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The Emirates group will hire over 500 candidates for IT posts within the next six months. The roles on offer are in the areas of cyber security, technical product management, DevOps, hybrid cloud, modern architecture, software engineering, service management, digital workplace, agile delivery and innovation. The Airline has been spending and can still spend on the newest technologies so as to bring out innovative solutions. These smart solutions, driven by AI, data and so on are aimed toward better products and efficient services to its valuable customers. In October, the airline company had announced that it’d be hiring over 6000 people for the posts of pilots, engineers, cabin crew and ground staff. the majority of these jobs are based in Dubai. With restrictions associated with the pandemic easing up across the globe and more people getting vaccinated, travel has also picked up. Emirates has also hired back pilots, cabin crew and other staff members who had lost their jobs during the pandemic. By 2022, the Group hopes to return to 100 per cent service. In a bid to secure 70 per cent of its pre-pandemic capacity, Emirates has invested in various innovation programmes, internally as well as externally. For programmes like Aviation X-Lab, it has partnered with GE, Airbus, Thales and Collins Aerospace.

Air Corporation Employees Union recently moved the Madras High Court with a request to stop Air India and the Centre from proceeding with the disinvestment of the carrier, without first taking definitive measures to protect the rights of the staff. The Madras High Court (HC) has granted interim relief to the Air India staff, by restraining the Ministry from evicting members of the petitioner union, from their current accommodations provided by Air India. Further, the authorities will have to continue to provide the medical benefits and facilities presently being extended to the members and their families under the Contributory Family Medical Scheme. The employees, according to the service rules applicable, are entitled to remain in service till the age of retirement, that is, 58. This, among other points, has to be properly addressed before taking the disinvestment process forward. The case of the petitioner, which is the Air Corporation Employees Union, is that the terms of share purchase agreement signed between the Government of India and Talace were not shared with the employees; and that the agreement was signed without any prior consultation with the employees. This, the petitioner points out, is in direct violation of the employees’ constitutional rights as mentioned under Article 19(1)(a). Air India and the Centre should have shared the draft of the agreement with the union before signing it. Through this petition, the employees’ union had sought appropriate legal measures to protect the terms and conditions of their service post disinvestment. Source: HR Katha

This year more offers are being made at the IITs of Roorkee, Guwahati and Madras compared to the previous year. Placement offers went up by 43% on the very first day of the placement drive at IIT Madras. In this placement season not only has the number of participating companies improved, but the offers have become more attractive too. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee managed to bag the highest international cost-to-company (CTC) of Rs 2.15 crore on the first day of the final placements process, which began on 1 December, 2021. At most IITs the placement sessions carried on well into the night. While 176 offers were made by about 34 employers at IIT Madras on the first day’s first session, about 200 offers were made by 38 companies at IIT Guwahati. The figures are much higher compared to the last academic year. In terms of international offers, IIT Madras received 11 from four companies. The prominent names amongst the recruiters are McKinsey, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Baja Auto, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs and Boston Consulting Group. Offers went up by 43 per cent on the first day of the placement session. At IIT Guwahati and IIT Bombay, Uber offered the highest international CTC of Rs 2.05 crore in the first session of the first day of placements. Some of the known names that participated were, Google, Graviton, JP Morgan Chase, Uber, Microsoft, Bajaj, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Goldman Sachs. Source: Mint

