News: Weekly roundup (Sep 30-Oct 4): News you cannot miss

Strategic HR

Weekly roundup (Sep 30-Oct 4): News you cannot miss

The 2013 HR Service Delivery and Technology Survey, by Towers Watson, which covered 1,025 companies, including 578 based in Asia Pacific, found that 33 per cent of the respondents are likely to make a change to their HR structure by the end of the next year. The week also saw a lot of activity on the hiring front. Japanese technology firm Fujitsu’s India's head for JOC Business, Takashi Yano indicated that Fujitsu is set to launch major hiring drive at Rapidigm in India. He was quoted as saying, “Few years ago we acquired Rapidigm which has development centre in Pune. We are planning to increase headcount there to about 10,000 people from around 3,000 at present.”

The 2013 HR Service Delivery and Technology Survey, by Towers Watson, which covered 1,025 companies, including 578 based in Asia Pacific, found that 33 per cent of the respondents are likely to make a change to their HR structure by the end of the next year. The week also saw a lot of activity on the hiring front. Japanese technology firm Fujitsu’s India's head for JOC Business, Takashi Yano indicated that Fujitsu is set to launch major hiring drive at Rapidigm in India. He was quoted as saying, “Few years ago we acquired Rapidigm which has development centre in Pune. We are planning to increase headcount there to about 10,000 people from around 3,000 at present.”

There was some positive news in terms of job opportunities in the banking sector. The Financial Express mentioned TalentSprint Managing Director and CEO Santanu Paul as hinting that a few factors such as PSU Banks adding more than 8,000 branches in current fiscal and private sector banks, rural banks and foreign banks expanding their own branch network will lead to generation of huge job opportunity in the sector. He said, "The hiring scenario in the banking sector is extremely positive this year and is likely to be 80,000 to one lakh jobs, which is 25-30 per cent more than last year."

According to Aspiring Minds, an employability assessment firm, only 2.3% of engineers passing out of colleges are employable in the software product industry. This number hovers around 17% for software services industry.

Viacom Inc.'s movie studio, Paramount Pictures, is cutting 110 positions worldwide in a reorganization that the company says will help it adapt to increasing competition. The report added that the job reductions amount to about 5 percent of Paramount's workforce of 2,200 and are being made across several departments including finance, international home media distribution and marketing.

On the acquisition front Cognizant gave big news. The IT services provider Cognizant announced two acquisitions within the last week. It said on Thursday that it will acquire ValueSource NV, a subsidiary of Belgium-based integrated bank insurance group KBC. Cognizant has also bought Equinox Consulting which is a Paris-based financial services consulting firm.

Earlier this week a Reuters report pointed out that three of the top 20 investors in Microsoft Corp are lobbying the board to press for Bill Gates to step down as chairman of Microsoft. However, as the week progressed media reports confirmed that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and retiring Chief Executive Steve Ballmer are standing for re-election to Microsoft Corp's board of directors. Reports indicate that they are likely to retain their positions.

Wipro Ltd., India’s third-largest software services company, on Tuesday named former McKinsey & Co. executive Ireena Vittal as a director on its board effective immediately. In another development, Anand Sankaran, global head of Wipro's infrastructure services business, the company's second largest service line, has quit after a stint of over 24 years with Wipro.

Group chief executive officer of Fortis Healthcare Ltd Vishal Bali too has resigned. Bali’s responsibilities will be shared by Shivinder Mohan Singh, executive vice-chairman, and Aditya Vij, who, as CEO-India, will continue to oversee the India business. Beauty products company Revlon Inc’s CEO Alan Ennis is leaving the company to pursue other interests. The company has named former CEO David Kennedy to the post on an interim basis.

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Topics: Strategic HR, Appointments, #WeeklyRoundup

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