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MOTLEY COLLECTION OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC NEWS |
 Mittal mega moves
Steel chairman L.N. Mittal, seemingly on a thanksgiving mission to India after clinching the deal to merge with rival Arcelor, announced a 12-million-tonne steel project worth Rs 40,000 crore in Orissa, and a $6 billion investment plan with state-owned ONGC Videsh in Nigeria.
However, his project in Jharkhand, announced last October, may be in jeopardy. A statement from Mittal Steel said, "There have been unexpected delays in the development of Mittal Steel's proposed 12-million-tonne greenfield steel-making and mining plant (in Jharkhand). As such, the company is exploring other potential opportunities".
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 Malaysia Bets Big on Shopping Tourism
According to the Malaysia tourism Promotion Board, the Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival 2006 will be held from July 23 to September 3, 2006. This signifies a six week-long spree of bargains and discounts for a wide range of goods and products ranging from sophisticated high-tech equipment and haute couture to cosmetics and unique knick-knacks.
Currently, there are about 220 shopping centres in Malaysia with gross floor areas ranging between 80,0000 to 3,000,000 sq ft, offering speciality product ranges of national, regional and international brands. The Mega Sale carnival has been a significant contributor to the country's economy as in 2004-05, tourist inflow from India increased by a significant 26 per cent during the Mega Sale months.
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 Infy plans to hire big
Infosys Technologies, which employs over 52,700 people, will hire 25,000 people this year. Says T.V. Mohandas Pai, head of HR, "These numbers have come up because the industry is growing at a very rapid pace and globalising. As we grow at this pace and globalise we need to have a more global work force," he says. Infosys has started many initiatives. In the US it is hiring 300 undergrads. The first 100 would be joining us in July-August and getting trained at the Mysore campus. In the UK, as an experiment, it is going to hire 25 people from colleges by the end of this year.
But there could be alarm bells in the future. Pai says India produces 495,000 engineering graduates from 1,450 engineering colleges and of them around 200,000 to 225,000 are of acceptable quality. A large number of them are in the south of the country, which is also where you see the IT industry growing. "But we are talking about a situation two-three years from now when the demand will have increased and that is indeed going to be challenging," says Pai.
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August 2006
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