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

51.4% of MSMEs Assessed were First Time Borrowers, Says NeoGrowth Research

An exhaustive study by NeoGrowth Credit on a base of over 17,000 MSMEs across cities including Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Pune, Bengaluru, Lucknow, and Ahmedabad, revealed some interesting insights about the MSME industry.

Credit bureau scores have been traditionally used as a report card of one's credit history and repayment behavior. The lack of sufficient credit history or no credit history usually makes it difficult for the borrower to get loan approvals. According to NeoGrowth Research, over 51.4% of the MSMEs assessed were first-time borrowers

According to the Sixth Economic Census released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in 2018, womenconstitute around 14% of the total entrepreneur base in India i.e. 8.05 million out of the total 58.5 million entrepreneurs.  10.8% of the total disbursements of the 17,000 MSMEs assessed for FY2019-20 were towards businesses that were run by women either as sole proprietors, partners, or directors.

The entrepreneurial ecosystem in India has been conventionally led by experienced players that have been reigning in their respective markets for generations. While first generation entrepreneurs are finally emerging in the scenario, they are starved of growth opportunities majorly due to a lack of credit. NeoGrowth Research establishes that about 77.6% of the MSMEs assessed were revealed to be first-generation entrepreneurs.

With digital connectivity growing rapidly and emergence of smart cities, Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities are the new business hubs, employment centres and consumer markets of the country. About 19% of the MSMEs assessed in the study, were originating from Tier-2 cities.

The Indian Government considers MSMEs and entrepreneurship as key to driving economic growth, innovation, job creation and social upliftment across the nation. By generating 120 million employment opportunities, MSMEs boast of being the second largest job creators in the country. As per the study, 28% of the MSMEs assessed showed an increase in the number of their employees’ post availing a business loan.

These insights form part of an annual assessment conducted by NeoGrowth. Over these years, NeoGrowth the company has successfully maintained its unique product proposition by providing collateral free, short-term, quick, and customized business loans on flexible repayment terms. Having disbursed loans amounting to more than INR 5,500 crores, NeoGrowth has been funding and enabling MSMEs to grow and sustain their businesses while continuing to tread on its initial journey of achieving inclusive growth.

Mr. Dhruv Khaitan, Founder and Chairman, NeoGrowth said, “We are happy to share our Sixth Social Impact Report, an annual effort to engage with our key stakeholders – MSMEs, to understand their financial needs, challenges faced by them and assess the impact of lending activities on their lives. At NeoGrowth, we have always focused on creating strong positive social impact on MSMEs by lending to first generation entrepreneurs, assisting women entrepreneurs and enabling our customers in job creation and improvement of credit scores via our loans.”

NeoGrowth Research is the in-house research team of NeoGrowth that keeps a continuous track on the emerging trends in the payments, fintech and MSME sectors and publishes insights.

Skill India Launches AI-Based ASEEM Digital Platform to Bridge Demand-Supply Gap of Skilled Workforce

Digital Platform 

* The portal will map details of workers based on regions and local industry demands

* Database of labour migrants in Indian states and overseas citizens who returned to India under the Vande Bharat Mission and filled SWADES Skill Card has been integrated with the ASEEM portal

* Candidate data coming to Skill India Portal from various state and central skilling schemes will be integrated including PMKVY, Fee-based Programs, National Urban Livelihoods Mission, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana and Seekho aur Kamao

In an endeavour to improve the information flow and bridge the demand-supply gap in the skilled workforce market, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) today launched ‘Aatmanirbhar Skilled Employee Employer Mapping (ASEEM)’ portal to help skilled people find sustainable livelihood opportunities. Apart from recruiting a skilled workforce that spurs business competitiveness and economic growth, the Artificial Intelligence- based platform has been envisioned to strengthen their career pathways by handholding them through their journeys to attain industry-relevant skills and explore emerging job opportunities especially in the post COVID era.

Envisaging the rapidly changing nature of work and how it impacts the workforce is crucial in restructuring the skilling ecosystem with the new normal settling post-pandemic. Besides identifying major skills gap in the sectors and providing review of global best practices, ASEEM will provide employers a platform to assess the availability of skilled workforce and formulate their hiring plans. Aatmanirbhar Skilled Employee Employer Mapping (ASEEM) refers to all the data, trends and analytics which describe the workforce market and map demand of skilled workforce to supply. It will provide real-time granular information by identifying relevant skilling requirements and employment prospects.

