Did you know that 55 per cent of employees fudge travel figures or that 46 per cent believe that a call to their grandma in a faraway village at company expense is alright?

If as a manager, you are worried about increasing operational costs, then these figures should tell you exactly where to crack the whip! A recent survey by Teamlease Services on workplace ethics found many more such behavioural shockers, something that Indian industry can ill afford at a time when competition is at our doorstep.

For example if 55.7 per cent of employees fudged expense accounts, costs are bound to go up. And what about the majority of 63 per cent staff who believe that carrying out personal tasks at work is par for the course? So, if productivity is taking a hit, who is to blame?

The survey, which is fourth in the series on “World of Work” conducted by TLS, attempts to track the changing scenario at workplaces across India. Here are some of the findings of this survey

Indian companies, particularly in the IT and BPO segments have reached a point where they can teach the world many lessons on workforce training and development, a recent study has suggested.

The study, titled “How the Disciple became the Guru”, released by the Kauffman Foundation and conducted by Duke University’s global engineering & entrepreneurship project team, is a research effort based on talks with leading Indian companies across sectors such as IT, BPO, banking and pharmaceuticals.

Vivek Wadhwa, the lead author of the study says that the researchers were surprised at India’s ability in R&D despite a messed up education system. “It’s not the universities that train these specialists, but the surrogate education system created by the Indian companies,” said Wadhwa who is the Engineering executive-in-residence at Pratt School.

Companies in India go to colleges much before they hire in order to help students become employment ready, the study says and notes other such innovative practices developed by Indian companies to tap the talent pool. It refers to Satyam Computer’s project of having 80 senior executives serve as mentors on university campuses and Infosys’ initiative to hire and train final year engineering students for short-term projects.

The outsourcing market for human resources is expected to gross more eighty billion dollars in China in the next year to 15 months.

A new study conducted by EquaTerra says that the Chinese market was moving at a very rapid pace and would grow by at least 25 per cent by the end of 2009. The market was valued at around 15 billion dollars five years ago.

As part of the study, the company sought responses from 15 top HR directors of foreign companies based out of China, who cited several reasons for not moving HR outsourcing to the region including data security and poor management control.

However, they were unanimous in the perception that over the next three to five years, a substantial part of HR administration functions would be offshored to China, including recruitment and payroll.

EquaTerra has however raised an alarm over the availability of skilled manpower to handle the growing demand from the outsourcing market, a factor that could well push some of the business India’s way.

More and more mid-tier companies are leveraging the benefits of HR outsourcing and soon the smaller firms would take this up at a scale that would beat the HRO operations of large corporations having 15,000 or more employees.

This has been stated in a new study conducted by Everest Research Institute, which found that the mid-tier companies (with an employee strength of between 3,000 to 15,000) are adopting HRO because of a growing supplier base that continues to bring forward focused offerings that support cost reductions, access to up-to-date technology and standardized processes.

“For a long time, HRO suppliers were mostly focused on larger companies with 15,000 employees or more. Serving these companies involves more complexity, more customization requirements and much longer implementation timeframes than the mid-market would require,” says Monica Barron, Vice President, HRO Research.

“To take advantage of the barely penetrated mid-level market, suppliers have developed profitable offerings by leveraging economies of scale and standardized solutions. This is why we’re seeing a significant increase in HRO suppliers - including offshore suppliers - and offerings focused on the mid-market buyer. And this, in turn, is really good for the buyer because they now have more suppliers and offerings from which to choose. The issue now becomes how to choose wisely.”

No.T-11/13/53/08/2001-Ins.IV Dated:21/11/2001

Instruction No. 10/2001

To
The Regional Director/Joint Director I/c,
ESI Corporation,
Regional Office/Sub-Regional Office,

Sub: Treating Conveyance Allowance as wages for the purpose of Section 2(9) & Section 2(22) of the ESI Act, 1948.

Sir,
I am to invite your attention to this office Instruction No. 2/97 issued vide letter No.P-11/13/97-Ins.IV dated 27.1.1997 and Item No. 12 of Memorandum No.P-11/13/97-Ins.IV dated 6th Nov., 2000, wherein it was instructed that the traveling allowance for value of any traveling concession, if paid to the employees in the nature of conveyance allowance, the same is neither wages for the purpose of coverage of employees under Section 2(9) nor it is to be treated as wages under Section 2(22) of the ESI Act for the purpose of payment of contribution.

