Does TCS plan to hire 25,000 jobs globally?

In a move that could bring a smile to many faces, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced that it will hire 25,000 people globally in 2009, with 90 percent of them in India alone. Though the number is bigger when compared to the hiring these days, it is less than last year when TCS appointed around 35,000 people.

With this recruitment drive, TCS also plans to expand its presence into the tier-II cities in India. "We will be hiring 25,000 people this year, which means roughly 25 lakh square feet of work space required and, therefore, we need to grow outside the metros. Tier-II cities are our only focus for expansion in the country as the top rung are clogged and saturated," said Tanmoy Chakrabarty, Vice-President and Head of Government Industry Solutions unit at TCS.

Following this hiring spree, the total global manpower of TCS would go up to more than 1.8 lakh. This will put the IT services provider among large private Indian employers like Tata Steel, which has the total employee strength of two lakh. Going forward, the company, which has an estimated 32 percent market share, plans to cash in on the Indian government's plan to invest Rs. 40,000 crore on IT services.

Currently, 70 percent of the IT segment's revenue is from India, while the rest comes from the U.S., Latin America, Africa and South East Asian countries. However, the revenue contribution from Indian government businesses to the total company revenue of $6 billion is less than five percent, which the company intends to increase to more than 10 percent in the next three years.

Agencies

SBI to hire 4,280 employees for associate banks

The country's top lender, State Bank of India, said it is looking to hire more than 4,200 employees for its associate banks -- a development that comes within days of its plan to recruit 25,000 people.

SBI said in a public announcement today that it plans to recruit 4,280 clerical staff at its various associate banks for operations across the country.

The recruitment drive for its associate banks follows SBI saying earlier last month that it would hire 25,000 people in the current fiscal -- a move that comes at a time when banks across the world are mostly trimming their workforces in the backdrop of a global financial crisis.

The various associate banks for which SBI is looking to recruit the staff include State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Indore, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore.

There are more than 1,000 vacancies each with State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore, between 240 and 440 employees would be recruited for each of State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Indore and State Bank of Mysore.

SBI Chairman O P Bhatt said on November 16 that SBI was hiring 20,000 clerical staff and 5,000 people in supervisory positions in the current fiscal. In its previous major hiring spree, SBI had announced, about a year ago, plans to increase its as well as the associate banks' headcount by about 10,000 people.

Last month, another state-run lender IDBI Bank said it was looking to hire about 650 people for its retail banking and SME finance businesses.

However, foreign banks have been mostly cutting down their payrolls, with biggest of them, Citigroup, recently saying that it plans to trim down its headcount by over 50,000 employees across the world, which reportedly includes about 1,000 employees in India.

Citi, which has already laid off over 25,000 people so far this year, plans to bring down its headcount to below 3,00,000 in the next few weeks, from more than 3,75,000 at the end of 2007.

American Express also recently said that it would lay off about 7,000 employees globally, which includes about 100 employees in India.