Bangalore: Two surveys tell two tales

Bangalore: Two surveys tell two tales
HIGH ON CORPORATE SATISFACTION
Deccan Herald

Kolkata, dhns: The Garden City, which is India’s IT capital, has put Mumbai, New Delhi, Chandigarh and Kolkata behind to emerge top on the satisfaction index of top corporate honchos in the country, notwithstanding its increased traffic and power-related problems.

A high-level survey conducted by the Management Association of India (MAI) through an interview of 545 top-notch executives in manufacturing, construction and service sectors has found that Bangalore has excellent work culture and scored over Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai in this regard.

Though Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee might hard-sell the ‘Brand Bengal’ in the domestic market and abroad, Kolkata has ranked the lowest in terms of work culture, responsiveness of bureaucracy, attitude of trade unions, infrastructure and time taken for business transactions and unsolicited political interference in the affairs of private sector.

The Mumbai-based association comprising management experts and senior executives of major corporate houses of India, which undertook the study more than four months ago in Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata and Lucknow among other cities, will release the report early next month.

Cities that have set up a close race with Bangalore are Chandigarh, Mumbai and Pune. According to MAI secretary Satish Nambiar, the senior executives were asked to rate the work culture which include efficiency, productivity, absence from work and willingness to shoulder extra work among other things. A majority of the decision-makers had a strong preference for Bangalore even though they had put Mumbai ahead of it as far as infrastructure was concerned, he said.

Politicians are least interfering in Chandigarh, which is followed by Bangalore and Chennai, while the workers in Bangalore are the most efficient lot followed by those in Chandigarh, Delhi and Pune.

Bangalore has also top-scored in such areas as transaction time, government approval in getting key things done and assistance of the government agency, but it lost to Chandigarh and Delhi in the attitude of trade unions, the study reveals.

Low in employment creation


Bangalore: Karnataka is lagging way behind Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in creating employment opportunities across several industry sectors as it stood seventh in an employment survey conducted by leading HR firm Ma Foi Consultants.

Among the metros, Bangalore, the country’s IT hub, did not figure in the top three places as it was also ranked seventh. Karnataka scored 1.17 on the Ma Foi Employment Index (MEI) for the quarter (April-June 2005), much below the national average 1.28. Bangalore scored marginally better than Karnataka at 1.28.

Tamil Nadu leads the pack with 3.16 on the MEI among the States while Chennai is at the top among the metros with 3.38. Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat are ranked second and third respectively on the MEI. MEI indicates the prospective net percentage growth in employment over the present levels.

Briefing reporters about the employment trends in the country here on Monday, Mr Pandia Rajan K of Ma Foi Consultants said it is surprising to learn that Karnataka and Bangalore have been lowly placed in the survey after coming third in the previous quarter (January-March).

He reasoned that though Karnataka is strong in IT and ITES sectors, it is not a strong base for several other sectors. Also, the infrastructure concerns might have pushed companies for alternative locations, he observed.

The pace of recruitment during the April-June 2005 quarter is likely to slow down when compared to the previous quarter (January-March). Mr Rajan said this is due to general slowdown in employment trends across the country in the backdrop of financial year-end and also because hiring plans have not yet being firmed up by the companies.

As many as 2047 respondents, covered in the survey spread across 17 sectors, are altogether looking at creating about 31,878 jobs in the quarter. Compared to last quarter employment projects have gone down considerably and the drop is close to 47,000 in absolute numbers.

Hiring plans continues to be strong in telecom sector, occupying the top slot, followed by IT and ITES industries.