For Everything on Infosys

Infosys Technologies, India's second largest IT services provider is going to begin the task of finding Narayana Murthy's replacement for the role of Chairman and Chief Mentor from January 2011. Murthy has already announced that he is going to retire in August 2011 from his non-executive role.

Infosys' nominations committee which includes ICICI Bank's former CEO and non-executive chairman KV Kamath, Cornell University professor Jeffrey Sean Lehman and HDFC Standard Life Insurance CEO Deepak Satwalekar has already started discussions about the process.

The minimum number of meetings required for this process is 2 but the committee has already had 5 meetings during the year ended April 2010.

Infosys Technologies Ltd. which was founded by NR Narayana Murthy and 6 other colleagues from Patni Computers namely Nandan Nilekani, Kris Gopalakrishnan, SD Shibulal, K Dinesh, S Raghavan and SK Arora resigned from his role as executive chairman in 2006 when he turned 60.

Infosys which was founded with seed capital of only 250 USD has become one of India's biggest entrepreneurial success stories and finding people of the same capabilities as the founders was always going to be a tough task. Nevertheless, Infosys is well known for its leadership training and has a very capable bench strength when it comes to choosing executives from.

Infosys has decided to give stock options to its employees on its 30th birthday on July 2, 2010. Infy Employee Welfare Trust — an independent trust within the company which holds Infosys equity shares has issued a statement which says that all employees on Infosys' payroll on 31st March 2010 who are not serving notice period will get minimum 5 equity shares valued at 2767 Rs as per today's closing price. Employees will get 1 extra share apart from the minimum 5 shares for every year they have served at Infosys. This allocation of shares to employees will take place in August.

It is interesting to note, however, that one person who attended the Annual General Meeting of Infosys this year said that Infy CEO Kris and other officials were not in favor of awarding ESOPs (Employee Stock Option Plans) to employees. Only Narayana Murthy was in favor of awarding shares to employees. One senior executive from engineering vertical also said that clients are more impressed by our gardens than our delivery. So we should offer stock options to our gardeners than delivery people. After a lonng and heated debate, it was finally decided to award minimum 5 shares to employees instead of 50 shares proposed by Narayana Murthy.

Source: Business Standard

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The Generic Training Course has been revised so as to reduce the stress on trainees.

Now it has been taken care of that there will be only 1 exam per week. This is such a huge relief and i think it compensates the 12 o clock time limit of GEC.

As i said before, the training is now divided into 3 stages and the new update is that there are some differences for CS/IT and non-CS/IT people.

For non-CS/IT Graduates:

The first stage or the basic level of generic which contains PF,PT(C-Language) and RDBMS. The result is combined for PF,PT i.e it contains 40% of PF,30% of PT and 30% for PT project. RDBMS has a separate test.

Incase they don’t clear any of the tests(PF,PT combined and RDBMS tests) either in test or re-test, they need to take an Integrated test. Incase the trainee does not clear the Integrated test ,the trainee is sent back home to prepare for about 20 days paid leave is under LOP(Loss of Pay). That is, you will lose your salary for those 20 days. Not to mention the traveling costs.



When you come back, you have to reappear for these exams and if you fail for the second time, then you will be asked to leave the company.

After this Stage 1 of training you will get into advanced generic phase. This includes:
1) OOP(object oriented programming) using java and a little of advanced Java,
2) Oracle which include PL-SQL statements,
3) Unix and Software Engg Course after which the trainee needs to take Hands On exam on OOP concepts and Oracle.

After the Hands On exam, theoretical courses like SDM(Software Development Methodology),UXD(User Experience Design),IQS(Infosys Quality Systems) are taught. After this, the trainee will have an objective exam on the whole of advanced generic inclusive of the theoretical courses on clearing which the trainee will be allocated a stream.

Stream will be allocated even if the trainee fails the above mentioned exam but he will have to take the retest for the exam after Stream Training. There is no "Exit Policy" for non-CS/IT people for this stage.