Announcing the launch of the ASEEM portal, Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey, Hon’ble Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, said “Driven by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ and his assertion of ‘India as a talent powerhouse’ at the India Global Week 2020 Summit,, the ASEEM portal has been envisioned to give a huge impetus to our persistent efforts to bridge the demand-supply gap for skilled workforce across sectors, bringing limitless and infinite opportunities for the nation’s youth. The initiative aims to accelerate India’s journey towards recovery by mapping skilled workforce and connecting them with relevant livelihood opportunities in their local communities especially in the post COVID era. With the increasing use of technology and e-management systems which assist in bringing in processes and intelligent tools to drive demand driven and outcome-based skill development programs, this platform will ensure we bring in close convergence and coordination across various schemes and programs operating in the skill ecosystem. This will also ensure that we monitor any sort of duplication of data and further re-engineer the vocational training landscape in the country ensuring a skilling, up-skilling and re-skilling in a more organised set up.”

Highlighting how ASEEM will bridge the demand supply gap in the skilled workforce market, Shri AM Naik, Chairman, NSDC and Group Chairman, Larsen & Toubro Limited said, “Migrant labour has been severely impacted by the socio-economic fallout of the COVID pandemic. In the current context, NSDC has taken up the responsibility of mapping the dispersed migrant population around the country and providing them the means to re-build their livelihood by matching their skill-sets to available employment opportunities. The launch of ASEEM is the first step on that journey. I am confident that the real-time information ASEEM provides to both employer and employee will add value to the labour ecosystem and contribute to building the trust among the workforce, which is essential for the recovery of the economy.”

ASEEM https://smis.nsdcindia.org/, also available as an APP, is developed and managed by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) in collaboration with Bengaluru-based company Betterplace specialising in blue collar employee management.. ASEEM portal aims at supporting decision and policymaking via trends and analytics generated by the system for programmatic purposes. ASEEM is shall help in providing real-time data analytics to NSDC and its Sector Skill Councils about the demand and supply patterns including - industry requirements, skill gap analysis, demand per district/ state/cluster​​, key workforce suppliers, key consumers​, migration patterns​ and multiple potential career prospects for candidates.​ The portal consists of three IT based interfaces -

●        Employer Portal – Employer onboarding, Demand Aggregation, candidate selection ​

●        Dashboard – Reports, Trends, analytics, and highlight gaps ​

●        Candidate Application – Create & Track candidate profile, share job suggestion ​

ASEEM will be used as a match-making engine to map skilled workers with the jobs available. The portal and App will have provision for registration and data upload for workers across job roles, sectors and geographies. The skilled workforce can register their profiles on the app and can search for employment opportunities in their neighbourhood. Through ASEEM, employers, agencies and job aggregators looking for skilled workforce in specific sectors will also have the required details at their fingertips. It will also enable policymakers take more objective view of various sectors.

Future Generali India Insurance Announces Increment for all its Employees in Wake of COVID-19 Pandemic

In the face of an ongoing economic crisis, Future Generali India Insurance Company Limited (FGII), the general insurance arm of the joint venture between retail giant Future Group and global insurer Generali, announced promotions, annual increments & variable payouts to all its employees. The company declared that there will be no layoffs of its employees during these unprecedented and volatile times.

They also made provision of an immediate relief fund of INR 50,000 to each of its business-active agents and their families if they are tested positive for COVID-19. 

With over 125 branches across India, the company has decided not to compromise on hiring and plans to recruit employees as per the business requirement. During this lockdown phase alone, FGII has onboarded over 70 employees across various levels using various digital tools for engaging, interviewing, enrolling, and inducting. The company will continue to hire as in any other year. 

FGII has also taken multiple initiatives towards employee wellness and engagement during the lockdown period. The company has introduced a confidential counselling helpline for employees and their families to help them cope with changes brought about by the pandemic such as anxiety, stress or work-life balance. This is supplemented by live sessions promoting physical and mental health through yoga sessions. It has also organized various engagement programmes such as talent shows and conducted virtual training sessions for employees to help them connect and learn while they work from home.

