47% graduates in India are unemployable for any job: Report

At least 47% of graduates in India are not employable for any industry role, according the latest report by employability solutions firm Aspiring Minds.

The report is based on a pan-India study of 60,000 graduates across colleges.

According to the report, 47% graduates are not employable in any sector of the knowledge economy. The employability of graduates varies from 2.59% in functional roles such as accounting to 15.88% in sales-related roles and 21.37% for roles in the business process outsourcing (BPO/ITeS) sector.

A significant proportion of graduates, nearly 47%, were found not employable in any sector, given their lack of proficiency in English and cognitive skills.

Since a graduation degree is considered a pathway to a job in the knowledge economy, substantive intervention at the school and college level is needed to improve basic skills of students. A renewed focus on vocational training should be re-emphasised, said the report.

The employability varies from role to role based on varying degrees of proficiency required in language and cognitive skills.

For an analyst's role, close to 84% graduates were found to lack the right levels in cognitive ability, while 90% graduates did not have the required proficiency in English communication. As a result, less than 3% of India's graduates remain unemployable across different job profiles. These numbers change dramatically for a teaching role or a sales or support role in the industry.

Over 40% employable graduates are beyond the top 30% colleges and have no way to signal their employability to potential recruiters.

41% of graduates employable in accounting roles hail from colleges beyond the top 30% colleges, whereas for the IT services sector this percentage is 36%.

Despite being employable, these students have no way to signal their employability to recruiters who end up recruiting only from reputed colleges and universities.

"This study is a first of its kind for three-year degree graduates across India evaluating employability for major roles being offered by industry. The alarming statistics of nearly half of the country's graduates not being employable in the knowledge economy needs great attention with interventions at both the school and higher education levels," Varun Aggarwal, co-founder, Aspiring Minds said in a statement.
Source: Aspiring Minds

16 Indian companies in emerging top 100 software vendors list

As many as 16 Indian companies have made it to the list of top 100 software vendors in the emerging markets, commanding a combined revenue of $797 million, says a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report.

The latest PwC global 100 software leaders report also says that in terms of revenue, India was ranked fifth among the emerging markets in 2011.

In terms of software revenue among emerging markets China topped the list with $2,738 million, followed by Israel $1,174 million (2nd), Russia $1,015 million (3rd), Brazil $945 million (4th) and India $797 million (5th).

Meanwhile, Geodesic was ranked 14 on the list of software services revenue, followed by OnMobile (21), Subex (26), Infosys (27), TCS (29), FT India (35) and Tally Solutions (39).

Among other Indian firms, Cranes Software was placed in the 44th position in the list, followed by 3i Infotech (60), Newgen Software (62), Ramco Systems (64), Persistent (65), KLG Systel (71), Polaris Software (72), Educomp Solutions (85) and Teledata Technology (89).

"Emerging markets are poised to play an increasingly pivotal role in the global software industry. Focus on innovation, growing talent pool and government support are just some of the advantages of this market segment," the report said.

Meanwhile, the number of software product firms has grown over the last decade from a little over 100 in 2000 to nearly 2,400 in 2013, it said.

According to the industry body NASSCOM, the revenue from the software product segment currently stands at $2.2 billion and is expected to reach $10 billion by 2020.

The PwC report noted that software-as-a-service is gaining traction. Moreover, industry consolidation and increasing globalisation are also transforming the software sector.

"The Indian IT industry has been primarily identified with software services and this focus has relegated the software products segment to the background. However, of late, we are seeing a change in the fortunes of this segment due to significant growth," PwC India Leader Technology Sanjay Dhawan said.

Emerging technologies such as Social media, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) are driving the growth in the software product segment and helping it move to the next level, Dhawan added.
Source: PWC Report

15 best-paying companies for software engineers

Wonder which are the best paying companies for software engineers? Online jobs and career community Glassdoor’s recent survey claims to reveal just that. The figures collated by Business Insider ranks companies on the basis of the average base salary of their software engineers. Here are the top 15 companies from the list.

