Oracle plans to lay off up to 1,000

Oracle Corp plans to lay off up to 1,000 workers in Europe, or about 1 percent of its global staff, as the recession erodes the giant so
ftware company's earnings, French news agency has AFP reported.

Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger declined to comment.

The world's No. 2 publicly held software maker would be one of the last major technology companies to undertake significant layoffs in this economic downturn.

Oracle would join EMC Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, International Business Machines Corp, Intel Corp, Microsoft Corp and SAP AG, among others.

Trade unions learned of the job cuts on Monday and Tuesday during committee meetings of Oracle's European workers, according to the AFP report.

Redwood City, California-based Oracle had some 86,000 employees as of May 31, compared with 84,233 a year earlier. About a third of the software maker's employees are in the United States.

Spreading financial literacy

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), with the objective of disseminating information on the Central Bank and general banking concepts to various target
groups including school and college students, has undertaken an initiative titled 'Project Financial Literacy.' The project also aims to educate women, rural and urban poor, defence personnel and senior citizens on general banking concepts.

Recently, a pilot programme has been launched on financial literacy in Karnataka. The programme, launched by RBI in collaboration with the state government, will involve introduction of financial and related material in the curriculum of schools and colleges. Significant steps would also be taken to make financial literacy a part of non-formal education.

A Udgata, chief general manager, RBI, said: "Children, today, are not money-smart and hence, it is imperative to teach them the basic concepts of banking that would be useful for them in life. As a part of our project, we visit various schools across India and hold various activities for students to sensitise them on financial concepts."

He adds, "Our literacy project has two segments. While the first one is concerned with general topics designed to acquaint people with the basics of banking, finance, markets, banking products and facilities, the second one aims at familiarising people with the functioning of our Central Bank in areas like monetary policy, currency management, forex management, public debt management and other similar topics."

For spreading awareness about RBI and banking at the regional level, RBI also conducts an essay competition for schoolchildren on subjects related to financial inclusion. Adds Udgata, "We are also working on an RBI Young Scholarship Award to generate interest and awareness about the Indian banking sector. Under the scheme, RBI will select young scholars through a countrywide competitive examination who wll be given an opportunity to intern with the bank for two to three months. The opportunity will be available to students pursuing their graduation in Indian universities."

In an attempt to 'catch them young,' RBI launched two comic books in basic banking. He explains, "Through this pictorial representation, while Raju (a comic character) explains the basics of banking to children, Money Kumar (another character) explains the role and functions of RBI. Both these comics have been published in 13 languages including English and Hindi. They have been accommodated in Braille as well."

In addition, RBI has created a special subsite to make people understand the basics of banking in an interesting manner through comics, films, interactive games and stories. Udgata adds, "We are planning to launch a story book on this site narrating the story of the evolution of money from the times of the barter system to the present system of electronic money."

Sukriti Vidyut Udyog

The Company

Sukriti was established in 1972 at Ghaziabad (India) for manufacturing special conductors for Wire and Cable industry. Sukriti is preferred supplier in India and abroad, exporting 60% of its production to Europe and USA. Sukriti's range includes single and stranded silver plated copper wire, nickel plated copper wire, silver plated copper-clad steel wire and heating wires.

With quality systems equivalent to ISO 9000, we have integrated manufacturing facility with well equipped testing laboratory and Govt recognized research and development facility. Sukriti offers not just products but solutions.

Recruits R&D Engineer

Experience: 0 - 4 Years
Location: Ghaziabad
Education: B.Tech/B.E.
Industry Type: Industrial Products/Heavy Machinery
Functional Area: Engineering Design, R&D

Job Description
This is R&D engineering job in an Indian manufacturing company. It involves:
Work on live R&D engineering projects.
Design, development and enhancement of machines
Self study of engineering domains through books, internet, research papers for problem solving.
Exploring industrial market for components. So, knowledge of industrial market in NCR region is preferred.
Work under guidance of experienced engineers.
You should be able to execute assigned tasks with little supervision working in small team.

This is R&D engineering job in an Indian manufacturing company. It involves:
Work on live R&D engineering projects.
Design, development and enhancement of machines
Self study of engineering domains through books, internet, research papers for problem solving.
Exploring industrial market for components. So, knowledge of industrial market in NCR region is preferred.
Work under guidance of experienced engineers.
You should be able to execute assigned tasks with little supervision working in small team.

