According to several industry sources in the know, expenses towards deploying contractual staffer, which used to account 10 per cent of the overall billable employee cost at IT firms, has fallen to around 3 per cent. IT firms typically use the contractual workers from staffing solutions providers or subcontractors.
The preliminary processing of tax returns is already undertaken with the help of technology. There is now greater scope of using more technology to reduce the human interface even further, notes A K Bhattacharya.
The move, however, is unlikely to prompt its rivals in India - Chinese manufacturers like Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi - to do the same.
'We have to cut down on manpower to make more for equipment,' Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat tells Ajai Shukla.
'We have all the technologies available, but it should be converted to something that can be commercially viable.'
The strengthening of the Mountain Strike Corps is part of the steps taken by the force to rebalance its focus more towards the Chinese border from the western front with Pakistan.
In the Army headquarters, the wings handling military operations, military intelligence, operational logistics and strategic movement will carry out their functions with bare minimum staff strength till April 19, according to the order. Within the command headquarters, wings handling manpower, logistics and operations will only function with skeletal staff.
The tea industry, hit by rising costs, falling prices and political unrest in the North Bengal plantations, is especially vulnerable to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Agnipath may be an exercise to address the genuine needs of the armed forces. But overall, it betrays the tendency to use the military and paramilitary for employment generation and shaping a national character, instead of treating them as the professional services they are, notes Shyam G Menon.
'Given the first-time healthcare emergency of this nature and scale, we don't have enough experienced hands to deal with the situation.' 'The models, policies and protocols keep changing everyday depending upon the evolving situation.' 'We are all in trial-and-error mode where we do some right things as well as wrong things.' 'We cannot have an ideal environment to fight this pandemic.'
The Centre's push to sell Air India on priority has led to delays in other strategic divestment proposals, such as privatising United India Insurance, as well as ongoing transactions, such as Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), revealed multiple officials involved in the process. The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) is yet to take new privatisation recommendations of the NITI Aayog to the core group of secretaries on disinvestment (CGD) headed by the Cabinet secretary, said one of the officials. The priority now is to ensure all approvals for Air India are in place since the government intends to hand over the national carrier as early as this month.
After auto components major Bosch Ltd, Sundaram-Clayton, Hero MotoCorp now announce temporary production shut down
While amending the rules on the suggestions of the Election Commission, the ministry also allowed "COVID-19 suspected or affected persons" to use the postal ballot facility.
Only investors who understand the significance of ESG investing should enter these funds for the long term, advises Sarbajeet K Sen.
Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in the country, the Indian Medical Association has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggesting that vaccination be allowed for all people above the age of 18 years.
On the basis of feedback from the teams, the ministry has written to the states highlighting the areas of concern, including sub-optimal containment operations and contact tracing, skewed testing and shortage of health workers. Authorities need to work in these areas, it said.
Highlighting the role of MSMEs in enhancing exports and helping the country achieve self reliance, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday said India does not need to import from China. "Already in automobile sector, in many sectors now, in agriculture, automobiles, everywhere, we have already found the solutions. Now we don't need to import from China," said the minister. He observed that India was exporting a lot of items instead of importing them.
In a letter to the states and union territories, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan advised implementing strategic interventions for containment like imposition of night curfew, strict regulation of large gatherings, curtailing numbers in marriages and funerals besides increasing testing and surveillance.
While the infection has been mild in most reported cases, those below two years of age are showing signs of acute infection.
Most of the scanty 6.35% rise in the defence budget is accounted for by manpower and running expenses.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said she had suggested to the Congress that an advisory council comprising prominent personalities from civil society be set up to give a direction to the opposition, but rued that the plan did not materialise.
'Our preparation is based on ICMR projections, whatever preparations we have to make.' 'If they project around 70,000 is the maximum number of hospital cases by mid-May or May 30, we are preparing accordingly -- how many people will need hospitalisation.'
In platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Helo, and ShareChat, mediators have been asked to put in more hours to ensure that no communal or fake news spread.
Availability of jobs at India's auto companies has shrunk significantly over the last two years, as the industry goes through one of its worst slowdowns. More than 60 per cent of the total workforce fell by 24 per cent in 2019-20, against 2017-18.
He said "it is very essential that the police keeps four steps ahead from criminals and criminal-minded people".
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday said American electric car major Tesla is set to start its operations in India next year and would also look at setting up of a manufacturing unit based on demand. The Road, Transport and Highways minister has been pushing for green fuel and electric vehicles for cutting India's huge Rs 8 lakh crore crude imports. Tesla Inc. co-founder and chief executive Elon Musk had in October said the company will enter the Indian market in 2021.
Intense showers battered Chennai and other northern regions of Tamil Nadu on Thursday while the depression over Bay of Bengal crossed the coast by evening.
The stimulus package announced by the government for the revival of the pandemic-hit economy has been found to be "inadequate", according to a Parliamentary panel report. The report of the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector has noted that in the process of economic recovery post-first wave of the pandemic, the second wave has even more vigorously ripped the economy particularly the MSME sector. "The committee observes that the stimulus package announced by the government for the economic revival from the pandemic hit economy has been found to be inadequate as the measures adopted were more of loan offering and long-term measures instead of improving the cash flow to generate demand as immediate relief," it said.
Early detection will bring down the mortality rate, the minister said, adding that the government plans to increase institutional quarantine facilities.
A bench of Justices S K Kaul and M M Sundresh referred to the affidavit filed by the CBI Director in pursuance to the top court's earlier direction asking to apprise it about the steps to be taken to strengthen their prosecution unit, the bottlenecks, and also about conviction rate in matters probed by the agency.
Experts attribute this trend to a combination of end of capital expenditure cycle, increased automation, RIL's preference for time-bound labour contracts, and telecom and retail's outsourced human resource model.
The unprecedented health crisis forced an indefinite shutdown of all sports activities -- both contact and non-contact. The FICCI said non-contact sports can resume first by maintaining social distancing norms.
Tech is also being used to stem resignations, which have recorded a rise amid COVID-19.
While Covid-related sales may come down going ahead, analysts expect the company's domestic sales to outperform the market, led by the chronics portfolio, which accounts for 55 per cent of sales.
With the number of coronavirus infections declining in the country, industry chamber FICCI has suggested the government to follow a graded approach in unlocking economic activities. The chamber has suggested opening up of economic activities depending upon the positivity rate of COVID-19 cases in that region or district. It has divided regions at four levels - minimal risk, low risk, medium risk and high risk. It has asked for opening e-commerce supplies for both essential and non-essential activities in all districts irrespective of the positivity rate, besides home delivery of alcoholic beverages, logistics, warehousing and all cargo movement.
A greater payment security mechanism for power generation companies to ensure timely payouts for supply of electricity will be in focus in 2022 as stricter rules are on the anvil for 24x7 power supply amid discoms' outstanding dues at a whopping Rs 1.56 lakh crore. Mounting outstanding dues of distribution companies (discoms) to electricity generation companies (gencos) have been a perennial issue affecting the entire value chain in the power sector and are also a hindrance for the ambitious goal of 24x7 power supply across the country even when the payment for coal is made in advance. The situation persists despite the fact that discoms' dues become overdue after 45 days of generating bills and they also have to pay penal interest on the overdue amount in most of the cases to gencos.
'India is ahead only of Pakistan in the amount spent on each soldier a year.' 'The Indian military is a manpower-heavy throng that is poorly armed, equipped, and trained,' observes Ajai Shukla.
Mementos, the new brand, would be aimed at addressing the need for boutique luxury hotels across various destinations.
A clutch of automakers including Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Mercedes Benz India, Eicher Motors, TVS Motor, and Isuzu Motors India announced they had got the clearance from the governments of the states they operate in to resume operations.
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