1. Juniper Networks: Juniper Networks makes networking equipment, security products and network operating system. The company offers average base salary of $128,378 to its software engineers, says the survey, the highest in the industry.
2. Google: Google is a tech titan that is known throughout the world for products like Search, Android, Gmail, Nexus smartphones and tablets, Picasa and online advertising platforms. Software engineers working at the company are paid average base salary of $124,520, according to the Glassdoor survey.
3. Twitter: Twitter is the microblogging website where users can type messages with only 140 characters; the company claims to have over 500 million registered users. Software engineers earn average base salary of $120,768 at the company, says the survey.
4. Facebook: Facebook is the biggest social network in the world and has over a billion registered users. As per the Glassdoor survey, the company pays $118,857 as average base salary to software engineers.
5. Apple: Founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Apple is a US technology company that makes gadgets like iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac series of computers etc. Software engineers earn average base salary of $118,192 at the company, the survey shows.
6. LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the most popular professional networking website in the world, with over 200 million active users across the world. As per respondents in the Glassdoor survey, average base salary of software engineers at the company is $116,375.
7. Brocade Communications: Brocade Communications is a US technology company that offers data and storage networking products, such as LAN and Wi-Fi switches, routers, network security appliances etc. The company pays average base salary of $111,858 to its software engineers, the survey reveals.
8. eBay: eBay is one of the biggest online marketplaces where retailers as well as individuals can sell their goods to consumers; it also operates an online auction platform on its website. According to the Glassdoor survey, average base salary of software engineers at eBay is $108,461.
9. Bloomberg LP: Bloomberg LP, which is well known for its media publications, takes care of data acquisition, distribution and management of enterprises. Software engineers working in the technology arm of the company earn $108,430 as average base salary.
10. Zynga: Zynga is a social game making company that is best known for hits like Farmville and CityVille that took Facebook by storm. The software engineers employed at the company take home average base salary of $107,242.
11. PayPal: A unit of online retailer eBay, PayPal is the world’s biggest online payment company. The Glassdoor survey reveals that software engineers at the company are paid average base salary of $106,920.
12. VMWare: Palo Alto, California- based VMWare makes cloud and virtualisation software and services. According to respondents in the Glassdoor survey, the company’s software engineers get average base salary of $106,568.
13. Oracle: Oracle, the third biggest software maker in the world, makes database management systems, computer hardware system as well as ERP, CRM and SCM software. The average base salary of software engineers at Oracle is $105,660, as per the survey.
14. Nvidia: Nvidia is a Santa Clara, California-based company that manufacturers system-on-chips and graphic processing units for mobile devices. The Glassdoor survey says it pays an average base salary of $104,717 to its software engineers.
15. Microsoft: Microsoft is the biggest software company in the world, best known for its Windows operating system for computers. Other Microsoft products include Surface tablets, Xbox gaming console and Windows Phone mobile operating system. The company offers its engineers average base salary of $103,563, according to the survey.

Source: GlassDoor

What is keeping India's engineers unemployed

Somewhere between a fifth to a third of the million students graduating out of India's engineering colleges run the risk of being unemployed. Others will take jobs well below their technical qualifications in a market where there are few jobs for India's overflowing technical talent pool. Beset by a flood of institutes (offering a varying degree of education) and a shrinking market for their skills, India's engineers are struggling to subsist in an extremely challenging market.

According to multiple estimates, India trains around 1.5 million engineers, which is more than the US and China combined. However, two key industries hiring these engineers -- information technology and manufacturing -- are actually hiring fewer people than before.

For example, India's IT industry, a sponge for 50-75% of these engineers will hire 50,000 fewer people this year, according to Nasscom. Manufacturing, too, is facing a similar stasis, say HR consultants and skills evaluation firms.

According to data from AICTE, the regulator for technical education in India, there were 1,511 engineering colleges across India, graduating over 550,000 students back in 2006-07. Fuelled by fast growth, especially in the $110 billion outsourcing market, a raft of new colleges sprung up -- since then, the number of colleges and graduates have doubled.

Read More @ TimesOfIndia

H-1B visa: Silicon Valley intensifies lobbying on US immigration bill

Eager to secure more visas for skilled foreign workers, tech companies have stepped up their lobbying this week in support of a comprehensive US immigration reform bill.

Human resources executives from Adobe, Broadcom, Intel, Motorola Solutions and other corporations met with dozens of lawmakers and senior advisers on Wednesday from the congressional committees in charge of immigration laws. They also spoke to a wide array of Democratic and Republican senators including some on-the-fence Republicans, such as Mark Kirk of Illinois and Rob Portman of Ohio, and some who have voiced opposition, including Mike Lee of Utah.

Lawmakers who favor the bill "have been urging us to work with them to make sure that the bill gets passed with the highest number of votes possible," said Robert Hoffman, senior vice president with the Information Technology Industry Council trade group.
Source:EconomicTimes

Finding good job not easy for skilled migrants in Australia: Study

Securing a suitable employment can be a long, difficult and disappointing process for migrants coming to Australia, who often take up jobs that are low-paid and not commensurate to their skills, according to a new study led by an Indian-origin psychology professor.

