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'Creating
diverse workforce greatest challenge for global firms'
Indo-Asian News Service
Bangalore,
June 14 (IANS) Creation of diverse workforce would be the
greatest challenge for corporations in a globalised world,
Infosys Technologies chairman and chief mentor N.R. Narayana
Murthy said here Saturday.
"As
corporations grow and globalise, I am convinced that the greatest
challenge they will face will be the creation of a diverse
workforce," Murthy told shareholders at the company's
27th annual general meeting (AGM) for fiscal 2008.
In
a bid to address the daunting challenge, Infosys has built
a global base to grow in the future, with over 91,000 employees
from 70 nationalities working across 90 countries.
During
2007-08, the company recruited a record 33,177 people against
its projected hiring plans for 25,000.
As
a global firm with a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic workforce
and delivery centres, Murthy said the IT bellwether had taken
several measures to create a high-level of diversity in its
workforce by enhancing its recruiting efforts in different
countries.
Though
Infosys receives a whopping one million job applications every
year, just 2.3 percent of them are offered employment.
"We
continue to hire from the best universities the world over
and train them in our global education centre at Mysore in
Karnataka. The first batch of graduates from Britain were
hired in the last fiscal," Murthy pointed out.
Riding
on the success of its hiring and training programmes in Britain
and the US, Infosys plans to extend the same to many other
counties to build a world-class global workforce.
Murthy
also informed the shareholders that the education centre at
Mysore, about 140 km from India's IT hub, would be one of
the world's largest such facility where 13,000 graduates can
be trained at a time, with about 500 faculty rooms and 10,300
residential rooms.
On
the challenges posed by global uncertainties, including rising
fuel and food prices, economic slowdown worldwide and inflationary
pressures on the home front, Murthy said in such a scenario,
it was imperative for the management to identify changes correctly
in the marketplace and respond rapidly.
Recounting
the initiatives taken during the year under review, the chairman
said by adopting a policy of 'follow the sun', the company
had ensured to build delivery capability in India, China,
southeast Asia, Japan, Australia, the US, Canada, Mexico,
Britain, eastern Europe and Mauritius.
For
fiscal 2008, Infosys has rewarded its shareholders with a
special dividend of Rs.20 per share (400 percent on Rs.5 per
share) for crossing $1 billion in net income for the first
time under the US accounting practice.
The
company has also increased the dividend payout ratio to 30
percent from 20 percent.
Indo-Asian
News Service
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