For CS/IT Graduates:

Incase of a CS/IT Graduate, the trainee will have a super fast basic generic course called as Bridge Course, the result of which will not affect the training of the CS/IT gradutes. After this, the trainee enters the Advanced generic course similar to non-CS/IT graduates, but the difference here is that the exit procedures are applicable for the trainee here in case of CS/IT graduates. They need to clear that compre. There is a retest for that also.

After this they enter the stream training. Java and Open System streams are getting re-structured whereas Dotnet and Mainframes are being re-defined. (Will update you on this as soon as it happens).

After Stream, Extended training has been made mandatory nowadays, so after this every trainee needs to undergo extended training.

Now according to this new structure Generic is now 58 working days and incase the course is more than 4 days ,a day was added in between the course called a “Practice Day” where a trainee gets a day to work on the course and cope up with the subject.

There might be some refinement in the structure for the next batches as this is the first time this structure is being rolled out.

All information in this post is thanks to Shravan.

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Hi everyone,

Here are some more new and old updates for you.

The training program has changed much from what it used to be. Now the training is divided into 3 stages. Out of these, the first stage consists of PF(C language) and RDBMS. The trainees are given training for these 2 subjects and then there is a COMBINED test of these two.

If you clear stage 1 exam, you are sent to stage 2. However, if you fail, you are sent back home to prepare for about 20 days paid leave. That is, you will lose your salary for those 20 days. Not to mention the traveling costs.



When you come back, you have to reappear for these exams and if you fail for the second time, then you will be asked to leave the company.

Now Java has become a part of generic training. Not the entire stream but some subjects of Java stream are now a part of generic training.

Training period is now increased to 8 months.

There was a case of drug possessing before 2 weeks in the campus. The person was found smoking and ghanja was found in his room in a surprise checking. The person was exited from the company on the spot. (This happens once in a while there.)

GECs 1 & 2 now shut down by 12 AM on weekdays and 10 PM on weekends which used to be open 24 * 7 for trainees. So now, having a laptop will REALLY help as you can get the slides somehow and study at your room.

A trainee at Infosys Mysore DC committed suicide on Wednesday, 14th April 2009.

The reasons quoted for the suicide is reportedly failing in 3 modules of generic training which brought him to the edge of being ousted from the company.

It is for the second time in the last 6 months that a trainee at Infosys Mysore has taken the dreadful step. The first incident occurred in the first week of October. While the reason for the earlier suicide remains unknown, the reason in this one clearly seems to be fear of losing the job.

It is apparent that as in the previous suicide case, in this case too Infosys deliberately tried to suppress the news.


Reportedly, Infosys has toughened rules for training and have made the tests more difficult which leads to a higher number of trainees having to leave the company before being confirmed employees of the company. This means that the actual layoff number of 2100 reported by Infosys is much higher if you consider the rate at which trainees are made to leave due to recession.

One more important thing to note is that on one hand, Infosys says that it will honour the 18000 campus offers made for the graduates passing out in 2009 to put up a good face in the public eye but on the other hand, it makes sure that only the required number of employees stay at the end of training.

There is now compulsary 6 months training for all. There is no change in the syllabus. Just that you now have 2 streams instead of 1. But ya, the good thing is that you have cleared training if you clear the first stream. That means, you wont be asked to leave if you dont score well in the second stream. And that also means that if you dont have a CGPA of 4 at the end of first stream, you wont get a chance to improve your scores in the second stream and will be asked to leave.




As is obvious, no choice for the second stream. You will have to study what they offer you.

The second stream that you undergo is equivalent to PR201 certificate. You will learn about that after you join. Infosys employees have to appear for a fixed number of certifications every year and this is one of them.

Earlier, you could not bring alcohol in the campus, but now, they have made the rule more strict by stating that noone can even enter the campus when he/she is drunk. As you may be already knowing, you will be asked to leave the hostel if you dont follow this rule. Some people who arrived drunk on 31st Dec have been already made to leave hostel.

Hi friends,

I am now back to home. Enjoying homemade food. Everyone here says i have lost some weight out of the little that i had. Probably because i had skipped many meals at Mysore.

