Chennai, Nov. 16 After staying away from campus recruitments through this academic year, information technology companies are all set to go to colleges to recruit. But job offers for now are going to be restricted to those passing out this year. This follows the commitment that the software companies gave the academic institutions, through their apex body Nasscom, that they would recruit engineering students only in December in their final, or the eighth, semester and not earlier.

With the global economic slowdown not quite yet over and a backlog of students from earlier batches yet to join their rolls, companies have found it logical not to recruit students in the third year or in the first semester of the fourth year, as was the usual practice in the IT boom years. For this year, the process has begun in a small way with companies such as Hewlett Packard’s Research and Development Labs, National Instruments and Texas Instruments recruiting students from campuses. These students will join the rolls of the companies in fiscal 2010-11, said sources. Campus placement will start in full swing from the first week of December when software companies will visit the colleges. The placement will go on till end January, according to placement officers of various colleges. Companies are yet to finalise their campus placement numbers, they say. Infosys took in a total of, including college graduates, about 13,600 in the 2008-09 while about 18,000 are expected to join its rolls this fiscal. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) had made about 24,885 offers to campus recruits who will join through 2009-10.

In a recent interaction with the investment community, Mr Gordon Coburn, Chief Financial and Operating Officer, Cognizant Technology Solutions, said that in the third quarter ended September 2009, the company accelerated both lateral hiring and intake of college graduates. “(For)…college graduates we accelerated to finish out the 2008 class as well as intake of the 2009 class. In a couple of weeks we’ll be on campus starting to recruit for the 2010 class. We have a good pipeline and we are bringing the people on sooner than expected,” he said. Big recruiters such as TCS, Cognizant, Infosys, iNautix and iGate have confirmed their visit from the second week of December, said Mr G. K. Rajesh, Placement Officer, Thyagaraja College of Engineering, Madurai. The college has already placed 25 engineering graduates with top multinational R&D companies. “We have started training our students for placements,” he said. Last year, 753 students were recruited from the college. This year too it is going to be a similar number. Other than software companies, companies such as the TVS group and Titan visit the college, he said.

According to Mr B. T. Maran, Placement Officer at SRM University, Chennai, this year around 130 companies are expected to visit its campus for recruitment, which will start from December 15 and go on till January end. While the dates have not been set, top 25-30 companies have conveyed their interest in recruitment, he said. Last year, 1,240 of its students were placed with various companies, and this year too the number would be the same. Prof Pullabhotla, Director, Placement, Vellore Institute of Technology, said: “There are positive signs with all the top companies talking to us for recruiting our students. However, the exact numbers and dates have not been finalised,” he said.

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Four fielding substitutes instead of the lone 12th man, pink balls in practice matches and abolishing the Icon Player status - these are just some of the innovations proposed in the 2011 edition of the Indian Premier League. From next year, IPL would also be played under the supervision of the ICC Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, while players who skip the tournament despite not having any national assignment might have their contracts terminated.

The decisions came at the end of a franchisee workshop in Bangkok. The proposed expansion of the league with two new teams, however, saw opposition from Team Chennai. ‘‘The addition of two new franchises in Season 4 was discussed and 7 of the 8 present franchises were in favour of increasing the number of teams to ten,’’ said an IPL statement. The Chennai Super Kings and some other team owners have raised an objection to increase in the number of IPL teams from 8 to 10 in 2011.It is further learnt that M S Dhoni, the team’s captain, is one name that India Cements don’t want to let go of among other things. Two new teams being added to the IPL will mean a fresh auction of players, which could eventually not assure India Cements of their prized possession. A top official from Chennai Super Kings said, ‘‘Our representative was there and we took a view of things from our perspective. I cannot say anything more on this.’’

Meanwhile, other franchisees too are tightlipped over the developments. CEO Sundar Raman, while refusing to name the franchisee which had raised an objection, told TOI on Monday, ‘‘There was a quorum to discuss the issue and franchisees deliberated on several aspects. It was not like one team in particular had any objection. The governing council will take the final decision.’’ Till the final decision is taken, speculation is already rife on the new entrants. It is no secret that the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) is interested in buying a team - which they did attempt in 2007 too but failed - and that has already set tongues wagging on how elder brother Mukesh Ambani’s Mumbai Indians will react. Whatever the reason, it is clear that not all eight franchisees are in sync as far as including new teams is concerned.

New rules in play 1. Four fielding substitutes; only 4 overseas players on the field at any point of time 2. Any ball bowled above waist height will be declared a no-ball 3. Pink balls in practice matches 4. Non-availability of players after signing of contracts to be dealt with seriously Player trading window & auction 1. Trading of Players for the 2010 season will be between November 23 to January 5 2. Pakistan players’ participation to be confirmed by PCB through an NOC, and clearance from the Pak government 3. Season 3 auction will be held on January 19, 2010 to bring new players into the league and a fresh purse of $750,000 will available to each franchisee

MUMBAI: The Indian rupee inched higher by 8 paise to 46.13 against the dollar in early trade today, extending gains for the third straight day as the US currency dropped against major units.

Dollar selling by exporters also supported the Indian rupee. At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the local unit edged higher by 8 paise to 46.13 a dollar. Yesterday, the rupee ended 10 paise higher at 46.21/22.

Forex dealers said the US currency's losses against other major currencies and dollar selling by exporters, mainly helped the Indian rupee to strengthen. Besides, firming equity markets also supported the rupee, they said.

The benchmark Sensex had gained 183.68 points in the last session.

WASHINGTON: The African nation of Mauritius has bought two metric tons of gold from the International Monetary Fund for nearly $72 million.

Sale of two metric tons of gold to the Bank of Mauritius, which is the central bank of Mauritius, was conducted on the basis of market prices prevailing on November 11 with proceeds equivalent to $71.7 million, the IMF said.

Early this month, the Reserve Bank of India had announced buying 200 metric tons of gold from the IMF for $6.7 billion.

This transaction is part of the total 403.3 metric tons sales approved by the IMF Executive Board in September and adds to the 200 metric tons already sold to the Reserve Bank of India. The money, thus generated would be used by the IMF to fund projects in Africa and other third world countries.