In the meanwhile conflicting judgments by some High Courts have been received, necessitating the review of the Instruction No. 2/97 dated 27.1.1997, and Memo dated 6th Nov.2000. The Madras High Court in its judgment dated 14.11.2000 in LPA No.50/98 (2001 LLR 489 ) has held that the conveyance allowance paid by the employer to the employees for commuting between residence and place of work should not be taken as wages as the same is nothing but traveling allowance for the purpose of Section 2(22)(b) of the ESI Act. In another case where transport allowance was paid to the employees by the employer as per a settlement signed by the Employees’ Union and the Management, the High Court of Karnataka has held in its Judgment dated 16th March, 2001 (MFA No. 2827/1999) that the transport allowance should be treated as wages as it flows out of a wage settlement thereby it has come within the first part of the definition of wages under Section 2(22) of ESI Act. There is a small difference in perspective. Whereas the Madras High Court has taken conveyance allowance per se, the High Court of Karnataka has specifically dealt with a case of transport allowance/conveyance allowance payable under a wage settlement. However two different interpretations can not be made by us for same nature of payment allowed under identical circumstances. Therefore, it has been decided to accept the rationale behind the decision of the Karnataka High Court and accordingly it is advised that fixed conveyance allowance flowing out of a wage settlement should be treated as wages for all purposes.

However the following should not be treated as wages under Section 2(22) of ESI Act and also for the purpose of deciding coverage of an employee under Section 2(9) of ESI Act.

1. Amount towards conveyance paid or reimbursed to any employee for incurring expenses for specific duty related journey.

2. Reimbursement of actual cost of conveyance for coming to work and going from work on production of ticket or season ticket and subject to proof of actual expenditure.
3. Payment of certain amount for maintenance of vehicle depending upon Cadre of the official and category of vehicle and subject to production of records for actually maintaining the vehicles.

4. Fixed conveyance allowance paid at an interval exceeding 2 months, unless such payment is made as per contract or agreement .

The Instruction No. 2/97 dated 27.1.1997 and item No. 12 of Memorandum dated 6th Nov. 2000 stand modified accordingly.

This issues with the approval of the Insurance Commissioner.

Please acknowledge the receipt.

Yours faithfully,

(O. ABDUL HAMEED )
ADDL. COMMISSIONER(REV.)

Copy to:

1. Joint Director(Fin.)/Dy. Director(Fin.), R.O./SRO ____________________.
2. Joint Director (Vigilance)____________________________Zone.
3. All Officers at Hqrs. Office.
4. All Branches, Hqrs. Office,
5. Guard File.

JOINT DIRECTOR (REVENUE )

No.T-11/13/53/08/2001-Ins.IV Dated: 21.03.2002

To
The Regional Director/Director/
Joint Director I/c,
ESI Corporation,
Regional Office/Sub-Regional Office,

Sub:- Treating Conveyance Allowance as wages for the purpose of Section 2(9) & Section 2(22) of the ESI Act, 1948.

Sir,

In view of the difficulties reported to have been experienced by the Regional Directors/Joint Directors I/c, in implementing the Instruction No.10/2001 dated 21.11.2001 on the above cited subject in the absence of a cut-off date, the matter was reviewed at Hqrs. Office and it has been decided that the revised instruction should be implemented w.e.f. 1.4.2002. In other words Conveyance Allowance which is to be paid by the employers for the period starting from 1.4.2002 onwards should be examined strictly as per the revised instruction to find out whether the same comes under Section 2(22) of the Act as wages for the purpose of coverage of employees under Section 2(9) and for the purpose of claiming contribution. The instruction No.10/2001 circulated vide letter of even number dated 21.11.2001 stands modified to the extent mentioned above.