At the time of being surveyed, over 50 per cent of the participants were unemployed, said the study by the University of Western Sydney (UWS).

While some participants (seven per cent) had secured jobs prior to their arrival, approximately 42 per cent reported spending between 1-6 months looking for jobs and others (23 per cent) reported spending 7-12 months or more than one year (26 per cent) job-searching.

The study report titled 'Apply Apply Negative Reply: Understanding Job-Seeking Experiences of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Job-Seekers in Australia' was led by Renu Narchal from the School of Social Sciences and Psychology.
Source: EconomicTimes

Cisco to open new centre in Israel

US technology giant Cisco plans to open a new research and development center in Israel, the company's CEO John Chambers said during his meeting with Israel's Minister of Finance Yair Lapid.

The new centre is expected to offer 100 jobs, to be added to about 2,000 employees already working at Cisco center in Israel, reported Xinhua.

Chambers on Tuesday said the new project, whose main focus is information security, would be based on knowledge accumulated at NDS, an Israeli hi-tech company acquired last year by Cisco for $5 billion.
Source: CIOL

TCS non-Indian employee number crosses 21,000

Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest IT services company has more that doubled the number of its non-Indian employees during the last three years.

According to the company, as on 31 March 2013, it had 21,282 non-Indians on its rolls belonging to 118 nationalities. This is an increase of about 20% over the previous years. In 2009-10, the company employed 9,536 foreign nationals.

The company said the highest number of its non-Indian employees are Britishers with a share of close to 19% followed by Americans at 15.4%. About 10% of its non-Indian employees are from China where TCS has a strong presence, the Mumbai-based company said in its annual report for 2012-13.

TCS also said that the company has improved the ratio of women in its total workforce to 32.40% at the end of FY13 as compared to 31.60% as on March 31, 2012. "Our progressive policies and customised programmes such as executive education programme for women in mid-management, interactive forums and women discussion circles address the aspirations and needs of our women employees," it added in the report.
Source: Business-Standard

Big data to create 4.4 mn jobs by 2015

Worldwide IT spending is forecast to surpass $3.7 trillion in 2013, a 3.8 per cent increase from 2012 projected spending of $3.6 trillion, but it is the outlook for big data that is creating much excitement, according to Gartner.

"By 2015, 4.4 million IT jobs globally will be created to support big data, generating 1.9 million IT jobs in the United States," said Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president, Gartner and global head of Research. "In addition, every big data-related role in the US will create employment for three people outside of IT, so over the next four years a total of 6 million jobs in the US will be generated by the information economy."

"But there is a challenge. There is not enough talent in the industry. Our public and private education systems are failing us. Therefore, only one-third of the IT jobs will be filled. Data experts will be a scarce, valuable commodity," Sondergaard said. "IT leaders will need immediate focus on how their organization develops and attracts the skills required. These jobs will be needed to grow your business. These jobs are the future of the new information economy."
Source: CIOL

27 percent Indian staff set to switch jobs

Globally, the number of workers taking flight is expected to reach 161.7 million in 2014 - a 12.9 per cent increase in people leaving compared to 2012, says a Hay Group study.

Over the next five years, 49 million more employees as compared to 2012 are going to leave their current employers and switch jobs, global management consultancy, Hay Group's new research, in association with the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), has revealed.
As far as India is concerned, it finds itself in the eye of the storm, with a predicted employee turnover of 26.9 per cent (in the organized sector) in 2013 - the highest attrition rate globally.

The study, Preparing for Take-Off, covers 700 million employees in 19 countries worldwide and is based on a unique Hay Group macroeconomic model that analyzes the main factors affecting employee turnover across the globe, stated a release.

Tech Mahindra appoints Milind Kulkarni as CFO

IT services firm Tech Mahindra today appointed Milind Kulkarni as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) replacing Sonjoy Anand, who decided to pursue opportunities internationally.

The firm also announced the appointment of Manoj Bhat as the Deputy Chief Financial Officer.

Milind Kulkarni has been Senior Vice President, Finance till now and will take charge as the new CFO with immediate effect, the firm said in a BSE filing.

A million engineers in India struggling to get placed

A million engineers in India struggling to get placed in an extremely challenging market. Somewhere between a fifth to a third of the million students graduating out of India's engineering colleges run the risk of being unemployed. Others will take jobs well below their technical qualifications in a market where there are few jobs for India's overflowing technical talent pool. Beset by a flood of institutes (offering a varying degree of education) and a shrinking market for their skills, India's engineers are struggling to subsist in an extremely challenging market.

