IT sector to regain growth momentum early next year

Though the financial sector has started showing some signs of recovery from the global meltdown, the IT industry in the country will take some more time to regain the growth momentum, a top industry official said here on Saturday. 

"The crisis started in the financial sector and recovery also seems to be happening first in that sector," S Gopalakrishnan, deputy chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-southern region, told reporters here on Saturday. 

"IT growth will be near flat in the near future. Probably, there will be pick up early next year. When that happens,outsourcing should go up," Gopalakrishnan, also the chief executive of Infosys Technologies, added. 

He said Infosys would hire around 18,000 employees this year. 

"We are honouring our promise made to the campus recruits. Appointment letters with joining dates have been sent to the candidates," Gopalakrishnan said.

Trainee commits suicide at Infosys Mysore. Media not covering.

A trainee at Infosys Mysore DC committed suicide on Wednesday, 14th April 2009.

The reasons quoted for the suicide is reportedly failing in 3 modules of generic training which brought him to the edge of being ousted from the company.

It is for the second time in the last 6 months that a trainee at Infosys Mysore has taken the dreadful step. The first incident occurred in the first week of October. While the reason for the earlier suicide remains unknown, the reason in this one clearly seems to be fear of losing the job.

It is apparent that as in the previous suicide case, in this case too Infosys deliberately tried to suppress the news.

Despite 5,000 hires in Q4, net additions at Infy just 1,772

Software services provider Infosys Technologies today said it has hired close to 5,000 employees in the first three months of this year, but net additions were just 1,772 to its headcount after taking into account attrition and other factors.

The total headcount of Infosys and its subsidiaries stood at 1,04,850 employees as on March 31, 2009, the company said in a statement.

"During the quarter, Infosys and its subsidiaries added 4,935 employees (gross). The net addition during the quarter was 1,772," it stated.

In the entire financial year ended March 31, 2009, the company took on board 28,231employees, but the net additions for the year were just 13,663.

"The year ahead would be challenging on the people front. Our continuous investment in capability development, training and certification would make us more competitive. We have tightened our performance management system to create a more focused workforce," Infosys Head-HRD and Education & Research TV Mohandas Pai said.

Overall, the company's headcount at the end of FY 08-09 stood at 1,04,850, 42 per cent higher than 73,490 employees in FY 2007-08.

The company's employee strength has been steadily increasing from the past five financial years. The employee strength was 23,377 in FY'04, 32,178 in FY'05, 44,658 in FY'06 and 59,831 in FY'07.

"We continue to invest in our employees through training and building their skills across various technologies and domains," the statement added.

Infosys today announced a 29.1 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,613 crore and a 24 per cent growth in income to Rs 5,635 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2009 as compared to the year-ago period.

Infosys fired 2,100 for poor performance

With companies keen on maximum utilisation of employees and low tolerance to poor performance in the backdrop of global economic turmoil, nearly 2,100 employees in software firm Infosys [Get Quote] have faced the axe.

"Some of these employees have been asked to go while some have left on their own," V Balakrishnan, CFO of the Bangalore-based company, told PTI on Saturday.

Prior to asking the employees to leave, they were put on a performance improvement course and those who showed no improvement were asked to leave while some others quit, he said.

"Tolerance to poor performance is very low given the current economic scenario," said Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan.

Usually, the employees who showed poor performance were given some more time to improve themselves, but this time there had been no such consideration, he said.

Both the officials said the sacking was part of annual routine, which usually formed five per cent of the total number of employees but this time it was much lower.

Some of the employees had been "outplaced", Kris said, which refers to the firm hiring the services of placement agencies to help the employees to get placements in other firms.

Infosys has a workforce of 105,000, including trainees.