  Parag Agrawal, who has recently been named as the CEO of microblogging platform Twitter, will receive an annual salary of USD 1 million along with other perks and bonuses. The India-born executive – who succeeds Jack Dorsey in this role – served as Twitter’s Chief Technology Officer since 2017, and has been responsible for the company’s technical strategy. He joined the company in 2011 as a software engineer, leading efforts on scaling Twitter Ads systems, as well as reaccelerating audience growth by improving Home timeline relevance. “…Agrawal will receive an annual salary of USD 1,000,000 and will continue to be a participant in the company’s executive bonus plan with a new target bonus of 150 per cent of his annual base salary. Under the terms of the Offer Letter, in December 2021, the Board will grant to Agrawal restricted stock units (RSUs) with a grant date face value of USD 12,500,000,” a regulatory filing by Twitter to the US SEC, said. Agrawal will be entitled to restricted stock units (RSUs) worth USD 12.5 million, vested in 16 equal quarterly increments beginning February 2022. He had received RSU earlier this year too. Agrawal, 37, holds a PhD in computer science from Stanford University. He completed his BTech in computer science and engineering from IIT-Bombay. During his career, Agrawal has also been involved in research for Microsoft between 2006 and 2009, as well as Yahoo. Before joining Twitter over a decade back, he also did a short stint with AT&T Labs in 2010. On social media, Agrawal expresses his gratitude to Dorsey and his excitement for the future. Dorsey resigned after 16 years of serving the Company, of which he is a co-founder. His social-media posts reveal that Agrawal was a unanimous choice for CEO because of his deep understanding of the Company and its needs. He is open about his appreciation for Agrawal’s creativity, curiosity, self-awareness, probing nature and humility. Source: PTI    

The Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) and the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) have been asking for their salary restoration since quite a few time now. To no avail, they have threatened to take industrial action if Air India does not restore their salaries within three days. The two pilots’ union have been demanding together for their pay cuts to be rolled back to what it was originally. To compile their grievances, a letter was also written to the aviation secretary by the ICPA and IPG, which have at least 900 pilots as members. India has decided to resume to and fro international flights from next month, therefore the pilots wish to see their pay cuts to be reversed as soon as possible. Air India had cut 55% of their pay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pilots’ unions have been calling the pay cut illegal and are demanding them to be restored to the pre-pandemic numbers. In addition to the above requests, the pilots have additional queries about the disinvestment that they want addressed to receive clarity on the matter. Apparently in an agitated state, they have said that they want their demands to be addressed at met, otherwise they may declare an indefinite strike. A slew of issues they want the Air India management to address are: The 25 per cent arrears with interest, along with statement of gratuity Leave encashment option Medical benefits for all employees Tending grades of first officers to be released The tax issues on the layover substance allowance (which was held back during the pandemic) Source: HR Katha

Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation’s (EPFO) Central Board of Trustees (CBT) has approved the development of a centralised IT- enabled system by C-DAC. It is aimed at initiating the integration of all EPF accounts to make it easier for employees to change their jobs without the worry of transferring their EPF accounts to their new workplace. In an official statement, Union Labour Minister of State, Bhupender Yadav, explained that after the centralised system is implemented, the field functionalities will be shifted to a central database in a phased manner, to help carry out operations in a smoother manner. The perks of the process are: It will facilitate the duplication and merger of all PF accounts of the members It will remove the requirement of transfer of account on change of job Despite digitization and new technologies, even today when people leave their jobs, they are required to open a new EPF account and then have the money transferred to the new account. They have to perform this process online, on the Member Sewa portal of the EPFO, using their Universal Account Number (UAN), which should be linked with Aadhaar. If the UAN is not linked with Aadhaar, then the employees will have to submit a new form to their new employer to get the process of money transfer started. To our joy, the new system will remove all the pain of transferring all the money to our new accounts when we shift our jobs. Source: The article has been published by HR Katha with a few tweaks from the ArdorComm News Network Team.

Samsung India are going to be seen recruiting a minimum of 1,000 young engineers from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and other engineering colleges across the country. About 250 pre-placement offers (PPOs) have already been made to fresh engineering graduates. These engineers will work at Samsung India’s R&D centres in Bengaluru, Noida and Delhi, in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT), image processing, cloud, networks, data analysis, camera technologies and OnDevice AI. India houses Samsung’s biggest R&D centres outside of Korea. While about 260 freshers are going to be picked from IIT campuses in Delhi, Kanpur, Madras, Mumbai, Kharagpur, BHU, Mumbai, Guwahati and Roorkee, the remaining about 700 engineers will be picked from other engineering colleges and institutes, including BITS Pilani and the National Institutes of Technology. The Company is open to hiring talent from streams like computer science, electronics and communications, mathematics and computing, electrical engineering, instrumentation and information technology. Samsung offers multiple upskilling programmes to its employees for growth. This includes MTech programmes with IIIT-B and BITS Pilani, to learn and contribute towards newer trends using future technologies. Millennials are filing the maximum number of patents. About 50 per cent of patent filers are first-time inventors while 27 per cent have less than five years of experience. So far, the company has filed over 7,500 patents globally of which over 3,500 are filed in India. Source: HR Katha