According to multiple estimates, India trains around 1.5 million engineers, which is more than the US and China combined. However, two key industries hiring these engineers -- information technology and manufacturing -- are actually hiring fewer people than before.

For example, India's IT industry, a sponge for 50-75% of these engineers will hire 50,000 fewer people this year, according to Nasscom. Manufacturing, too, is facing a similar stasis, say HR consultants and skills evaluation firms. Source:Economic Times

Rupee fall to cushion wage hike impact

Infosys announced an average increase of 8% for employees in India, while those in other geographies will get an average 3% hike.

Two of the largest Indian information technology (IT) services companies, Infosys and Wipro, have announced annual wage increases this year, the quantum of which are more in line with the industry average. While Infosys said it would give an average rise of eight per cent to its employees in India, Wipro has announced an increment of six-eight per cent.

Infosys usually gives rises to its employees with effect from April every year. In FY13, the company deferred the decision citing tough global economic environment. However, it later revisited the decision and announced a wage hike in October. This year (FY14), though the company management had indicated to restructure the employee compensation with an aim of increasing the fixed component in the salary, it was non-committal on giving a rise.

Apart from India, employees located in other geographies, who were not given wage hike in February this year, will be covered in this cycle, Infosys said in a statement today. They would be given an increase of about three per cent in average. The increments will be effective July 1. However, for its global sales force, the changes will come into effect from May 1.
Source: Business-Standard

TCS pips Infy as the most valued IT company in India

Country's top software exporter TCS today toppled its main rival Infosys Technologies as the most valued IT company in the country.

Shares of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) rallied over 6 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange, taking its market capitalisation to Rs 1.62 lakh crore, higher by Rs 3,470 crore than Infosys' Rs 1.59 lakh crore valuation.

The Tata Group company TCS is now the fourth most valued company in the country. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries is the most valued firm with market valuation of Rs 3.47 lakh crore as of today, followed by state-run ONGC and NTPC in that order. Infosys is at the fifth place in the top group.

TCS's over 24 per cent rise in April-June quarter profit at Rs 1,906 crore saw it shares surging on BSE. The counter closed up by a whopping 6.16 per cent, the highest among Sensex stocks.

MindTree bags UID deal to develop applications

Software services company MindTree on Thursday said it has bagged a multi-crore IT deal from the Nandan Nilekani-headed unique identification project (UID).

As part of the deal, MindTree will develop and maintain applications for the UID project, also known as Aadhaar, the company said in a statement. The exact financial details of the contract were not available. The application will capture and manage data from different sources.

Capgemini buys UK-based company

Capgemini, the Paris-based information technology (IT) consulting, services and solutions provider, today announced that it had acquired all of UK-based Strategic Systems Solutions (SSS) to boost its presence in the capital markets sector and add new platforms in China and the Philippines.

Prior to the acquisition, Capgemini owned 49 per cent of SSS, and now it will fully integrate SSS with its capital markets unit. The acquisition will strengthen Capgemini’s presence in the capital markets sector and provide added strength in the Asia-Pacific region, with IT and BPO (business process outsourcing) platforms in the two countries.

It will reinforce its presence in Singapore. Capgemini has more than 23,300 employees in India. Founded in 1995 and headquartered in the United Kingdom (UK), SSS is recognised in the capital markets sector and employs 670 professionals across the UK, US, Singapore, China and the Philippines.

Infosys to set up another centre in Tamil Nadu

Infosys Technologies, the country’s second-largest information technology (IT) services exporter, has approached the Tamil Nadu government for 200 acres of land near Chennai for setting up a development centre, according to a senior state government official. The Bangalore-based company confirmed talks with the state government representatives, but refused to comment further.

The official said Kris Gopalakrishnan, chief executive officer and managing director of Infosys Technologies, met Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin on Monday discussed on the company’s future expansion in the state.

Pay hikes for all Satyam staff next month

Information technology company Mahindra Satyam [ Get Quote ] (earlier known as Satyam Computer Services Limited) is likely to announce a pay hike for all its employees on July 1.

This, according to a top executive of the company, follows Mahindra Satyam's annual appraisal process 'ASPIRE', which begins in April and ends in June.

"It is progressing as scheduled," the executive said. The exercise applies to the entire 25,000 associates (as Satyam calls its employees) and will be communicated internally to the company's leaders on June 21.