Anyways, i am writing this post to tell you people that this blog will still go on and you will still find content and news about infosys which you wont find anywhere.



I just observed that there has not been a single comment in the last 2 days that i told about my leaving Infosys. Maybe, it is because there are no doubts left. :P

And ya, one important thing. Infosys has now announced that they wont be going to recruit freshers from campuses passing out in 2010. They will call people whom they have already issued offer letters but no more fresh recruits. This is because bench strength is already great at Infosys.

Hi friends,

Yesterday we had a special oppurtunity to interact with our CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan. It was a one hour meeting arranged only for our batch. Maybe it was for our batch because we are about to complete training and are not too busy right now.

In his address, he talked about the global recession and its effect on Infosys. He said that global recession was not anticipated by anyone and it has affected every major MNC. He agreed that there will be a decrease in revenue for our company as the major banks in the US who are our premier clients are undergoing a tough time but he added that we are looking for newer untapped markets.


In the interactive session, the inevitable question popped up. One of my colleagues asked straightforwardly, "Are there going to be any jobcuts?". The quick answer that Kris gave was a clear "No" which was applauded by all in the hall. He said that "Recession is predicted to get over by 2009 so there is no change in hiring plans till then. We would only consider jobcuts if the recession goes furthur till 2010. Mostly trainees are put on bench right now but we are hiring for the long term".

So people from 2008 and 2009 batches dont need to worry.

He also spoke about letting Axon go to HCL. He said, "We made a bid which we thought to be a proper price for Axon. But after HCL placed a counterbid, we re-evaluated Axon and thought that it is not worth raising the earlier bid. So there was no counterbid placed and Axon went to HCL". He added that they have a large cash reserve of $ 2 billion are still looking for aquisitions in US, Europe, Japan etc.

Its really sad to convey this news: one trainee who went to Kerala for a trip with friends on Saturday drowned in a strong stream of river water.

He used to sit just 2 seats behind me in class. He went with his group for a trip on saturday morning when i left with my friends for Coorg.



On monday morning we got the sad news of his being expired in hospital. There was one more girl with him who is in critical condition right now in the hospital. They all are from Goa and went to Kerala in a group of about 15-20.

The reason reported is that the boy tried to save the girl who was drowning. The boy knew swimming but could not save himself from the strong stream. I am not asking anything to get the details because all their remaining friends are in a shock and do not talk much even among themselves.

I am re-publishing Mr. Basant Patel's comment as a post as it contains a message that needs to be spread. Please read the full post...


Basant
October 11, 2008 12:19 PM

Dear Chetan

Following tragic death of Pooja Patel, my beloved daughter in an unfortunate incident at Infosys campus in Mysore on 5th October, 2008, there has been many press reports, news items and comments. Most of them have several factual inaccuracies and few of them are even reputation damaging. As a father, I feel it necessary to set the facts correct particularly for those already in Campus or are likely to join there and their parents. While waiting for joining, Pooja used to follow your blogs regularly (I am told most do the same), I feel this place as a right platform for my purpose.



We are Gujaratis and settled in Bhubaneswar and I am a well paid Senior Executive. All along Pooja was excellent in academics and never scored less than 65% in any exam through out her career. She passed engineering with CGPA of 8.5. Right from her 3rd sem she was determined to work in Infosys. In her life, she was intelligent, sensitive and jolly girl, of course little on the stronger side on her determination to achieve anything she desired. In our family and friends she was indeed a role model. We are a very liberal family where we shared everything and were more like friends.

To best of my knowledge, she was extremely happy being at Infosys, Mysore. Since 7th September when I dropped her at Mysore, she was in touch with me and my family daily and used to share her experiences. At no point of time she ever expressed being unhappy there or any other problems including personal issues, if any. She told us about the marketing she did in Mysore town on 2nd October, Garba-Dandia Raas (her favourite) on 3rd and the project assignment she did with her group on 4th night. My last talk with her was on 5th morning (11.25 AM) and she appeared absolutely fine.