Mr. Anup Rau, MD & CEO, Future Generali India Insurance said, "We are a people-first company, period. We made sure that every single employee- right from the CXOs to our housekeeping staff - got their due credit and bonuses and increments in time. I don’t believe one can be a customer-centric company without being employee-centric; they are both congruent. Now, more than ever, our employees and partners need certainty and stability in their lives. We are building an organization for the long term and have the wherewithal to handle uncertainty. We are a fundamentally strong company and have the ability to respond to the new realities of the marketplace.”

About Future Generali India Insurance Company Limited

Future Generali India Insurance Company Limited is a joint venture between Future Group – the game changers in Retail Trade in India and Generali – a 189 years old global insurance group featuring among the world’s 60 largest companies*. The Company was incorporated in September 2007 with the objective of providing retail, commercial, personal and rural insurance solutions to individuals and corporates to help them manage and mitigate risks.

Future Generali India has been aptly benefitting from the global Insurance expertise in diverse classes of products of Generali Group and the Indian retail game-changer Future Group. Havingfirmlyestablisheditscredentials in this segment and effectively leveraging on the skill set of both its JV partners, Future Generali India has evolved to become a Total Insurance Solutions Company.

*As per Fortune Global 500 Ranking (2017)

*Future Generali India Insuranceiscertified ‘Great Place to Work’ (December2019-November 2020)

About Generali Group

Generali is an independent, Italian insurance Group, with a strong international presence. Established in 1831, it is one of the largest global insurance providers present in over 60 countries with total premium income exceeding €68 billion in 2017. With nearly 71,000 employees in the world and 57 million customers, the Group has a leading position in Western Europe and an increasingly significant presence in Central and Eastern Europe as well as in Asia.

How Rarly Child Health Immunization is Important in India?

By Dr Nadeera Nilupamali, Co-Founder and Vice President (Product), ImmunifyMe

India, the largest democracy of the world and highly populated country topping the list in terms of population density recorded nearly 67,385 births in 2020 on New Year's Day. Country, home to the highest number of unvaccinated children, has embarked upon an intensified journey to increase the vaccination coverage with mission Indradanush 2.0.

Vaccines play a key role in defending most vulnerable: Children and infants.  However, one in every five children remains un-immunized in the world. And as a result, over 3 million children die every year due to diseases which can be easily prevented by proper vaccination. Routine childhood vaccines are among the most cost-effective life-saving interventions. Thanks to vaccines, countless cases of disease such as polio, measles, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), rubella, mumps, tetanus, rotavirus and hepatitis etc have been prevented and saved millions of lives.

According to recent data released by the Indian National Statistical Office (NSO) 97% of the children aged between 0-5 years in the rural setting receive at least one vaccine, but, when it comes to those children being fully immunized, the percentage drops to 58%. Urban setting is not better in any way, 98% of the children receive at least one vaccine but only 60% of the children aged between 0-5 years are fully immunized. Many people working in public health have admitted that even this figure seems to be inflated and the situation could be worse on the ground and a large percentage of children dropping out of immunization programs.

Especially in India in recent times, routine vaccination has been intensified with additional efforts to optimize community coverage. Government has started putting extra efforts with the Mission Indradhanush programme which was launched in December 2014, aiming  to ensure 90% of infants would be vaccinated by the year 2020. Furthermore, under Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0, which is the second phase of the initiative launched on October 31, 2019, with a plan to cover 271 districts across India where fewer than 70% infants are currently vaccinated.

The success of Government Intervention

Despite the government spending billions of dollars in programs like Mission Indra Dhanush, the country's immunization rate remains one of the lowest in the world. Immunization amongst children here in India is a big challenge and there many factors to it

Access to vaccines

Religious beliefs

Inter-state, Inter-City Migration

Anti-Vaccine mentality and in some cases

Not being aware about the vaccination process at all

Misplaced priorities in parent front

Parents busy lifestyle and forgetfulness

Proper monitoring of vaccination

Management of vaccine coverage data

Real time monitoring of vaccination and lack of digital interventions

Why does immunisation make financial sense for the country?

Healthcare for young children eventually determines the country's  economic productivity , because vaccine-preventable diseases are known to cause stunting in childhood, which can lead to poor growth, poor adult health, and diminished learning capacity of the children. Prevention always costs less than treatment . For an example if a child ends up with any disability from the illness  like paralysis from polio which could have easily prevented by a vaccine, or neurologic problems from encephalitis caused by measles  etc will result in huge costs for the  treatments and also for providing special school services and other requirement for that particular child.