While declining to share the final quantum of the salary revision, he said: "We haven't closed the loop internally, as yet. The pay hike will be announced on July 1.

"The company is also in the process of hiring 1,000-1,500 laterals (or experienced hands) in "sync with its growing business", said the executive.

"Recruitment of 3,000 freshers is now more or less concluded and the next thing we are going after is laterals, which is going as per the schedule.

"We will be having about 1,500 laterals on our rolls this quarter and the next quarter. Given the growth, we may continue to hire more in the coming quarters," said the executive.

Key leadership hiring in different pockets -- a few from other companies -- to beef up the company's sales efforts is currently on, he added.

Wins from new and existing customers continue across various continents from a multi-year contract with an auto major in Japan [ Images ] to government accounts in Singapore, from a global energy drink giant in Australia [ Images ] to a retail chain major in South Africa [ Images ] and from an electricity and water management authority in West Asia to major banking institutions in Europe.

Additional business from large customers in the US is also helping augment Mahindra Satyam's position in the market, he added.

IT cos hire non-techies to cut costs

When Ishwar Prasad graduated from a Mysore college two years ago with specialisation in commerce, a career with one of India’s top three technology firms was nowhere on the agenda.

However, Prasad went on to do a six-month diploma in computer hardware management last year and is now helping some of the leading telecom companies in the world manage their computer desktops and other infrastructure, from a remote infrastructure management centre at the tech firm.

As tech firms automate their commoditised service offerings, they do not necessarily need engineers to perform all tasks. Instead, they are increasingly hiring non-engineering graduates such as Prasad for testing software applications and managing computer infrastructure of their clients in order to do more with fewer staff and at lower wages than computer engineers.

From nearly 10% of their current workforce, non-engineering graduates could account for nearly 20-25% of the staff at companies such as TCS, Wipro and HCL, over the next one to two years. Multinational rival Cognizant already has almost 20% of its global workforce who are non-engineering graduates.

Prasad is among thousands of non-engineering graduates being hired by companies such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, HCL and Infosys for performing highly automated tasks of software testing and computer infrastructure management with the help of user-friendly, readymade platforms that can serve multiple customers.

“In my hometown, working for Infosys or Wipro makes parents proud. I could have never got into such companies with a commerce degree, but now many of my relatives think I have made it big and become a software engineer,” says the 27-year-old.

Companies such as Wipro are already readying their strategies for shifting nearly 40% of software services to readymade templates that can serve additional customers without having to hire incremental staff.

“The prime impact of these delivery models is the asset-based view as opposed to a labour-based one, that is, less number of people for the same work and an increase in operating margins per employee, while simultaneously reducing capital expenditure for their clients. The impact on employee mix (those with a BE degree vis-a-vis non-BEs) will be there but will not be applicable for all technologies and domain areas,” said Saurabh Govil, senior vice president HR, Wipro Technologies.

For years, India’s $50-billion software exports industry has been hiring thousands of engineering graduates every year for writing software codes and processing back office tasks for top customers such as General Electric, Citibank and JP Morgan Chase. However, increasing wage inflation and rising attrition has forced them to seek ways to arrest linear growth.

Intelenet to hire 7,000 in India

Leading BPO services provider Intelenet Global Services has said it plans to expand its footprint overseas and hire around 7,000 personnel in FY '11.

"The IT sector is expected to grow at 15-20 per cent and so is the BPO sector. With the US economy back on the recovery path, we expect double-digit growth as against four-seven per cent last fiscal. We are, hence, planning to expand our business and hire more people. We plan to hire 7,000 personnel across the country this year," Intelenet CEO Susir Kumar said.

Currently, Intelenet employs over 32,000 people across the globe at 35 delivery centers at strategic locations. It has a headcount of 18,000 in India.

Mumbai-based Intelenet, that operates its BPO arm under BSE-listed Sparsh BPO, also plans to open more offices overseas and is focussing on markets such as China, the Middle-East and South America.

"The emerging markets such as the Middle-East, China and Latin America have tremendous potential. We are planning to open a few offices there. Besides, we are also looking at expanding our domestic operations to Tier II and III towns," Kumar said.

He, however, refused to divulge details on how many offices it plans to open and the amount of investment to be made in fiscal 2010-11.

Intelenet, with a global turnover of $350 million, already has offices in the US, Poland, the Philippines, Mauritius, the UK and Australia, to cater to the needs of several Fortune 500 companies there.

The company, which provides BPO solutions on banking and financial services, travel, hospitality and telecom, has recently added manufacturing services to its portfolio. It has over 90 clients across these sectors.