Hiring in India Picks Up 35 percent from April to June: LinkedIn

LinkedIn, the world’s largest online professional network, today announced findings of the ‘Labour Market Update’, a monthly update on hiring trends and insights based on LinkedIn's Economic Graph, a digital representation of the Indian economy.

While the world continues to navigate different stages of the coronavirus, LinkedIn’s Economic Graph team has been closely monitoring the pandemic's disruptive impact across the global labour market. These findings are crystallized into the LinkedIn ‘Labour Market Update’, which highlights the hiring rate in India, overall hiring sentiment across industries, competition for securing jobs, and the top jobs and skills in demand. Findings show that there has been a significant hiring rebound as the country started 'unlocking' and more people returned to work. However, the pace of these gains are expected to slow down given the continued economic uncertainty.

1.    Between early-April to end-June, hiring increased by 35 percentage points: In India, hiring declines reached a low of below -50% year-on-year in April, before starting to slowly recover.  The hiring sentiment stands at -15% year-on-year as of the end of June. As risks of second-wave of infections emerge, some states have imposed lockdown measures again. Given this uncertainty, the recovery is expected to remain fairly flat in the coming weeks. 

*The analysis looks at the year-on-year changes in hiring rate, which is a measure of hires divided by LinkedIn membership. The analysis was conducted for the period of 11th Feb to 30th June 2020. 

Data also suggests that the gap between hires for males and females has narrowed from about 40 percentage points in February to around 30 percentage points in June.

This trend is observed across all sectors except for Manufacturing, Finance and Software & IT.

2.  Competition for jobs is heating up: Competition for jobs has doubled compared to 6 months ago, with the average number of applications per job posted on LinkedIn increasing from around 90 in Jan 2020, to 180 in June 2020.

3.  Recreation & Travel and Retail professionals are more likely to look for jobs in a different sector, compared to pre-COVID period: Compared to the pre-COVID period, data suggests that job seekers who are currently in the affected sectors (such as Recreation & Travel) are 6.8 times* more likely to look for jobs in a different sector, compared to pre-COVID times. Data further suggests that those in the retail sector are 2.4 times* likely to apply for a job in a different sector. The analysis looks at how job seekers in different industries are adapting to changes and adjusting their jobs search strategy. 

*The measure here calculates the likelihood that a member in a certain sector has applied for a job in a sector different to their own in June 2020 (post-COVID) compared to June 2019 (pre-COVID). A score of 2 here would suggest that a member in Industry A is twice as likely to apply to a job in an industry outside of Industry A. 

4.  The demand for disruptive skills tops the charts in June 2020: The Labour Market Update also highlights roles that are in demand today and are expected to remain relevant in the near future. These roles have the greatest number of job openings on LinkedIn, have seen steady growth over the past four years, pay a liveable wage, and require skills that can be learned online.

These are the top 5 in-demand jobs and skills:

1.    Jobs: 

·         Software Engineer

·         Business Development Manager 

·         Sales Manager 

·         Business Analyst

·         Content Writer

2.     Skills:

·         JavaScript

·         SQL 

·         Sales Management 

·         Team Leadership 

·         Recruiting

ABB Unveils eMart, its B2B & B2C Online Marketplace in India

 ABB India, today announced the launch of eMart, an online marketplace portal, which will offer more than 6,000 products from its Electrification Business for home and industrial buyers.

This unique B2B & B2C platform will be the first of its kind in the industry, owing to its dynamic, price-transparent model. It aims to provide an equally fair and favorable experience to both ABB distributors and customers, further boosting the agenda of the country’s Digital India program.

ABB eMart also provides a dynamic model to empower partners to set their own competitive pricing for the products they sell on the platform, while simultaneously providing customers with a choice of the best deals to suit their specific needs.

