The workers of the two-year-old bus plant are demanding confirmation of temporary employees and reinstatement of those who were suspended in April this year, in addition to wage hike.
Refining its inorganic growth strategy further after carrying out acquisitions in consulting and analytics areas down the years, Cognizant Technology Solutions is understood to be scouting for business process outsourcing firms specialising in insurance in the US and Europe.
Reduced hiring in the US market due to the lingering impact of the global financial crisis has resulted in a spike in the number of non-resident Indian resumes received by Indian human resources (HR) companies. Over 15,000 NRI resumes have accumulated in the inboxes of headhunters, and the number is set to increase, say HR executives.
Indian tech firms like TCS, Wipro and Infosys have seen slower recruitment since the first quarter of 2008.
This will be exacerbated by the falling number of masters and PhD holders in science and engineering, restrictions on cross-border movement of IT professionals and the US H-1B visa programme.
The British aerospace giant is understood to be in the process of rolling out a series of new engine design, analysis and development programmes and is looking at roping in an additional partner to handle its sub-contracting requirements.
Infosys Consulting Inc, the strategic consulting arm of IT services giant Infosys Technologies, is planning to acquire a small consulting company with revenues in the $100-140 million range (Rs 450-650 crore) as part of its inorganic growth initiatives in the US.Market sources said Infosys had been looking at a suitable acquisition target in the US with consulting expertise in verticals like aerospace, retail, healthcare and financial services.
The heritage brand's journey from Bond Street to Sarjapur Road will give a facelift to Wipro's fast moving consumer goods portfolio.
Sources familiar with the project said the SPV's promoters were looking at raising the additional capital to acquire up to 250 acres at Thane to complete the first phase of the SEZ project, for which IL&FS is an advisor. Inox Infrastructure Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gujarat Fluorochemicals Ltd, holds 50 per cent stake in Megnasolace.
India's second-largest information technology services provider, Infosys Technologies, has applied for a mere 405 visas till date for financial year 2009-10 - its lowest application count in recent years.
The gap between operation and inspiration created by the premature exit of Infosys Technologies' key founder, Nandan Mohan Nilekani, is being filled by his colleagues.
Infosys BPO Ltd, the business process outsourcing operation of Infosys Technologies, is looking at raising its headcount in the Americas through inorganic growth. The company is understood to be scouting for a strategic acquisition in the $40-60 million range either in Canada or the US, according to industry sources.
The EDS-owned company had withdrawn this allowance from June 1 following a review of its shift policy sometime last month. This allowance was being given to applications delivery employees at levels 1-7 (those with up to seven years of work experience) doing the day shift beyond 10 pm everyday. The shift allowance of Rs 500 per shift for employees working between 10 pm and 6 am remains untouched.
Over 36 per cent of the 1,630 executives surveyed in India in March this year expected an upturn in the global economy by the end of 2009, as against 34 per cent of North American business executives and 32 per cent of Chinese. Asia-Pacific and Europe recorded 28 per cent and 24 per cent on the hope meter. However, about 62 per cent of Indians surveyed expected the world economy to rebound only by 2010 or later.
Plans to increase headcount in the US, mainly in the banking and finance vertical.
New shift policy to affect hundreds.
It is not clear which groups of the Indian operations have been affected by the cuts which are learnt to have been carried out across diverse functions. However, a company source said that a sizeable number of Microsoft's sales and support personnel in Hyderabad and a few in Bangalore were among those affected. The Response Windows team has also been dismantled completely, the source claimed.
A spokesperson attached to GE's Jack Welch Research Center in Bangalore said after the new people join, employee numbers in Bangalore would cross the 4,500-mark. GE's technology product research and development team is currently 3,800-people strong, with an additional 350 people employed in global research.
"Employees who have been consistently demonstrating poor performance were counselled out. Less than 1 per cent of our 11,250 employees in Chennai and 11,496 employees in Hyderabad have been impacted. As for the Thiruvananthapuram centre, less than 1 per cent of the 1,800 employees were impacted," said Mohandas Pai, member of the board, director, human resources, Infosys Technologies.
IT services provider MindTree Consulting is restructuring salary offers to its trainees over an 18-month period by staggering payments and linking these to tenure. The plan will be applicable to 250 freshers who joined the company in March this year. Another 250 people are expected to join in October this year.