Salaries for fresh engineers in IT companies may fall in coming years

For years, fresh engineering graduates have had it good because demand from the IT industry was robust. That's changing. Salaries for fresh IT engineers will be under major pressure in the coming years.

"Fresher salaries of Rs 2.75 lakh to Rs 3.25 lakh will remain unchanged or be lowered over the next few years," wrote Kawaljeet Saluja and Rohit Chordia of brokerage firm Kotak Institutional Securities in a recent report.

The trend is changing because the number of students graduating in engineering has shot up in the past few years, and the demand has slowed. Estimates by IT industry body Nasscom show the number of engineers graduating each year has more than doubled to 8.13 lakh from 2007-08 to 2011-12. Read More

Infosys announces wage hike, Wipro follows suit

NR Narayana Murthy has made his first significant move upon returning to Infosys by effecting an unexpected round of wage increases for the company's 1.5 lakh employees. By doing so, analysts said, the Infosys chairman is trying to kill several birds with one stone, displaying tactical finesse that has earned him a reputation as one of India's canniest entrepreneurs.

On Thursday, less than a fortnight after Murthy came back to helm the company, Infosys announced an average increment of 8% for India employees, effective from July 1. For employees outside India, the company said the increments will be 3%, albeit with some riders. The biggest push was reserved for its global sales force which will get a raise of 8% effective May.

Wipro, which announced increments in July last year, also sent a note about an hour after the news from Infosys. It said it is giving an average increment of 6-8% for offshore employees and 2-3% for onsite employees, effective from June 2013. For high-performers, the raise will be in double digits. A Wipro spokeswoman said the emailed note was in response to media queries.

"There have been serious issues with employee motivation levels at Infosys. Wipro rolling out wage hikes on the same day shows that it wants to ensure the company doesn't lose employees to Infosys," said Pradeep Mukerji, president and managing partner at outsourcing advisory firm Avasant. Infosys's populist move — a certain vote-winner among staff — could raise morale, enhance Murthy's stock of goodwill and send out a message to all stakeholders and rivals that the Infosys co-founder is back and means business. "By announcing wage hikes, Infosys wants to calm down anxiety among its employees and stabilize things within the organization. It is a smart move; however, we do not expect more bold moves from Murthy," said Manish Bahl, country manager at Forrester Research. "He will be focused on getting things aligned, talking to clients and creating expertise on the product innovation side." Read more

Rebuilding a 'desirable' Infosys will take 36 months

Recalled to ride out the bad times for Infosys, its Chairman N R Narayana Murthy today said the task of rebuilding a "desirable" Infosys would take at least 36 months and there would be some tough decisions resulting in "pain." "The challenge is daunting and the task is tough," said Murthy in a candid address to shareholders at the 32nd Annual General Meeting here, two weeks after he was recalled and made Executive Chairman of Infosys which has reported poor earnings disappointing investors. He said "the task of rebuilding a desirable Infosys will take at least 36 months, even with a high quality team and full dedication of every Infoscion. In the process, there will be some tough decisions resulting in pain as we move forward." Read more..

Ericsson hires 4,000 employees in India

Ericsson, the world's largest mobile network equipment maker, has increased staff headcount of its global services unit in India, buoyed by a sharp surge in its managed services business.

The Swedish vendor has hired more than 4,000 techies at Ericsson India Global Services, accounting for nearly 90% of its India workforce expansion in calendar year 2011, executives aware of the development told ET.

Latest employment numbers shared by Ericsson reveal its India workforce climbed nearly 72% last year to 11,535 from 6,710 reported in December 2010.

Infosys, TCS, Sify bag Postal Department's technology projects

The Department of Post (DoP) has issued Letters of Intent (LoIs) to Infosys, TCS, Sify and Reliance Communications Infrastructure for different technology advancement projects.

"Department is trying to induct technology in a big way. There are eight RFPs (Request for Proposal) we have floated and issued Letter of Intent in five (projects) to companies which include Infosys, TCS, Sify and Reliance," Secretary (Posts) Manjula Parasher told reporters here.

The Department has got approval of Rs 1,877.2 crore to be spend across these projects over period of two years and will seek additional funds when the need arises.

Dell to acquire Wyse Tech for $1bn

Dell Inc, the world's third-largest maker of personal computers, paid about $1 billion to buy closely held Wyse Technology Inc, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Purchasing Wyse, which makes desktop devices for cloud computing, will boost earnings in the second half of fiscal 2013, Dell said today in a statement, which didn't disclose terms of the deal. David Frink, a spokesman for Round Rock, Texas-based Dell, declined to comment, as did Wyse's Tim Smith.