Desired Candidate Profile
Education: BE (Mechanical/Electrical) from reputed engineering college
We are looking for following skills in candidate:
Basic electrial/mechanical engineering skills - fundamentals, engineering drawing, components, circuit diagrams
Engineer willing to utilize and enhance engineering skill on live projects.
Prior experience (0-4 years) in engineering field is preferred
know how of industrial market in NCR region is preferred.
Ability to execute assigned tasks with little supervision.

Yahoo to hire 150 in India

NEW DELHI: Yahoo is hiring for hundreds of job openings including nearly 150 vacancies in India, even as the internet major is set to bring down i ts global workforce by about 675 employees.

"We are currently hiring for key positions and will continue to invest in strategically important areas," a Yahoo spokesperson based in the US said.

While the spokesperson did not elaborate on country-specific hiring plans, the career section of the internet major's website shows that Yahoo is looking for about 150 positions in India alone.

The openings are for its operations in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi, while most of them are for Bangalore. Further, the internet major has over 120 job vacancies for different offices in the US, the website shows.

The India openings are for various departments including engineering, customer care, research and product management, among others.

Last week, while announcing its first quarter results on April 21, Yahoo said that it would slash five per cent of its headcount worldwide. At present, the company has 13,500 employees globally and a five per cent reduction would amount to laying off 675 people.

The firm is resorting to job cuts in the wake of slackening advertisement revenues and a 78 per cent drop in first quarter profit at $118 million. However, it is not clear whether India operations would be affected by the job cuts. India has about 1,500 employees.

"We will be reducing the number of our current employees worldwide by approximately five per cent. We do not break out how individual countries and teams will be impacted.

"We currently have 13,500 employees worldwide. We do not break down how many employees are in each country," the Yahoo spokesperson said.

The spokesperson noted that the majority of impacted employees are expected to be notified within the next two weeks. In 2008, Yahoo's worldwide workforce was about 15,000 and out of them, about 1,500 employees were in India.

Yahoo last October had announced that it would reduce its headcount by as much as 10 per cent. "The goal is to reduce its current annualised cost run rate of approximately $3.9 billion by more than $400 million before the end of 2008," the Internet major had said in October.

"(since) The majority of expenses are headcount-related, Yahoo expects to reduce its global workforce by at least 10 per cent during the fourth quarter of 2008," it had noted.

Oracle to buy Sun Micro for $7.4bn

New York, April 20: Technology information company Oracle Corporation today announced that it would acquire rival Sun Microsystems for $9.50 a share, or about $7.4 billion.

The agreement with Oracle came about two weeks after IBM ended its talks with Sun.The Sun board baulked at that deal after IBM lowered its offer to $9.40 a share from $10. Still, Monday’s deal represented a 42 per cent premium over Sun’s closing price of $6.69 on Friday. Oracle and Sun said in a statement that net of Sun’s cash and debt, the deal was valued at $5.6 billion.

Lawrence J. Ellison, Oracle’s co-founder and chief executive, and Scott G. McNealy, Sun’s co-founder and chairman, have been two of Silicon Valley’s closest allies over the last 20 years. Their companies turned into two of the superstars of the Internet build-out, and both executives made ribbing rival Microsoft a favoured pastime.

Historically, most of Oracle’s database sales have occurred in tandem with Sun’s servers. Over the past few years, however, Oracle has moved to make Hewlett-Packard and Del stronger allies, as Sun’s business has declined.

“This combination is a natural evolution of our relationship and will be an industry-defining event,” McNealy said.Sun’s directors have unanimously approved the transaction. It is anticipated to close this summer, subject to Sun stockholder approval, the companies said in a statement. Oracle said it expected the purchase to add at least 15 cents a share to its adjusted earnings in the first year after the deal closes. The company also estimated that Sun would contribute more than $1.5 billion to Oracle’s adjusted profit in the first year and more than $2 billion in the second year.

Sun shares were up 36 per cent to $9.10 in early trading, while Oracle fell 5.6 per cent, to $17.99.The deal immediately disrupts the traditional relationships formed between some of the technology industry’s largest players and thrusts Oracle into the hardware business.

Oracle, for example, has long-standing partnerships with Sun’s rivals, including Hewlett-Packard and Dell. These sellers of server computers work to fine-tune Oracle’s database and business software for their computers.

IBM, which competes against Oracle in the software market, also comes under new threats with the deal. For years, IBM has used its homemade servers as leverage for selling higher-profit database and business software. With Sun, Oracle opens up the same opportunity and gains access to thousands of existing Sun customers.