India’s IT services industry may witness a gross employee addition of 450,000 in the second half of financial year 2022 (H2FY22), according to a study by market intelligence firm UnearthInsight. The report titled ‘IT Industry Q2 Insights & FY22 Forecast’ said that the IT industry is predicted to have a net employee addition of 175,000 in H2FY22 as there’ll be an attrition rate of around 17 to 19%. Gaurav Vasu, Founder and CEO UnearthInsight, said, “The finding further brings out the very fact that the IT Industry’s perceived “War on Talent” is real and it’s getting intense with attrition is a rising concern for the industry. Also, one of the highlights of first half is the way top IT firms have delivered upskilling programmes in completely digital format and have developed robust infrastructure to support such initiatives. On the hiring side, the industry is expected to see a sharp momentum with addition of around 12% more employees in the second half of the year.” UnearthInsight also expects the FY23 likely to be around at 16% to 18% and therefore the fresher addition across subsequent 2 quarters is probably going to assist IT Services firms control overall attrition in the industry. The rise in Industry attrition is essentially driven by the supply-side challenges which are transient and are expected to normalize from FY23. Source: Mint

Elon Musk’s Space X has proudly announced two vacant positions for Indians in India at its satellite internet service – Starlink. The announcement was posted by Sanjay Bhargava, country director, Starlink, India on his LinkedIn page. He said, “I am pleased to announce that we are now officially looking for two rockstars to join the Indian subsidiary.”. He says that the prospective candidates shouldn’t send their resumes to him, but should apply directly if they think they fit the job role and description. He further clarifies, “executive assistant position is not a chief of staff position and the director rural transformation has to be technical as well.” Criteria to apply for the post of director – rural transformation: Only Computer Science graduates or graduates from engineering background are eligible Minimum 10 years of work experience is a must Apart from the abovementioned criteria, candidates with additional development work in companies, communities, and related stakeholders, may also apply Criteria to apply for the post of executive assistant: Graduates with over three years of experience at an executive level and proficiency in Microsoft Office applications and project management software tools can apply for the post. The job of executive assistant entails: Close work with Starlink’s HR and the management team Aid in planning events Ensure the smooth functioning of day-to-day official activities Bhargava’s sentiments with these job opportunities are that they will work “towards catalysing and accelerating transformation starting with rural India.” The company will post further openings will be only after it receives a commercial license. Source: HR Katha                  

Apple Inc., one among the world’s most valuable companies with a market cap of over $2.5 trillion, said it already supports around one million jobs in India, both directly and indirectly, and is investing significantly to develop its operations further in the country and engage with more suppliers. The company said its estimates of employment in the country include its own employees, developers of apps for its iOS ecosystem, and workers with its supplier partners who support its manufacturing operations for several models of its flagship product, the iPhone, in the country today. Apple has been operating in India for more than two decades, and in 2017, we began manufacturing iPhones at a facility here in Bengaluru. Since then, we’ve expanded to Chennai, manufacturing several iPhone models for the domestic market and for export, said Priya Balasubramaniam, VP of operations at Apple. Balasubramaniam, who is a native of Bengaluru and lived in the city before moving to the US to pursue higher education, told audiences at the Bengaluru Tech Summit on Thursday that, “Today, Apple supports around 1 million jobs in India from our own employees to the fast-growing iOS app economy to our work with supplier partners.” Unfolding about the views of Apple in India she mentioned that the company is looking to open physical retail stores after making available its entire range of products to customers in India through its online storefront last year. She also mentioned that Apple views India can play a role in the transformation of the manufacturing sector that is unfolding globally. “Our manufacturing operations in India achieved the goal of zero waste to landfill very quickly, and went further by talking the learnings of waste reduction into local communities where employees live. In India, our suppliers achieved a record for gaining platinum Zero Waste certification, seven suppliers in just six months,” she added. Source: Indian Express