It is made clear that in respect of all previous cases up to 31st March, 2002, Regional Directors may not re-open any case where the employer has taken a bonafide stand that conveyance allowance is not wages based on the previous instruction or that conveyance allowance is wages based on the new instruction. If the employer has excluded some employees from the ambit of coverage for the contribution periods upto and including contribution period ending 3/2002, adding the fixed conveyance allowance as wages the same may be accepted without further contest/claim etc. since it is in conformity with the new instruction and dispute if any on this question may be settled and appeal and litigation filed by us may be withdrawn. Similarly, if the employer has taken conveyance allowance as not wages and has not paid the contribution on this part of wages based on the previous instruction and also did not exclude those who would have exceeded the wage limit of Rs.6500/- by adding the conveyance allowance, the Regional Director should not re-open the case and make any claim on omitted wages. The important point to be kept in mind is to see that the employer has uniformly and in bonafide manner followed either the old instruction and considered the conveyance allowance as not wages for all purposes or took conveyance allowance as wages for all purposes namely for payment of contribution as well as for exclusion of employees from coverage as the case may be as per the new instruction up to March, 2002.

The Inspectors should be advised to ensure that those employers who treated some of the employees out of the purview of the scheme by adding conveyance allowance as wages, have actually applied this policy uniformly in respect of the low paid employees also including non-regular employees and paid contribution where applicable and whether there was any case of treating some cash payment as conveyance allowance for only higher paid employees in a disproportionate manner with a malafide intention to take them out of coverage and whether the conveyance allowance paid to the low paid employees on which contribution has been paid is proportionate to the gross wages.

Sufficient publicity regarding the revised instruction and its date of implementation w.e.f. 1.4.2002 should be given immediately so that the employers will have enough time to start calculating the contribution due and to start complying from contribution period commencing from April, 2002 for which payment of contribution is required to be made on or before 21st May, 2002.

This issues with the approval of Insurance Commissioner.

Please acknowledge the receipt.

Yours faithfully,
( L.K. PATTANAIK )
JOINT DIRECTOR (REV.)

Copy to:-
1. Joint Director(F)/Dy.Director(F), Regional Office/SRO_______________
2. Joint Director(Vig.)_________________Zone.
3. All Officers at Hqrs. Office.
4. All Branches of Hqrs. Office.
5. Spare copies.

( SECTION OFFICER )

Seasons greetings from PSG AUSTRALIA .

It was nice to speak to you over phone. As per our discussion, I am forwarding you all the details.

We are Australian CRICOS provider dealing with education in Australian Qualification framework in Chandigarh .

PERMANENT RESIDENCY through COMMERCIAL COOKERY :-

For a long time ,study in Australia was seen as the only pathway to Australian

Permanent Residency ( PR ) . According to the Australian Govt. there is an easier way. PSG Australia , a renowned Australian Govt. Accredited registered Training Organization has developed a program that not only saves student money, it saves them time. We are pleased to inform you that Skilled Migration Program for Australia is delivered by PSG Australia-India at Chandigarh itself. There is no denying the fact that the total cost of the curriculum which is 4 Lac & Eighty Thousand, is not a small sum. Affordability is a big question and many dreams are withered against affordability. With a view to offering the program at considerably less cost, PSG Australia- India has introduced a cheaper option (Alternative pathway) with Rs. 2.0 lakhs on Commercial Cookery when one will be given Australian Certificate III certificate and 12 month Job training in cooking professions. These two qualifications are basic and most vital for PR eligibility for Australia, New Zealand and Other countries. However, IELTS Coaching, TRA Assessment and submission of PR file, which you will have to achieve and obtain by yourself .In case, you will require also to assist you in these matters, we will be happy to offer our services with separate fees.

INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMA IN EVENT MANAGEMENT :-

Again, Event Management is a multi-crore industry with mega shows and events hosted regularly. In India personal functions like marriages and birthday parties have become important social matters, and have to be professionally managed. The growth of sophisticated and mega companies have brought forth a spurt of meetings, seminars, exhibitions, conferences, product launches with everything being a matter of class and style. Then comes the innumerable celebrity shows, international artists shows, shows for a cause, road shows, competitions, that India has seen of late.

Taking this into serious consideration PSG Australia has come up with International Diploma Program on Event Management in Chandigarh. This is a One year Course of 3 days a week, 2 hours a day ,eligibility is appeared or passed graduation . Practical classes will be also held in live events. Free Special Program on Personality Development will be held .This Diploma will not only enable one to be an Event Manager ,but he or she will be an out and out street smart professional ready to be lapped up by the emerging market and industries in a global economy.

For both course we are applying for a business tie up with you for mutual business relationship. In your business you used to come across cooks who are searching for better options. If they or any interested are admitted in our PR Course , the reference can bring a good amount of financial settlement between us. Again, in Event Management we can work 2 ways, our students will be in need of placement which can be your business in which we will not intervene other than giving your reference. Another is you can make your all candidates aware of our event management program with our promotional material & counseling which can be again of a financial gain from your side.