In addition, Oracle has now obtained the MySQL database, which Sun acquired last year for $1 billion. The open-source software has proved popular with companies looking to expand their Internet operations.

Last year, Oracle began a flirtation with the hardware market. It started reselling a server computer from HP that relied on its software for managing and analysing large volumes of data.

NASSCOM rolls out NAC-TECH across India

One lakh candidates to take test in the next 12 months

Skills assessment program for engineering students to benchmark their entry level skills in the IT industry
NASSCOM’s GMAT-like standardised test to gauge employability of fresh graduates in engineering and technology-based industries will allow students to take a single test that will be valid for multiple employers.
Termed NAC-Tech (NASSCOM’s Assessment of Competence – Technology), it will be used to screen applicants for jobs in the two specific segments, according to Sandhya Chintala, Director – Education Initiative, NASSCOM. The test has been evolved with inputs from some of the IT majors in India, including TCS, Cognizant, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, Hexaware, IBM, and Accenture. It will evaluate both soft skills and domain competence of candidates. “NAC-Tech is built like a first filter for all educational institutions, companies, and candidates. Students can take the tests online and will be assigned a score, which will facilitate employment.

Whereas, the certification test has two parts. 'Part A' is mandatory and has tests on verbal ability, analytical reasoning, attention to detail, learning ability, programming and written English skills; and 'Part B' is optional and has tests in IT concepts, electronics and communication, mechanical, civil, chemical, textile, bio-technology, electrical and telecommunication engineering. Candidates depending on their specialisation can take a test in any one area. All scores are valid for a period of one year from the date of assessment. NASSCOM will conduct regular feedback programmes and facilitate interviews for candidates with endorsing IT companies. The results and analysis of the NAC tech assessment will also be regularly shared with the universities and government to make any recommended changes in curriculum and faculty development programs.

According to Ms Sangeeta Gupta, Vice President, NASSCOM, “Talent suitability continues to be a key concern for the IT industry with only 25% of the total engineering graduate pool available in India having the requisite skills. The NAC Tech program aims to address this demand-supply gap by helping students understand the requirements of the IT industry, assess and improve their skills based on the program, and tap employment opportunities in the fast growing knowledge sector.

NASSCOM rolls out NAC-TECH across India

One lakh candidates to take test in the next 12 months
Skills assessment program for engineering students to benchmark their entry level skills in the IT industry

NASSCOM’s GMAT-like standardised test to gauge employability of fresh graduates in engineering and technology-based industries will allow students to take a single test that will be valid for multiple employers.
Termed NAC-Tech (NASSCOM’s Assessment of Competence – Technology), it will be used to screen applicants for jobs in the two specific segments, according to Sandhya Chintala, Director – Education Initiative, NASSCOM. The test has been evolved with inputs from some of the IT majors in India, including TCS, Cognizant, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, Hexaware, IBM, and Accenture. It will evaluate both soft skills and domain competence of candidates. “NAC-Tech is built like a first filter for all educational institutions, companies, and candidates. Students can take the tests online and will be assigned a score, which will facilitate employment.

Whereas, the certification test has two parts. 'Part A' is mandatory and has tests on verbal ability, analytical reasoning, attention to detail, learning ability, programming and written English skills; and 'Part B' is optional and has tests in IT concepts, electronics and communication, mechanical, civil, chemical, textile, bio-technology, electrical and telecommunication engineering. Candidates depending on their specialisation can take a test in any one area. All scores are valid for a period of one year from the date of assessment. NASSCOM will conduct regular feedback programmes and facilitate interviews for candidates with endorsing IT companies. The results and analysis of the NAC tech assessment will also be regularly shared with the universities and government to make any recommended changes in curriculum and faculty development programs.

According to Ms Sangeeta Gupta, Vice President, NASSCOM, “Talent suitability continues to be a key concern for the IT industry with only 25% of the total engineering graduate pool available in India having the requisite skills. The NAC Tech program aims to address this demand-supply gap by helping students understand the requirements of the IT industry, assess and improve their skills based on the program, and tap employment opportunities in the fast growing knowledge sector.”

Barclays to Shift 10,800 Jobs to India

April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc plans to shift 10,800 jobs to India and other low-wage countries, betting reduced costs will help win support for its acquisition of ABN Amro Holdings NV, the world's largest financial services takeover.