She had told me about her getting A+ grades in 3 assignments/modules that she had completed so far (later confirmed by Infosys HR also) and was determined to get ultimate score of around 5 in her generic training. In Campus, she shared room with her college mate who was also her group mate in Infy class.

Till date we are at a loss to understand the incident and the reasons. That she has not left any note, mail, sms or has not shared anything with us or her room mate, has compounded the problem making us to speculate. I was in Mysore on 6th and 7th and have met several people but yet to find the reason of incident or her taking such a drastic step. I believe both police & Infosys are trying to find the answers. Infy Campus is indeed a highly secured place for any foul play to happen.

Infosys people including M. Nayar Head-Centre did the best to share my grief and extended assistance to complete cremation formalities.

Let us pray Almighty for peace to the departed soul.

Basant Patel
Basant.Patel@gmail.com

I have asked some friends and it turns out that the news of suicide turns out to be true.

I searched for her id today and found out that her name is Pooja Patel and not Puja Patil as mentioned on the starofmysore.com site.

She lived in building 34 / room no. 110 and i have a friend living in 34/108 who knew her and used to talk to her.

She was from Jharkhand as the news article on the site says but my friend said that she was from Bhubaneshwar.




Her DOJ was 8th Sept. So they had just 2 tests till now and so maybe just 1 retest and so the chances of her committing suicide due to pressure of training are zero. My guess is she felt very home sick but that's just a guess.

The shocking thing about the whole incident is that Infosys management is not even acknowledging the fact that it happened. Everything is going on as usual and no 2 mins silence.

Even the bulletin board has been taken offline which they say is for maintenance purposes but i think they have done it so that the incident is not discussed among us.

Holographic mobile phones may be on the way in the not too distant future, as an Indian company is promising holographic handsets within two years. Infosys is a large technology company in India, and they are apparently developing mobile phones which are capable of capturing, projecting and sending 3D image, in essence a holograph.

According to Infosys, “by the year 2010 the mobile phones will “routinely” beam 3D films, games, and virtual goods, and will have particular applications in the business world helping accident investigators, teachers and doctors.”



These new holographic projecting mobile phones will incorporate a powerful processor which will take a 2D image and then create 3D holograms by way of using “Fourier” algorithms to give them a third dimension without resolution loss.

The patent, which was granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office, says “this allows complex 3D holographic images to be squeezed through the narrow pipes of existing communications networks, by sending only the unprocessed data to be translated into the 3D hologram at the other end.”

An Infosys spokesperson said: “Holographic handsets have the capability of enriching the user experience, with an actual 3D experience and higher-quality images. This gives users a more realistic experience in areas like gaming, medicine, movies etc”.

Wow, beam me up Scotty, what next will the mobile phone boffins come up with? Sounds ultra-cool though!

In what will be the first such comprehensive exercise in the IT industry, all the 91,000-odd employees of India's second-largest IT services provider, Infosys Technologies, will now have to pass certification programmes to get promoted.



The certification programme, conducted every March, is now being extended across the board and will test the employees' domain expertise, and grade them accordingly to be eligible for promotion.



Nandita Gurjar, V-P and group head (HRD), Infosys, said: "We took a re-look at our performance structure, and decided that this year onwards, we will have various training certifications for our employees. Those who qualify for these certification benchmarks will be considered for higher and complex jobs."



The Bangalore-based IT firm also has a bottom performance plan, according to which the poor performers are given a chance to improve their skills. "But if we see no improvement, despite all measures, we will let go of the employees," said Gurjar.



She confirmed that some employees were asked to leave on these grounds, but declined to put a figure to it.



Incidentally, this calendar year, there were reports of IBM laying off 500 to 600 freshers, and working on ways to certify the skill levels of its employees.



Besides, 500 people were asked to resign from India's largest IT services provider, TCS. Yahoo! India, too, reportedly told 45 full-time employees across all levels to quit on these grounds. All these IT firms said it was part of a routine annual 'trimming' process.



