HR related News

So here are some interesting news items that caught my attention, see how much you're interested :-)

• Accenture has failed to meet its hiring target in India . The company had said it intended to increase its India headcount to 50,000 this year from 37,000 as of April 2008. However, it fell short of the target by 10,000
  
• India plans to open its higher education sector to foreign investment and some of the world's leading universities next year to help meet the growing skills requirements of -millions of its young people. I hope that will trigger a war for talent in the teaching and educational administration population, and induce many bright Indians to pursue a career in educating tomorrow's India.
• Organizational changes are afoot in the company earlier known as Satyam and now as Mahindra Satyam. The new way will include more disclosure within the company. For example, each division will know the other's pricing, profits and overhead costs, and the company has added a new position of Chief Compliance Officer. Softer parts of the corporate culture also are changing. Mahindra managers are more likely to end work on time and go out for a beer with colleagues -- the former culture was more formal, with colleagues calling each other "sir," Mahindra managers now at Satyam say. In another step to purge Mr. Raju from the culture, the name of Satyam is likely to be dropped from the company in the next year, says Mr. Gurnani, the new CEO.
• In order to protect itself from falling prey to the US protectionist policy, Bangalore-based technology outsourcing major Wipro Technologies has decided to step up local hiring in overseas markets. Chairman Azim Premji said the company is looking to increase the count of local employees on-site. He said, "At present about 30 per cent of the employees are locals, but we would like to see this number increasing."
• IT services firms, which are benching more professionals because of the slowdown, are doubling training period for freshers to better equip them when the good times return. However, this means rise in costs for the firms, which are already facing diminishing revenues.