.
Under its IT/ITeS SEZ development plan, Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot) is setting up nine IT SEZs in Tamil Nadu, developing 1 million sq ft space at an estimated cost of Rs 28,000-30,000 crore (Rs 280-300 billion) - one each at Perumbakkam village and Sholinganallur near Chennai, two in Madurai, and one each at Tiruchirapalli (Trichy), Krishnagiri, Salem, Coimbatore and Tirunelveli.
The move, alleged employee sources, started somewhere in mid-January. While at least 80 employees were asked to resign over the past week, one company source asserted that as many as 300 employees were being asked to leave. The company, however, dismissed the employee allegations as pure speculation.
Indigenous technology development is hitting the high seas. The Indian Coast Guard, ISRO's Ahmedabad-based Space Application Centre and Faridabad-based VXL Technologies Ltd have jointly developed a low-cost GPS (Global Positioning System) transmitter-based fisheries alert system for use by fishermen at sea.
OneRoof revealed its vision of making every village in South India Internet savvy, via the social franchise route.
India's first 3G network, currently being tested in some Tamil Nadu villages, could well lay the seeds of a rural ICT revolution.
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