NAGPUR: Seven policemen were on Sunday killed and two others injured when Maoists carried out a landmine blast in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district.

The incident occurred at 9:40 am when the policemen were moving for an operational task in the forest between Pavimuranda and Murmuri villages in Chamorshi taluka of the district.

Officials said the slain security personnel belong to the specialised C-60 anti-Naxal operations force of Maharashtra and the blast took place when their vehicle was moving along the Murmuri-Chamuri axis of the district.

"We have lost seven of our men in the attack carried out by Naxalites. The incident occurred in Gadchiroli," a senior police officer said.

The injured have been airlifted to Nagpur while additional reinforcements of security personnel have been sent, they said.

After the landmine blast, there was an exchange of fire between the police and Maoists.

Firing is still going on in the forest area, the police said. — PTI

MUMBAI: Infosys Ltd, once a bellwether for India's $100 billion-plus IT outsourcing industry, is losing its cachet as the employer of choice for a generation of young IT workers, with staff leaving at an unprecedented pace as the Bangalore-based company struggles to regain ground lost to rivals.

Current and former Infosys staff interviewed by Reuters say morale has been dented by a series of senior management exits and worries about career prospects as the company's revenue and pay increases grow at a slower rate than at competitors such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS).

Annual revenue in the year to end-March rose 24.2 per cent, lagging growth of 29.9 per cent at TCS.

The annualised rate of attrition at Infosys — effectively the number of staff leaving or retiring — was a record 18.7 per cent at end-March, 2.4 percentage points higher than a year earlier. That's close to a fifth of the company's workforce of more than 1,60,000. The attrition rate at market leader TCS was 11.3 per cent.

India's outsourcing services industry has relied for years on an army of engineering graduates to build so-called "bench strength", key to winning new contracts in an increasingly competitive industry. A strong "bench" signals to prospective clients that the firm can assign enough technicians to new projects. That signal is weaker when the number of staff quitting a company rises to uncomfortable levels. It also does little to attract new hires in the close-knit IT world.

"We were all excited when we joined Infy," said Sandeep Chaudhary, who last month quit Infosys after two years to go and work at a rival. "It has the best training and campus, but the company fails to utilize the training it gives its employees."

Infosys announced an average 6-7 per cent pay rise last month for India-based staff, below the average 10 per cent raise at TCS. Third-ranked Wipro Ltd said it plans raises of 6-8 per cent from June.

Offering lower pay increases than its rivals could mean attrition levels at Infosys will rise further, UBS wrote in a client note last week. UBS cut its Infosys stock rating to 'Sell' from 'Buy'. "Such high levels of attrition could impact revenue acceleration," it added.

Infosys president Pravin Rao, a leading candidate to take over as CEO when SD Shibulal retires in January, acknowledged that attrition is higher than the 12-13 per cent rate the company is comfortable with.

Rao said Infosys is taking steps to stem the flow of those leaving: restoring regular April pay rises, having more frequent reviews for promotion, fast-tracking promotion for high achievers and increasing the fixed component in paychecks. In the past year, it has also held more 'town hall' meetings and 'jam sessions' where staff can speak informally with management.

"Yes, as a company we're seeing challenges on growth, and when growth does not happen opportunities get limited so attrition rises," Rao said in a phone interview.

He noted Infosys is hiring aggressively in sales, and expected attrition rates would return towards more acceptable levels in the coming quarters. "We're confident that once these changes start sinking in ... and growth comes back, attrition will come down," he said.

"If you lose too many people you have to redeploy them and clients don't like that. I'd say it's the biggest issue at the company right now," Bhavin Shah, CEO of investment bank Equirius Capital, said by phone from Ahmedabad, noting the high levels of attrition made him cautious on Infosys shares.

Infosys was founded in 1981 when seven engineers, including NR Narayana Murthy, pooled $250 — mostly borrowed from their wives. The company's rapid growth kick-started the outsourcing movement in India and coined the term 'to be Bangalore-d'.

New company hires are put on a 23-week training programme regarded as among the best in the industry, and work in a Silicon Valley-style headquarters campus on sprawling grounds, with multi-cuisine food courts and state-of-the-art gymnasiums. Employee stock options helped make some of India's first salaried millionaires.

In recent years, however, Infosys has been criticised for not changing with the times, for being too conservative in chasing new business and, at times, for depending too much on Murthy, which some investors and analysts say has hobbled the development of new leadership.

A revamp, dubbed "Infosys 3.0", aimed to move the company up the value chain but fell short of expectations, prompting the return of Murthy from retirement last June to try to revive its fortunes. But his return, with his son Rohan as his executive assistant, saw at least nine senior executives depart amid a reshuffle of teams and titles. Some Infosys insiders say Murthy's return was aimed at grooming Rohan for the top job, prompting confusion and damaging morale.

"When senior management leaves in bunches, we begin to wonder if it's a sinking ship," said one Bangalore-based software consultant who has worked at Infosys for six years, but who didn't want to be named as company policy doesn't allow staff to speak to the media.