Meanwhile, the perceived slowdown in the US economy has hit Infosys Technologies' hiring plans this year, as it did with those of most IT firms. Gurjar reiterated that the IT bellwether is expected to hire 25,000 people in FY09 -- 7,000 less than what it did last year -- but is keen on utilising its existing manpower resources by its employee performance management system.



She added, though, "if the US economy shows signs of revival and thereby if there are projects in hand, we might look at hiring more."



Of the 25,000-strong recruitment planned, 18,000 offers have already been made to engineering campuses. Typically, 70 to 75 per cent of the offers convert into recruitment. About 3,500 candidates are currently undergoing training at Mysore, where the company's training institute is headquartered, and will come into delivery in the first quarter of the current fiscal.



The company is already investing about Rs 700 crore each year towards training its employees. TV Mohandas Pai, member of the board, Infosys says: "This year, there might be a 20 per cent rise in investment in educating and training employees."



The company is also hiring 145 employees from US college campuses and about 25 from UK campuses. "We have already started training of foreign recruits and are talking with several universities in the UK where we will work with faculty and design curriculum suitable for the IT industry," confirmed Pai. Infosys has an attrition rate of 13.4 per cent.



Infosys has recruited 15 Indian Institute of Management (IIM) graduates this financial year compared to 20 last year. The salaries range between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 17 lakh a year.



However, to prevent the poaching of IIM graduates by banks and financial institutions, these recruits will be primarily asked to handle sales where they are likely to get onsite placements and incentives like performance bonuses. Earlier, IIM graduates at Infosys were allocated functions like management, marketing and technology services.


Read the original article at: http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/may/22infy.htm

Indian outsourcing companies top the list of companies who utilizes the H-1B visa program to bring foreign workers to the U.S.

Data released by the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services show that offshore outsourcing firms, from India, dominate the list of companies awarded H-1B visas in 2007. Indian companies accounted for nearly 80% of the visa petitions approved in 2007.

Infosys Technologies and Wipro, topped the list of visa beneficiaries in 2007, with 4,559 and 2,567 approved visa petitions respectively. Infosys has about 9,000 workers in the U.S., including 7,500 on H-1B visas. Infosys has 88,000 workers worldwide.

Microsoft received 959 visa petition approvals and Intel got 369 approvals in 2007. Microsoft and Intel are the only two U.S. tech companies among the top 10. 6 out of top 10 visa recipients in 2007 are based in India.

U.S. workers oppose any increase in the H1B cap, Bill Gates certainly want to get rid of the H1B cap and Tech companies wants more visas so the U.S. can attract top talent.

Bill Gates is scheduled to testify in US Capitol Hill on Mar. 12 about how to keep the country competitive and attract top talent in US soil. He is expected to repeat the points he made a year ago in Congress to increase the H1B cap.

Thiruvananthapuram: The Indian IT industry should leverage its strengths to gain better visibility and expand its operations in the global arena, Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan said here on Saturday. He was speaking on ‘IT Vision 2020’ at the valedictory function of the Kerala IT.Com 2008 at the Technopark campus. Mr. Gopalakrishnan said India accounted for a fraction of the $1.3 trillion global IT industry. “We must gain more prominence globally and contribute more, which is definitely possible,” he said. Lauding Kerala for its initiatives in the sector, he said the State had become one of the most sought- after IT destinations in India.

“The Indian IT industry works on a few conducive factors like cost advantage, demographic advantage, IT-viable ecosystem, and quick adoption to latest technology. We can use these advantages for some more years but then the dynamics of the industry will change. Therefore it is imperative that India uses this period to plan and get ready for the real action,” he said. Highlighting the main areas that the country needed to become a major IT force, he called for policy initiatives for the development of infrastructure including integrated townships. Delivering the valedictory address, Minister for Law M. Vijayakumar said Thiruvananthapuram was poised to become the IT corridor of Kerala.

Mr. Vijayakumar revealed that the government was planning the third phase of expansion of Technopark on 100 acres of acquired land. The government is also acquiring 500 acres near Technopark for the Technocity project, he added.