In the first six months of this year itself, Yahoo! has added more than 1,000 employees for its India operations and further 500 people could be added to its headcount through the year, Yahoo! India spokesperson told PTI.     

At the start of this year, the company had about 1,200 people on its rolls in India, which has now grown to close to 2,200 employees.     

"On an average, we are recruiting about 60-80 new employees every month since the start of this year and expect to continue the trend till the end of 2008," the official said.     

Going by this average, the total strength could be between 2,500-2,700 employees by the end of 2008.     

"We are upbeat on Yahoo!'s India operations," the official said, adding, as the company is "pretty aggressive" when it comes to recruitment in India and the operations are being diversified to reach more number of internet users.     

However, globally the picture seems to be gloomy for the search major with many top ranking executives reported to have exited the company.     

Earlier this year, Yahoo! had announced that it would globally cut down about 1,000 jobs, while in recent weeks, US media reports have said that a number of top level executives of Yahoo! are leaving and the pace has further increased following the failed takeover attempt by software giant Microsoft.     

Many of the executives, including senior vice-president of Yahoo!'s search group Vish Makhijani, are reported to have left the firm.