Most of the 18 current and former Infosys employees whom Reuters spoke to declined to be named.

Not everyone at Infosys wants out, and some said they were confident that Murthy's turnaround efforts would succeed. "These are hard times for Infy and a lot of employees are leaving. But I think these measures taken by Mr Murthy are good," said another 6-year Infosys 'veteran', who plans to stay.

Others, however, are looking to move on, and four headhunting firms in Bangalore, India's IT hub, said they had seen a surge in resumes from Infosys staff over the past year.

They did not provide numbers for competitive reasons, but Shreya Bajaj, general manager at MapleCode, noted that most Infosys staff seeking jobs through the agency now would consider moving to a smaller company, something that would not have happened 18 months ago.

"For the last two years, there have been no significant wage hikes, there's saturation in career growth, the company's results have been below market expectations and there's internal strife, with senior guys leaving," she said. "Regular workers are feeling there's not much chance of growth in the company."

Future growth for India's large IT vendors is expected to be driven by infrastructure services and social media, applications (apps) and cloud computing (SMAC) — areas where analysts say Infosys lags rivals such as Cognizant Technology Solutions .

Murthy has said it would take a few years before Infosys gains significant ground in SMAC.

"Infosys is now beginning to focus on these segments, but in the next 2-3 years, we think Infosys' large base in the slower growing applications segments will remain a drag on revenue growth relative to peers," UBS wrote in its note. — Reuters

NEW DELHI: The CBI will form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) soon to probe the Saradha chit fund scam in which investors in West Bengal, Odisha and Assam were allegedly duped of Rs 10,000 crore besides examining the role of market regulators like the SEBI and the RBI.

“We will form the SIT as soon as the legalities in the case are finalised,” CBI director Ranjit Sinha said in New Delhi on Sunday.

Official sources said the SIT is expected to be formed soon.

The Supreme Court ordered a CBI probe on Friday on a PIL and asked the three State police forces to cooperate with the CBI investigation.

The CBI will also look into the role of regulators like the SEBI, authorities under the Companies Act and the RBI as directed by the apex court.

The court in its order had pointed out that there was yet another aspect which relates to the role of the regulatory authorities.

“Investigation conducted so far puts a question mark on the role of regulatory authorities like SEBI, Registrar of Companies and officials of the RBI within whose respective jurisdictions and areas of operation the scam not only took birth but flourished unhindered,” a Bench headed by Justice T.S. Thakur said in its order.

The CBI will be collecting documents from all the State governments pertaining to the scam which has been termed by the Supreme Court as a “sordid affair”.

“Investigation by the state police in a scam that involves thousands of crores collected from the public allegedly because of the patronage of people occupying high positions in the system will hardly carry conviction especially when even the regulators who were expected to prevent or check such a scam appear to have turned a blind eye to what was going on,” the apex court had said.

The Enforcement Directorate is also looking into money laundering violation by the Saradha Group.

The court said that CBI would probe against Saradha and 44 other companies in Odisha which are allegedly involved in the scam.

Saradha Group’s chief Sudipta Sen was arrested by West Bengal Police in Kashmir.

Kunal Kumar Ghosh, a Trinamool Congress MP, was also arrested on November 23, 2013 in connection with the scam.

Ghosh was the media CEO of the Saradha Group. — PTI

Pakistan violates ceasefire along LoC

JAMMU: Pakistani troops again targeted Indian posts along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, drawing retaliation from Indian troops.

This was the fifth ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops in the last fortnight.

“Pakistani troops resorted to firing from small arms on Indian posts along the LoC in Nangi Tekri area of Poonch district from 2230 hours last night,” a defence spokesperson said in Jammu on Sunday.

Troops guarding the borderline fired back resulting in intermittent exchanges of fire, he said, adding, “firing exchanges continued for a brief period till 2245 hours”.

There was no death, injury or damage to anyone on this side of the LoC due to the firing, the spokesperson said.

On May 5, Pakistani troops had violated the ceasefire and resorted to firing from automatic weapons on Indian posts along the LoC in Bhimber Gali area of Rajouri district.

On May 3, Pakistani troops had resorted to firing from small arms and automatic weapons on Indian posts along the LoC in Mendhar in Poonch district.

On April 28, Pakistani troops resorted to firing from small arms and automatic weapons on Indian posts along the LoC in Bhimber Gali in Rajouri district.

Pakistani troops had also violated the ceasefire on April 25 by firing with small arms and mortars on Indian posts in Doda battalion areas along the LoC in Poonch district.

There are inputs that militants have been trying to infiltrate into India and the firing was “probably a ploy to ensure infiltration of terrorists under the cover of firing”, officials said.

There has been two infiltration bids along the LoC in Poonch district in the last one week.

Two militants were killed yesterday when Army foiled an infiltration bid along Line of Control (LoC) in Kalsia belt of Poonch district.

On May 3, troops foiled an infiltration bid along the LoC in Sawjian belt of Poonch district. — PTI