Barclays, Britain's third-largest bank, will also slash about 12,800 jobs to pare expenses by 2.8 billion euros ($3.8 billion), the banks said in a statement today. Barclays, based in London, today agreed to buy ABN Amro for 67 billion euros.

Salaries in insurance, banking and finance in India may rise 16.5 percent this year, driving the fastest wage growth in Asia, according to Hewitt Associates Inc. Aviva Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc and Standard Chartered Plc have hired back-office staff in India, where a financial analyst costs as little as a quarter of counterparts in Europe, Paul Abraham, managing director of ABN's global support unit, said last month.

``Despite the high salary increases year-on-year, Hewitt research suggests that talent cost arbitrage vis-a-vis the U.S. still exists,'' said Nishchae Suri, head of Asia Pacific analytics consulting, at Hewitt Associates. ``India has a vast talent pool that is of superior quality.''

Barclays Chief Executive Officer John Varley said today the bank will move workers to ``low-cost'' locations including India, without elaborating. ABN Amro, which employs about 4,000 back- office workers in six offices in Mumbai, Chennai and New Delhi, plans to hire as many as 2,000 more people by March, Lars Gustavsson, global head of the services unit, said on March 15.

India to Brazil

Barclays's acquisition of Amsterdam-based ABN Amro will create a bank with about 217,000 employees and 47 million customers stretching from India to Brazil. Barclays plans to slash almost 6 percent of the combined workforce, excluding Chicago-based LaSalle Bank. In a related deal today, ABN Amro agreed to sell LaSalle to Bank of America Corp.

``Part of the expected staff reduction will be through establishing shared services and offshoring those positions to low-cost locations, such as India where new staff will be recruited at ABN Amro's existing'' operations, the banks said in the statement. ``The reduction in staff is a necessary part of the envisaged synergies from the combination of the two banks.''

The Barclays and ABN Amro combine will have to compete for talent in the world's second-most populous nation.

Standard Chartered has about 5,100 employees in India that serve its operations across 56 countries and plans to double the number in three years.

HSBC plans to increase its workforce in India to 30,000 next year from 22,000, Naina Lal Kidwai, the bank's chief executive in the country, said in October. About 12,000 are employed at a customer-contact center, 3,000 at an information technology center and 7,000 to support its branches in India.

Hiring Talent

The world's biggest companies are hiring more people in Asia's fourth-largest economy because Indian professionals, especially those in middle and junior management roles, still earn less than a fifth of their peers in the U.S. and the U.K., Sharad Vishvanath of Hewitt Associates said in March.

The Indian School of Business, based in the southern city of Hyderabad, said salary offers from companies in India rose at a faster pace this year than wages paid by overseas companies.

The institute said 414 of its students this year were hired by overseas financial services companies including Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and local employers such as Infosys Technologies Ltd.

The students got an average overseas salary of $135,000 a year in 2007, compared with $120,700 in 2006. The average salary offered by companies in India rose to 1.5 million rupees ($35,971), compared with 1.18 million rupees last year.

`War for Talent'

``The war for talent is becoming increasingly fierce in India,'' said Hewitt Associates' Suri. ``India will still maintain the cost advantage over its Western counterparts.''

India's $854 billion economy has grown an average 8.6 percent since 2003, making it the fastest accelerating major economy in the world after China. The country turns out four times the number of technical workers produced by the U.S., according to a study by New Delhi-based National Association of Software and Service Companies and McLean, Virginia-based Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.

``If a company is looking to hire a large workforce, say a thousand or more, the choices are few. It has to look at India or China,'' E. Balaji, chief operating officer, Ma Foi Consultants Ltd., said in an interview earlier this month. ``India's transparent legal system and its workers' fluency in English often give the country an edge.''

India may add 1 million jobs this year, compared with 850,000 in 2006, Balaji said. The banking and finance sector will account for the biggest chunk, about 16 percent, he said.

IT firms to Campus recruits: Don't join yet.

BANGALORE: If you think you've cleared a campus interview by an IT firm and your career's made, you might be mistaken. You could be one among over 100,000 campus IT recruits hired last year to be put on "indefinite wait". Domestic and multinational IT companies are busy sending such bulk mails to candidates hired last year, who would have joined them in the April-June quarter.

"The industry is under stress due to the US recession and rupee appreciation. So we have taken a decision to stagger the induction of hundreds of our campus recruits. It makes financial and logical sense for us," said the head of training & hiring in a tier 1 tech firm who did not want to be named.

