Many global, small and big companies are hiring in thousands across India. Post the pandemic, demand has surged for talent from science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) background. Cities such as Hyderabad and Bengaluru are considered hubs for talent in this area.
HCL
HCL Technologies will be expanding the workforce at its Nagpur Centre, where it started operations back in 2018. Within four years, the Company has employed more than 3500 people at this 140 acre campus in the city. In this current expansion drive, HCL plans to increase the headcount of the Centre to 5000 employees.
More than 80 per cent of the workforce at the Centre comprises local talent. The Company consciously wanted to generate employment for the youth of Nagpur, for which it organised campaigns such as #ComeBackHome and #StayRooted. Through these campaigns, HCL was able to witness tech talent from urban cities such as Pune and Mumbai moving to Nagpur.
“Nagpur is an important strategic centre for HCL Technologies, and it continues to add significant growth to our delivery capabilities to 70+ global clients across different businesses,” admits Apparao VV, CHRO, HCL Technologies.
“HCL Technologies’ New Vistas provides talent in India with innovative opportunities and platforms that will empower them with the necessary skills needed to play crucial roles in the technology landscape,” says Apparao.
The HCL Nagpur centre is in sync with HCL’s philosophy to create and operate a state-of-the-art global IT development centre. Through this centre, HCL will recruit, train and employ local talent and create sustainable ecosystems for them. HCL Nagpur focuses on engineering and R&D services (ERS), application development, and infrastructure management services.
Other than creating and bringing back home talent with this campus, HCL Technologies has also taken initiatives across the globe to promote the culture and heritage of Nagpur through HCL concerts. Under its various flagship programmes, through the HCL Foundation, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of HCL Technologies, the Company works with schools in Nagpur to set up science labs and has launched a bus to bring ‘knowledge on wheels’.
EY
Earnst & Young is planning to hire about 25000 employees globally in its tax department. Additionally, the Company is also planning to hire another 6000 professionals in its global delivery-services team (GDS) across various countries around the world, including India. Being the global delivery network unit of EY, GDS collaborates with the Company’s teams — for various projects in Argentina, China, India, the Philippines, Poland and the United States — from all EY service lines.
Ashutosh Rathor, global tax leader, EY Global Delivery Services, revealed this development in an exclusive interview with Business Insider India.
He also shared that about 80 per cent of the hiring will be done in India and the remaining 20 per cent around the world. For its tax department, the Company is looking for skills in income tax, corporate tax, indirect tax, individual tax, structuring and planning as well as legally managed services. Additionally, candidates possessing knowledge of at least one foreign language such as French, German, and Italian will be preferred as they would be expected to collaborate with global teams.
Open to hiring a mix of experienced tax professionals coupled with freshers, EY has launched a freshers’ competition, ‘EY Young Tax Professional of the Year’, to give opportunities to young professionals who are looking to start their careers as tax professionals.
Airbus
Airbus, the global manufacturer of aerospace products, is in the midst of ramping up hiring of 500 engineers in India at its Bengaluru centre, as shared with the media by Sabine Klauke, chief technical officer, Airbus.
Currently, Airbus employs about 1,500 engineers at its Bengaluru centre and the company plans to take this number to 2000 by the end of this year.
Airbus is in the midst of building what it is calling the world’s first Zero Emission Commercial aircraft called ZEROe. As per the Company, the team of engineers in India is playing a crucial part in this development, supporting global teams.
As per Klauke, Airbus is working on three different configurations for the ZEROe. One is a turbofan design with 200 passengers powered by hydrogen rather than jet fuel with a range of 2000 nautical miles. The second is a 100 passenger turbofan with a range of 1000 nautical miles powered by hydrogen combustion. The third is a blended-wing body that opens multiple options for hydrogen storage and distribution.
As per the Company, the Bengaluru centre is working on different parts of these configurations. Further, the Company shares that the focus is on building in-house competencies and having the right partnerships. For tech work, the Company aims for 75 per cent of the work to be done in-house.
Swiss Re
Swiss Re Global Business Solutions (GBS) India, the analytical and innovation hub of Swiss Re is launching a new centre in Hyderabad in the month of September 2022. Swiss Re established its first centre in India in 2001 in Bengaluru. Without revealing any numbers, the Company has said that it is looking to hire talent with skills such as data science, engineering, among other diverse skilled streams. Hiring will be done in both the locations of the Company.
“Swiss Re GBS India’s capabilities enable the company to deliver quality re/insurance services and solutions. With its significant data, digital and tech talent pool, Hyderabad creates new opportunities that complement our existing hub in Bangalore. We look forward to welcoming new talent from the Telangana region, as we shape the future of re/insurance through data insights and innovative insurtech solutions,” says Amit Kalra, head Global Business Solutions Centre India.
Swiss Re GBS India has built strong foundations as a centre of excellence across the entire business value chain. As the third largest office location for Swiss Re Group, it operates as a centre of excellence with a focus on innovation, driving business impact and building global expertise/capabilities.
CoinSwitch Kuber
CoinSwitch Kuber, a crypto trading platform, has announced that it will be doubling its headcount by hiring another 500 professionals. As part of this hiring spree, the Company is planning to triple its engineering team to 300 professionals. Apart from this, the Company is looking to ramp up its hiring in areas such as information security, product and analytics across geographies.
Other players in the same domain have also announced in the month of April that they will be focusing on doubling their workforce as well.
Between January 2021 and January 2022, CoinSwitch Kuber grew from a 40-member team to a 500-strong workforce. Now, the Company plans to hire 500 more as part of its efforts to build the first Web3 teams in India. Though India is a talent-rich country, the Company seeks talent in the space of blockchain, which is pretty niche in India.
The Company has also completed some of its major leadership hirings recently, which includes Ashish Chandra as general counsel. Chandra has worked in companies such as WhatsApp and Netflix. Krishna Hegde was appointed SVP- new initiatives. He moved from Paytm. Sarmad Nazki was appointed CFO and Jayram Krishna as VP for products.
Grid Dynamic
Grid Dynamics, a global analytics and digital transformation solutions provider has set its course to set up its India operations in the city of Hyderabad, where the Company plans to hire 1000 employees majorly in the field of engineering.
The Company acknowledges that Hyderabad is a great location to set up its new operations in India, giving it access to aconcentration of skilled talent, modern collaborative workspaces and data and engineering specialists.
The hiring goals of the Company will be achieved through multiple paths such as build-operate-transfer (BOT) that deals with selected partners, direct hiring and potential merger and acquisition activities.
Appventurez
Appventurez, a mobile application development company, plans to employ over 500 engineers and digital technology experts specialising in low-code and no-code app development this fiscal year. This is a 100 per cent increase from its current team size of 250.
By employing significantly more developers, the company aims to expand its technological capabilities and build disruptive applications to meet the distinct requirements of businesses. The talent pool will be widened to include India and the Netherlands. A significant portion of the new hires will be for the Company’s newly opened office in Lucknow, in Uttar Pradesh, India.
“Businesses have realised that they must seize the opportunities provided by low-code platforms in order to accelerate their digital transformation and remain competitive in a competitive market. As a result, we’re working to develop new digital-driven business capabilities that will help us achieve high performance and long-term value,” says Ajay Kumar, co-founder, Appventurez.