If you agree with all these in principal ,we can proceed further with a total financial lay out & start working with you with an all out effort. Please inform us if any further query .Please visit our website www.psgaustraliaindia.org

Awaiting your early response .

Regards,

FOR PSG AUSTRALIA (INDIA),

SAGARIKA

PARTNER
more info 9815333000

Human resource management is a process of bringing people and organizations together so that the goals of each other are met. The role of HR manager is shifting from that of a protector and screener to the role of a planner and change agent. Personnel directors are the new corporate heroes. The name of the game today in business is personnel . Nowadays it is not possible to show a good financial or operating report unless your personnel relations are in order.

Over the years, highly skilled and knowledge based jobs are increasing while low skilled jobs are decreasing. This calls for future skill mapping through proper HRM initiatives.

Indian organizations are also witnessing a change in systems, management cultures and philosophy due to the global alignment of Indian organizations. There is a need for multi skill development. Role of HRM is becoming all the more important.

Some of the recent trends that are being observed are as follows:
The recent quality management standards ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 of 2000 focus more on people centric organizations. Organizations now need to prepare themselves in order to address people centered issues with commitment from the top management, with renewed thrust on HR issues, more particularly on training.
Charles Handy also advocated future organizational models like Shamrock, Federal and Triple I. Such organizational models also refocus on people centric issues and call for redefining the future role of HR professionals.
To leapfrog ahead of competition in this world of uncertainty, organizations have introduced six- sigma practices. Six- sigma uses rigorous analytical tools with leadership from the top and develops a method for sustainable improvement. These practices improve organizational values and helps in creating defect free product or services at minimum cost.
Human resource outsourcing is a new accession that makes a traditional HR department redundant in an organization. www.omcs.in Exult, the international pioneer in HR BPO already roped in Bank of America, international players BP Amoco & over the years plan to spread their business to most of the Fortune 500 companies.
With the increase of global job mobility, recruiting competent people is also increasingly becoming difficult, especially in India. Therefore by creating an enabling culture, organizations are also required to work out a retention strategy for the existing skilled manpower.

“future of gaming is on” says Sales head, Sumanyu, at iAnimate.in, resellor for Autodesk at Chandigarh, India. With third-generation (3G) mobile services expected to be launched soon, India’s gaming industry is poised for a four-fold growth over the next two-years, a leading industry player said.

The gaming market, currently pegged at USD 100 million, is likely to vault to USD 400 million in the next two years, the official said.

“India’s gaming industry is likely to touch USD 400 million by 2012. With third-generation (3G) mobile services expected to be launched soon, gaming companies are gearing themselves up for the big opportunity,” GameShastra’s Chief Executive Officer Prakash Ahuja, told a news agency here.

GameShastra, a leading game services provider, operates a state-of-the-art game development studio in Hyderabad and is creating games across all major platforms.

The company which has a portfolio of over 200 games across consoles and hand-held devices, is eyeing an USD 15 million revenue from mobile games within two-years of 3G’s launch.

Another leading player, Nazara Technologies, too expects to ride the wave and is eyeing a revenue of Rs 100 crore within two-years of 3G launch.

“The Indian gaming industry is estimated to grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 50-70 per cent to reach USD 400 million by 2012. The 3G launch in the country opens the door to innovative value-added services which will bring everything to just one convergent device,” Nazara Technologies’ Chief Executive Officer Nitish Mittersain, said.

Nazara is working on at least ten new games to tap the gaming market which would be provided to people after the launch of 3G, he said.

“Games-on-demand, real-time gaming and karaoke-on-demand could emerge as the most sought-after value added services. The future trends lie in advertising and promotion of films as well as products through mobile gaming,” Mittersain said, adding localisation of content and new payment mechanisms will change gaming trends.

India will throw open the auction of airwaves for offering 3G mobile services to state-run, private and foreign operators in the current fiscal, Telecom Minister A Raja, has said.

State-run BSNL and MTNL currently offer 3G services in select pockets of the country like Mumbai, Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR).

India expects to generate revenues worth Rs 25,000 crore from the auction of 3G spectrum as various foreign players aim to have a share of the pie in India’s fast-growing wireless market.