The wait for many could range from a quarter to a year, while for at least 30% it could be for ever. "That means, some may not even be called at all," said an industry source.

Kris Lakshmikanth, MD of recruitment firm Head Hunters, said things looked fairly bright at the beginning of the year. "But now, employers are keen to get rid of their bulges and benches."

‘Benches' include employees who do not currently have any work but wait in the expectation they would be offered work as fresh orders come in.

Saraswathi Venkateswaran, president, CEO Search (India), said recession in the US had transmitted shockwaves to providers in India. Orders are expected to slow down substantially. "This has forced them to resort to instant cost-cutting measures. Induction and training are pretty expensive."

In IT, people costs are over 40%, as against less than 10% in manufacturing and 20-25% in retail, banking and telecom, said Ahmed Ali, MD, Cornucopia, a recruitment process outsourcing firm. A few quarters ago, companies were vying with each other to mop up freshers from campuses across the country. "All these were futuristic hirings. The industry has now realized that the margins are shrinking. Many of them already have a large army of one-to-three-year-experience talent on board. So many are delaying or putting a stop to fresh hiring this year," said Gautham Sinha, CEO, TVA Infotech.

"There is reason to be apprehensive. But this staggering is mostly precautionary. Some tech firms are even planning not to fill their vacancies," said Anjan Dutta, vice president (staffing) in Cambridge Solutions.

INDIA'S SOFTWARE DREAM RUN IS FAR FROM OVER

It's a lament one often hears nowadays: Indian software programmers, those global icons of cheap brainpower, have become greedy.

With compensation costs in the Indian software industry climbing 12.5 percent annually the past two years, some investors are now concerned about how long the country can hold on to its most promising industry.

“If salaries continue to escalate,'' Promod Haque, managing partner of Palo Alto, California-based Norwest Venture Partners, recently said, “China is more attractive to us as venture capitalists, Israel is more attractive to us, and Eastern Europe is more attractive to us.”

That's perhaps too gloomy a view. India is far too ahead in the game to face a serious challenge any time soon. Out of the $40 billion of software ``outsourced'' globally last year, 44 percent went to India. China and Eastern Europe got less than 5 percent each, according to statistics reported this month by India's National Association of Software and Service Companies, or Nasscom.

“With so much research and development and engineering design, wages may not be a problem,'' says S. Sadagopan, director of the Indian Institute of Information Technology in Bangalore, ``as long as productivity and the value of work done are high.''

According to Nasscom's statistics, the 697,000 people employed in the Indian software industry had an average revenue productivity of about $23,000 in the 12 months ended March 31, a 7 percent increase from a year earlier.

WILL IT BRING ABOUT CHANGES IN CAMPUS CALENDAR?

Your next-door neighbour's son is ecstatic. He has an offer letter from one of India's top software services firms. The only puzzling factor is, he is expected to join only by the end of September. That is more than three months away. And before you can get over this puzzle, he tells you some of his friends have been given dates that are much later than his!

Surprising? No. IT companies are always in the news with the number of people they hire through the year. Some of them hire huge numbers straight out of engineering colleges. But their training and other infrastructure can support only so many at a time. Hence the system of staggered induction.

But companies want this to change. They want to be able to meet manpower demand across the year and want to make more efficient use of their training infrastructure.

And to the employee fresh out of college, it could mean three more months' salary, in the least.

The solution? Companies now want the academic system to throw up two batches graduating every year: one as usual in summer and one in December.

Says Bhaskar Das, Vice-President, Human Resources, Cognizant Technology Solutions, "We are talking to select academic institutions that are open to the idea of having two batches coming out every year."

He declined to comment on the identity of those institutions, but added that it was easier for the industry to deal with autonomous institutes.

In fact, Infosys Technologies has already written to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). According to Mohandas Pai, Chief Financial Officer, Infosys, "We have raised the issue with the AICTE to have two batches graduating during the year like the ICAI. India needs this kind of flexibility."

But it's not as if it's mayhem with the current system though. Says Laxman Badiga, Chief Executive Officer for Talent Transformation & Staffing, Wipro Technologies, "We have built our model around the existing scholastic year and are able to manage the influx, through a combination of staggered joining dates and by building infrastructure to manage the training of large numbers of people. Colleges currently have completion dates ranging from June through August and September, which allows us to phase in our new employees."