/dq/media/agency_attachments/UPxQAOdkwhCk8EYzqyvs.png)
Follow UsRecovery in 2003
IDC predicts good times again for the global IT services industry. With a
significant rebound by 2002, the industry will regain its health in 2003 and
continue to get better through 2006. "IT services will increase at a
healthy rate of 12.4% to exceed $626 billion worldwide in 2006. The United
States dominated the IT services market in 2001, and will continue to experience
an 11.8 % growth rate through 2006," said an IDC press note stated.
Recovery in 2003
IDC predicts good times again for the global IT services industry. With a
significant rebound by 2002, the industry will regain its health in 2003 and
continue to get better through 2006. "IT services will increase at a
healthy rate of 12.4% to exceed $626 billion worldwide in 2006. The United
States dominated the IT services market in 2001, and will continue to experience
an 11.8 % growth rate through 2006," said an IDC press note stated.
Pruning Pentasoft
Software services and training firm Pentasoft Technologies announced that it
had slashed nearly 70% of its staff in 2001-02. This was to reduce costs and
fight the dipping sales in training and software exports business. The cuts have
helped the company reduce 47% of expenditure. The company’s job cuts are one
of the largest reported in the software industry in the past year.
Gloom on campus
The placement at IIT-Delhi fell to 65% this year, a huge drop from 90% in
2000-01. In addition to the fall in placements there was a Rs 1 lakh per annum
drop in the average salary offered as compared to the previous year. IIT-Delhi’s
placement cell head Y S Goel said that in the last academic year, almost 70% of
the students were placed in the first semester itself. This year, placements are
continuing even towards the end of the second semester."
ITeS…way to go
According to the Nasscom-McKinsey report, IT-enabled services can generate
$21 billion in export revenues by 2008 for India. The report assumes that there
will be an average annual growth rate of 45% for the IT-enabled services sector
in the 2002-08 period. The sector had shown a 70% growth last year. The report
also mentioned that India will find it difficult to get a foothold in the
"shrink- wrapped" software industry.
HR comes of age
HR is gaining significance and the profiles of HR heads are undergoing a
dramatic change. According to Santrupt Misra, HR director Aditya Birla Group
"It has evolved from routine work to critical business." With
companies re-discovering the importance of HR practices, HR heads in many firms,
are now in a higher position in the hierarchy and get a better compensation
package. "I know of at least a dozen firms paying their HR heads between Rs
60 lakh and Rs 80 lakh per annum. Two years ago, the maximum salary an HR head
managed was Rs 40 lakh," says Anil Sachdev, founder and chief executive of
HR Consultancy firm, Grow Talent. According to him the HR head’s salary has
increased from 30% of the CEO’s salary to 60%. From routine jobs to strategic
leadership and development, HR has finally emerged as a strategic tool in core
business.
It pays to be in public
Industrial workers in the public sector have something to cheer about.
According to the Annual Survey of Industries for 1999—2000, they earn 15 to
80% more than the wages earned by workers in the private sector. The survey done
in the top ten industrialized states found that the average annual wage
differential between public and private workers varies between Rs 12,000 and Rs
90,000. Industrial workers in PSUs in Gujarat earn the highest salaries followed
by Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. In case of private sector industrial workers,
Maharashtra paid the highest, with West Bengal second, followed by Haryana.
DATAQUEST