Infosys to hire 20,000 freshers from campuses

Software major Infosys would hire about 20,000 graduates from university and college campuses across the country in 2015-16 as freshers, a senior company official said on Monday.

"We will recruit about 20,000 graduates from education campuses across the country during this quarter and train them at our Mysuru institute for five months," Infosys chief operating officer U.B. Pravin Rao told reporters here.

The company will pay Rs.3.5 lakh per annum to freshers during training and absorb them on merits as per its requirements.

"We have also increased monthly stipend for interns to Rs.10,000 from Rs.4,000 in a bid attract best talent and retain them," Rao said at a briefing on the outsourcing firm's financial results for second quarter of this fiscal.

Asserting that attrition had declined, he said on standalone basis, it reduced to 14.1 percent in second quarter from 21 percent in like period year ago and 14.2 percent quarter ago in the parent company, which has majority of software professionals.

On consolidated bases, including subsidiaries worldwide, attrition declined to 19.9 percent by September-end from 24.8 percent in same period year ago and 19.2 percent quarter ago.

"Attrition is no longer an issue in the company as it is under control and it is at the industry level on average," Rao said.

Though the company and its subsidiaries worldwide added 17,595 employees in the quarter under review, exit of 9,142 techies led to net addition being 8,453 and total headcount to 187,976 from 179,523 quarter ago and 165,411 year ago.

Gross addition was 11,889 quarter ago and 14,255 year ago and net addition was 3,336 quarter ago and 4,127 year ago.

Lateral addition, however, has gone up to 7,452 in Q2 from 5,886 quarter ago and 4,774 year ago.

On the sudden resignation of chief financial officer (CFO) Rajiv Bansal and its acceptance with immediate effect, chief executive Vishal Sikka said it was a personal decision and normal in any company.

"In course of life of an individual or a company, people joining and leaving are normal and happen naturally as in my case when I left (German software major) SAP after a decade there. Bansal is leaving for better opportunities and wants to do something on his own," he said, playing down the exit.

Company's head of strategic operations M.D. Ranganath will be the new CFO from Tuesday though Bansal will continue as an advisor to Sikka and the board till December 31 for a smooth transition.