Customers will be able to access technical specifications as well as interactive product images for each item at their fingertips. They can select their best-suited option by referring to the product and seller reviews on the portal. ABB has partnered with authorized distributors with a digital presence from across the country, and is enabling them to expand their reach by offering products and solutions on eMart for home as well as industrial customers.

eMart hosts a wide range of products, which ranges from digital circut breakers, contactors, Molded Case Circuit Breaker (MCCB), modular swtiches, Miniature Circuit Breaker (MCB), Residual Current Circuit Breaker (RCCB), home automation, medium voltage relays and related products. With this move, ABB India aims to further expand its reach in untapped markets while strengthing its presence in the existing sector, maximizing the changing customer buying preferences with a seamless digital experience.

“At ABB, we are committed to creating avenues that fast track the digital transformation journey for our customers and partners. The eMart is another achievement in the same direction, aiming to to create a reliable yet distinct customer experience with digital solutions. It aims to build a digital ecosystem and infrastructure between the manufacturer, the partners, and the customers and provide impetus to the business climate and the Digital India program,“ said CP Vyas, President, Electrification business, ABB India. “This platform will be another stream for business enhancement for our partner and distributors and provide the next level of customer experience,“ he added.

As the world adapts to the new normal, ABB recognizes that online buying experiences and a one-stop access to immediate product requirements are increasingly the need of the hour. Designed for a user-friendly experience, eMart has been optimized with easy navigation for desktop and mobile browsers, and curated results for each type of buyer. The platform allows for order queries to be addressed online and is supported by secure payment methods including net banking, eWallets, and UPI, also abiding by General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in terms of customer data.

ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a leading global technology company that energizes the transformation of society and industry to achieve a more productive, sustainable future. By connecting software to its electrification, robotics, automation and motion portfolio, ABB pushes the boundaries of technology to drive performance to new levels. With a history of excellence stretching back more than 130 years, ABB’s success is driven by about 110,000 talented employees in over 100 countries. www.abb.com

AgriBazaar Hosts Global Webinar on Landmark Reforms in Indian Agriculture to Discuss Watershed Changes

AgriBazaar, India’s largest Online Agri-Trading Marketplace, held a global webinar titled ‘Landmark Reforms in Indian Agriculture’. The government of India recently promulgated two ordinances: augmenting ease of trade by giving farmers a new and simpler alternative to sell their produce and building a farm-gate infrastructure to ensure that farmers get the desired price for every unit sold. The combination of these two ordinances is envisaged to bring large-scale benefits to the Indian farmer community by addressing their long-standing issues and therefore significantly boost the country’s agriculture.

The webinar was hosted to highlight these watershed reforms and how they can bring a positive change to Indian agriculture. A wide array of opportunities was identified during the webinar such as crop advisory, crop marketing, smart irrigation, leasing of equipment, and new avenues of financing, among others. New ideas and innovations such as digital agri stack, gene editing, plant-based meat, etc, were also discussed. The webinar highlighted the evolution of Indian farmers who are quickly learning the new agri-tech tools by attending various workshops hosted by agri-tech companies during the lockdown.

Speaking on the webinar Regarding level playing field for private e-marketplaces Mr. Sanjay Agarwal, IAS, Secretary (Agriculture) said, “they will be treated at par with the State-sponsored eNAM (National Agriculture Market). “eNAM is a platform that works in mandis. The trade ordinances that the government came out with do not touch mandis. No special place is kept for eNAM in the ordinance. Both the government and private platforms will have equal footing,” he said.

There is no registration or regulation required, except for the fact that they have to declare their fair trade modalities, payment modalities and logistic modalities. And they have to follow these modalities. The government has kept a provision for framing norms for this ecosystem at a later point, if required to use, he added.

Amith Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO, AgriBazaar said, “It gives me immense pleasure to host this webinar. I saw some of the most brilliant ideas and innovations discussed by the domain leaders and top government officials during the event. The recent reforms undertaken by the Indian Government in the Agri-sector will spur the much-needed investment in the sector and unleash agritech opportunities.”

