HR News: 06 Nov, 2017

1.

Quikr acquires Babajob, the blue collar job listing company

Quikr already has a large base of 8 million active job seekers.

Quikr India has acquired the blue collar job listing company Babajob in a share swap deal to strengthen its position in the blue collar job segment. This acquisition will make Quikr the leading blue collar job listing company in the industry, helping entry level professionals, drivers, call centre professionals  and others. 
Quikr has been on an acquisition spree to strengthen its position in the real estate, jobs, automobiles and services industries. So far it has acquired 11 small startups. Hiree was its first acquisition in the online job marketplace. 
Quikr already has a large base of 8 million active job seekers, where around 2 lakh job applications are seen per day. This acquisition will add a further 7 million job seekers and 4,50,000 employers to its database. 

2.

Air India staff now supports privatisation but seeks salary dues

The pilots have asked the airline to clear long due salary arrears before the move.

In a course correction move, Air India is looking at privatisation for the company that has been bearing losses and debts for quite a while now. With that, the staff has also been on a roller coaster ride, as those who offered to sacrifice their allowances and bonuses only a few days back hoping to help the public carrier, are now seeking positivity in the decision to privatise the company. At the same time, the pilots have asked the airline to clear its long due salary arrears before the move.
Back in 2012, Air India had resorted to salary cuts, owing to financial difficulties. The arrears have been due since then. The arrears to be paid to the 27,000-odd staff of Air India that includes pilots and cabin crew are amounting to around Rs 1,200 crore, out of which about Rs 400 crore is apparently due for pilots.
When Ashwani Lohani took over as the CMD of the ailing carrier nearly two years ago, he had assured that all pending dues would be paid in a phased manner. However, there hasn’t been much progress on that front. Now, as the government looks at privatisation and other options to revive the airline, pilots want the salary dues to be cleared first before any decision is taken at the highest level amid uncertainty over the future course of action.

3.

HDFC Bank launches centre for training and counselling of youth

The bank has partnered with different organizations to provide counselling services and training.

HDFC Bank has launched a training centre in Nagpur to provide necessary training and skill to youths, so that they become job-ready.

More than 13,000 youths from Nagpur and Bhandara will undergo skill training and career counselling at the centre. The bank will also help in finding relevant employment opportunities in retail, apparel, tourism and hospitality sectors for more than 3,000 youths.
The focus is to help the youth from rural areas to be job ready with relevant skills.

More than 12 million people join the workforce every year, but the skill training capacity of the country is just 4 million. Lack of necessary skills and training is producing unproductive youth workforce. The country needs to invest in skilling the workforce to see the desired economic growth.
Nusrat Pathan, head of corporate social responsibility, HDFC Bank, said, “As a socially responsible corporate, with the launch of our training centre in Nagpur, we aim to make more youth job-ready by counselling them on career opportunities and providing skills training needed for employment. This will enhance the employability of the youth to help them get meaningful employment opportunities. This in turn will further allow the nation to leverage the young population that India has. The initiative is in line with one of our core values–sustainability–where the objective is to create sustainable communities.”