Morbidity, mortality, and the economic cost of treatment for vaccine preventable diseases are undoubtedly  going to add a huge burden to a country's economy.

If we do a benefit-cost analysis of vaccines there's  no doubt a full range of benefits as measured by gains in economic productivity compared to catastrophic medical expenses which can occur due to our simple ignorance of not vaccinating the children.

India’s MSME Hold the Key to an Economic Restart at the Grassroots - NRI Consulting Report

Key Points               

* Financial Stability, Availability of Skilled Labour in MSME clusters, and Market Competitiveness of products to be the driving factors for a robust MSME sector

* Using a cluster approach to help upgrade MSMEs to suit the changing global landscape

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the global economic landscape. World Trade Organisation estimates that global merchandise trade will reduce by 13% to 32% in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic. This global phenomenon is going to make countries think about strengthening their local supply chains.

With this backdrop, India has already announced its vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ - A Self-Reliant India which will push for strengthening local industries and give them a boost to compete at a global stage.

The latest report by Nomura Research Institute (NRI) Consulting & Solutions India endorses this view by stating that MSMEs can play a significant role in achieving this vision, however, a lot more needs to be done for MSMEs to become a growth driver for India. Three key parameters for the success of MSMEs are Financial Stability, Availability of Skilled Labour in MSME clusters, and Market Competitiveness of their products to both achieve import substitution as well as exports.

The report identifies some of the key areas that need to be focused:

 

1) Capability of Supply – It is essential to improve the capability of Indian MSMEs to supply quality products especially with new norms of operations being introduced due to COVID 19. Maintaining social distancing, running on reduced capacity, etc. would further aggravate the situation for the cash stripped MSMEs. Hence, it is imperative to provide immediate support for ensuring they keep up their capability of supply

2) Capability of demand - Indian MSMEs need to be adaptable with changing market trends. Recent global developments have also reduced the planning horizons in global supply chains making it crucial for the sector to be able to adapt to a variable demand scenario

3) Capacity - Ensuring capacity and availability of raw materials is also crucial. The disruption in global logistics has broken the chain for some key raw materials.

4) Cost competitiveness – The impact of COVID 19 on business operations will require innovative methods to reduce cost. MSMEs could be introduced to low-cost automation techniques which work in tandem with the human workforce while implementing distancing and also for quality control.

5) Customer perception – Branding and advocacy will also be needed to leverage the positive connotations associated with certain Indian products and assess negative connotations that can be removed

Ashim Sharma, Principal & Division Head – Business Performance Improvement (Auto, Engineering & Logistics), NRI (Nomura Research Institute) Consulting & Solutions, said, “The Indian MSMEs have traditionally been catering to the domestic market either through directly selling to the consumers (B2C) or are a part of the value chain driven by large organised private players (B2B). Factors like evolving consumption and increasing competition have led to the increasing relevance of integrating customers’ voice in product design for MSMEs to stay relevant. Therefore, it becomes extremely important for the MSMEs to design, manufacture and sell products which the customers need. They need to be connected to a demand led environment, where their business strategy and processes are aligned to the changing market dynamics through a market-oriented strategy.”

With the manufacturing ecosystem is constantly evolving under the influence of several trends around changing consumer behaviour and technological shifts happening across the globe, NRI Consulting & Solutions has put forward a set of recommendations. These are:

The report also highlighted multiple manufacturing clusters across India to help create a conducive environment for development of small and medium enterprises, as identified by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). Clusters across India hold the key for developing a self-reliant ecosystem based on local skills and expertise. The cluster approach becomes all the more important with the localised nature of lockdown opening policies. Measures for development of MSME clusters can be aligned with the strategy to fight the impact of COVID 19.  “E.g. The state of Punjab has multiple MSME clusters with majority of them located around Jalandhar and Ludhiana. These MSME clusters provides an opportunity to significantly upgrade the overall manufacturing economy of the state. Jalandhar for example has clusters for sports good, agricultural implements, hand tools, leather works, etc. Similarly, Ludhiana has clusters for bicycle parts, hosiery, forging, hand and machine tools, etc. All these MSMEs, if developed in a collaborative approach while keeping a market oriented strategy, can provide significant boost to the economy as well as employment in the state of Punjab. “added Mr. Sharma

The report further emphasizes on the fact that clusters can also be used for identifying synergies between various stressed MSMEs which can then be used to create collaborating firms. MSMEs that cannot stand alone might be able to succeed as combined firms by utilising various synergies. These synergies can be across various areas such as demand synergies, geographic synergies, logistics synergies, etc.