With a focus on government’s ‘One India, One Agriculture Market’ reforms, the webinar saw participation from senior leaders from the government, industry thought leaders from the private sector, investors and senior industry professionals from the Food and Agriculture Industry across the globe (mainly from Europe, the US, and Asia). Mr Sanjay Agarwal, IAS, Secretary (Agriculture), Dr Rajeev Ranjan, IAS, Secretary (Fisheries), Mr Atul Chaturvedi, IAS, Secretary (Animal Husbandry), and Ms Pushpa Subrahmanyam, IAS, Secretary (Food Processing Industries), Government of India attended the event. The private sector and global investors were represented by Mr Anuj Maheshwari, Managing Director, Agribusiness, Temasek International, Mr Srini Nagarajan, Managing Director and Head of Asia, CDC Group, Mr S. Sivakumar, Group Head – Agri & IT Businesses, ITC Limited, and Mr Balram Yadav, Managing Director, Godrej Agrovet.

About AgriBazaar

AgriBazaar is an online marketplace that is an intelligent and intuitive system delivering future-ready solutions to the Indian agrarian sector. The Indian agri-business is fragmented, and AgriBazaar with its cutting-edge technology and tools is acting as a tech enabler. With capabilities of warehousing, collateral financing and value-added services, AgriBazaar spans across geographies and enhances the efficiencies of the entire ecosystem.

Do Indian IT firms vie for $11.4-billion domestic market?

With the IT clients in the U.S., Europe and Japan tightening their purse strings, Indian IT companies are scrambling to raise their share of the Indian software and IT services market, which industry body Nasscom values at around Rs 57,200 crore ($11.4 billion), reported Mint.

Mumbai-based TCS and Bangalore-based Infosys, India's largest and second largest IT service exporters, respectively, have set themselves the target of earning $1 billion, or around Rs.5,000 crore, in revenue from the domestic market in the next three to four years. Wipro wants to raise its India focus, as does mid-sized firm MindTree. In March, Employees' State Insurance Corporation, a government of India agency that provides health insurance to 10 million workers, had awarded a Rs.1,182 crore information-technology (IT) project to Wipro, which outbid other biggies like Infosys and Wipro to clinch this deal.

Adding allure to the domestic market is the plans by the sectors like government, energy and utilities, telecom, banking and finance to step up their IT spending. Customers in the US and Europe have traditionally made up as much as 80% of revenue earned by Indian exporters of software and related services.

A late 2008 report by research firm Gartner says that the Indian IT software and services segment, excluding business process outsourcing, is expected to grow at an annual pace of almost 20 percent to touch $13.2 billion by 2012.

TCS earns around $500 million (Rs2,500 crore), or nearly 8 percent of its total revenue, from Indian clients. "We have a base of key clients and solutions portfolio. We have made investments and have people, business and clients. We will accelerate all of this," a TCS spokesperson said.

However, the worry at TCS is that "India, like other emerging markets, is volatile and most business is project-based and not annuity based and hence there is a certain element of uncertainty," the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, Infosys earns less than 2 percent of its revenue (or less than Rs400 crore) from the domestic market. "The market is very large, and has matured over a period of time," said Binod HR, head of the India business unit of Infosys. He said a "big challenge" is that Indian customers are very price-sensitive.

Wipro is one of the largest system integrators in India and, according to Springboard Research, has the second largest share of the domestic market after IBM.

P.K. Gopalkrishnan, Senior Vice-President and India business head IT services of Bangalore-based MindTree said the company earns up to 5 percent of its revenue from India and aims to double it by 2014.

Increasing the domestic market share would, however, not be easy. It entails competing with global technology firms such as IBM which, according to a late 2008 report by research firm IDC, commands a 10 percent share of the Indian market. IBM is the market leader and earns revenue of around Rs 5,700 crore from the Indian market.

Agencies