“Using a cluster approach will help in upgrading the MSMEs to suit the changing global landscape. Financially it might not be feasible for an individual MSME to develop all the capabilities but at the cluster level it can be achieved by sharing resources and realising cluster level synergies. A good example will be the Jalandhar cluster for sports good. Through focussed efforts, this cluster can combine resources for tracking the latest trends and demand requirements across the globe and manufacturing market-oriented products that can easily adapt to the changes in consumer preferences.” Mr. Sharma concluded.

Are salaries at Indian IT MNCs melting?

Software multinationals in India have begun freezing wage increases, slashing salaries and postponing merit-based hikes, a study by Indian consulting firm Zinnov has found.

"Though Bangalore stands highest in its average salary for multinational R&D firms, followed by Pune and Chennai, the economic slump is causing undue pressure on them to retain compensation levels," Zinnov director for advisory services C S Chandramouli, said after the survey was made public.

Hinting that IT salaries in 2009 would see a freeze across the board in a majority of the firms surveyed, Chandramouli said the average increment would be in the 5-12 per cent range.

"Of the 30 representative multinationals surveyed in these three cities (Bangalore, Pune and Chennai), 27 per cent of them said they have frozen salary increases this year, while 42 per cent said they would provide salary increases and 15 per cent have postponed their merit increase cycle to take a call at a later stage if the economic scenario changes," Chandramouli said.

As a preferred destination for IT services and R&D, about 680 multinationals operate in India. Many of them have more than one R&D centre and presence in one or two of the three cities surveyed.

According to Zinnov's annual report on "Compensation and Benefit Study 2009", 12 per cent of the MNCs have announced 5-10 per cent salary cuts either for senior management or across levels.

"The survey highlights that multinationals are also shifting focus to the variable pay component to reward and retain top performers as opposed to fixed pay. Some of them have even restructured their compensation, linking employee rewards to individual and organisational results," the report said.

Referring to the adverse impact of the tough economic conditions on the compensation budgets, Chandramouli said MNCs were attempting to balance their need to retain key talent and address concerns over wage increase.

"Organisations are being proactive in managing people cost as it constitutes about 62 per cent of the total operating cost," he noted.

Highlighting compensation trends across functions like engineering, quality assurance testing and technical architects, the report said senior positions such as engineering manager and director engineering continued to be on a rise, with an average 8 per cent increase.

As India's IT hub, Bangalore, however, continues to dominate the compensation index, especially in software product and R&D. "Bangalore engineers are paid 5 per cent higher than their counterparts in Pune and 8 per cent higher than in Chennai for engineering and quality positions," Zinnov consultant Sahana Shetty said.

However, average salaries of senior positions in the three cities are similar, though average salaries at junior positions are two-three per cent higher in Bangalore. "Employees are not clear if they will be laid off or if the projects they are working on will be de-prioritised. They are also concerned about the financial health of the parent company. Employees are frustrated with cost cuts for what seem like inexpensive benefits (snacks, lunch, office parties, etc)," Shetty added.

Agencies

Logitech to cut 15 percent salaried staff

Logitech International SA, a maker of mice, webcams and other computer peripherals, said it is cutting its salaried work force by 15 percent in response to weak consumer demand amid what it expects to be an extended global downturn.

Switzerland-based Logitech, which also has offices in Fremont, has about 3,500 salaried employees in a total work force of about 9,000.

The company also withdrew its previous fiscal 2009 forecasts for sales growth of 6 to 8 per cent and operating income growth of 3 to 5 per cent. It did not provide revised targets and said it plans to update investors on its outlook during its third-quarter results briefing on Jan 20.

"During the December quarter, the retail environment deteriorated significantly," said Gerald P Quindlen, Logitech's president and chief executive officer. He added in a statement that "we expect the economic environment to worsen in the coming months and we are therefore taking significant actions to align our cost structure with what is likely to be an extended downturn."
Logitech said it will book a restructuring charge for the job cuts in its fiscal fourth quarter. It said it will detail the charge when it issues its third-quarter results.

Quindlen said the company has a strong cash position, no debt, and is maintaining market share.
Agencies

India to emerge strong from the global meltdown

The report said India, along with China, Russia and South Korea would emerge stronger from the global financial crisis as they enjoy strong economic foundations, higher growth rates and sound monetary policy measures.

US, China and Japan were ranked first, second and third respectively.

India ranked 19th in terms of budget balance as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP) and 12th in terms of public debt as a percentage of the GDP.

The ranking was based on seven economic indicators: size of the economy, spending power, tax structure, interest rate policy, budget balances, debt burden and foreign exchange reserves.

Despite meltdown: No job loses in BPO sector!

Software and BPO industry body Nasscom on Wednesday said the business process outsourcing sector is not in the danger of losing jobs due to the ongoing economic downturn rather a net hirer in the current fiscal.

In a statement here Nasscom said, "Media reports suggest that the Indian BPO industry will see 2.5 lakh job losses by the first quarter of 2009, in the wake of downturn in the US and other developed economies. Nasscom’s research and interaction with its member companies is not in support of this statement. Our detailed industry performance and forecast for FY09 will be released in the next fortnight. However, on employment the industry will continue to be a net hirer in FY09 as a direct corollary of industry growth and fears of large scale job losses at an industry level are unfounded."

The industry body's comment comes in the wake BPO Industry Association President Samir Chopra stating that "severe job loss is expected because of recession. We are going to request for a fiscal package from the Government but if that doesn't happen, then there be huge amount of losses in terms of manpower. I think a quarter of a million jobs will go."

The $11-billion BPO sector employs about seven lakh people.

Source: Agencies

Has US economy sunk deeper into recession?

Bleak housing data showed the United States and Britain were sinking deeper into recession and authorities from Washington to Tokyo worked hard to spend their way out of the worst downturn in decades.

Japan's government on Wednesday approved its biggest-ever budget to revive its economy while US President-elect Barack Obama sought to clinch a deal with congressional lawmakers on a massive stimulus package even before the Christmas Day.

"Japan cannot avoid the tsunami of the world recession, but it can try to find a way out," Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said announcing the budget.

"The world economy is in a once-in-a-hundred years recession. We need extraordinary measures to deal with an extraordinary situation," he said.

A record drop in U.S. existing home sales and prices last month reported on Tuesday showed the world's biggest economy was on track for what one Federal Reserve official said could be the longest downturn since the World War Two. Housing is at the root of the U.S. slump and the global malaise and economists expect the economy to decline much more in the current quarter after a 0.5 percent contraction in the third quarter. Britain, the world's fifth-largest economy, is in an equally dire shape.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said house prices were set to fall by 10 percent next year, confirming the bleak outlook after Tuesday's data showed the economy shrinking by 0.6 percent in the third quarter.

The relentless flow of bad news overshadowed rescue efforts and prompted a warning from European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet that investors could be overlooking the importance of steps already taken by policymakers.

Japan had its share of gloom this week, reporting a record drop in exports -- the mainstay of an economy dogged by weak consumer spending -- and a similarly sharp collapse in business sentiment.

RECORD BUDGET FOR JAPAN

Grim data and warnings from the central bank that the worst may not be over fanned expectations that it will cut its key rate to zero from 0.1 percent and revive a policy of flooding banks with interest free cash it abandoned just two years ago.

Doing its part, Japan's cabinet approved a record 88.5 trillion yen ($980.6 billion) budget for the next fiscal year starting in April. The plan boosts overall spending, excluding debt servicing costs, by 9 percent compared to this year's initial budget and aims to accommodate part of 12 trillion yen in extra spending on government stimulus packages.

Source: Agencies

Where has the US bailout money gone?

The US Treasury Department said on Tuesday that it completed purchases of equity in 49 banks on Friday and 43 on Tuesday as part of a plan to stabilize the financial system and restore normal lending.

The 49 banks that received Treasury capital on Friday included 14 privately held institutions, marking the first government capital injections into private banks since the Treasury widened the reach of its capital purchase program.

Congress approved a $700 billion financial rescue program in early October, and the Treasury has said it would use $250 billion to bolster banks' capital position. Currently, the Treasury has authority to use only half of the overall $700 billion approved by Congress.

Following are details on what has been spent or pledged so far of the $350 billion the Treasury currently has authority to draw on:

What has been spent so far

==> $250 billion to buy senior preferred shares and warrants in banks and thrifts.

The latest equity purchases brought the total of investments made so far to $162 billion. A further $10 billion is approved for Merrill Lynch but has been deferred pending its merger with Bank of America.

==> $40 billion investment in troubled insurer American International Group, which has been completed.

==> $20 billion investment in Citigroup pledged as part of a bailout announced on November 23.

Global stimulus package I 2008: Year of financial crisis

Recession hits IT companies I India battles credit crisis I Credit crisis strikes Europe I Financial turmoil grips Europe

What has been spent so far

==> $13.4 billion to prop up General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC. The Treasury has said GM could qualify for a further $4 billion in March, which would have to come from the final $350 billion tranche of the financial rescue fund.

==> $5 billion pledged to cover potential losses on a portfolio of Citigroup mortgage-related assets.

==> $20 billion pledged to cover potential losses for a Federal Reserve program aimed at improving consumer access to credit.

Source: Agencies

Warnings by Russia, China dire economic straits in 2009

Russia and China issued stark warnings on Wednesday about the impact of the crisis on their recently booming economies in 2009, as stocks and oil prices took a hit from economic gloom over Christmas.

A top official in Moscow warned that the crisis could spark popular unrest after a Kremlin economic aide said Russia next year would have its first budget deficit since the 1998 financial crisis, which brought the country to its knees.

Japan also approved a record-high budget aimed at avoiding the worst effects of the crisis and there were reports that Germany was preparing to pump up to 40 billion euros (56 billion dollars) into the economy in a new rescue plan.

"We need to take unprecedented measures when in an extraordinary economic situation," Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said at a news conference after his cabinet backed the new 980-billion-dollar (700-billion-euro) budget.

"Japan cannot evade this tsunami of world recession. But by taking bold measures, we aim to be the world's first to come out of recession," he said.

In Asian stock markets, Tokyo tumbled 2.37 percent and Chinese shares closed down 1.76 percent. European stocks also slipped, with the FTSE 100 in London closing down 0.93 percent and the CAC 40 in Paris down 0.39 percent.

There was more bad news coming from the United States, the world's biggest economy, where US government figures showed jobless claims rising by 30,000 over the past week to 586,000 and incomes and spending contracting in November. With oil prices at their lowest level for four years because of weak global demand, the price of light sweet crude for delivery in February shed 1.56 dollars to 37.42 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).

The low price spells bad news for Russia, the world's second-biggest producer after Saudi Arabia. "The deficit is caused by the fall in oil prices, above all," Kremlin economic aide Arkady Dvorkovich was quoted as saying.

Oil prices reached record highs of more than 147 dollars a barrel in July.

Commenting on the worsening situation, Deputy Interior Minister Mikhail Sukhodolsky warned that unpaid wages, the threat of layoffs and unpopular government anti-crisis measures "may aggravate the protest mood."

China's top economic planner also warned of "great challenges" ahead.

The head of the National Development and Reform Commission, Zhang Ping, told parliament that "grave risks" lay ahead for the government's economic goals if China did not manage to stimulate demand and maintain export growth.

Economists have warned that the global downturn could mean that China will end 2008 with its weakest economic growth for nearly two decades. China has not posted annual growth of less than 7.6 percent since 1991.

The dollar was on the back foot in currency exchanges, falling to 90.37 yen in Tokyo from 90.96 in New York late Tuesday and dropping against the euro in light trading in London to 1.3991 dollars from 1.3924 dollars on Tuesday.

In a sign of the times in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, poodles, terriers and sheepdogs queued up for rations in the country's first soup kitchen for pets in the German capital.

The soup kitchen was opened in October and offers free food for pets belonging to pensioners and the growing ranks of Berlin's unemployed. Julia Raasch, who heads the soup kitchen, said: "We've already signed up nearly 400 people. And our stocks are dwindling fast."

Source: Agencies