Though the New Year started with much optimism regarding hiring activity, India Inc still remains cautious about hiring. In December 2009, hiring activity saw a drop of 6 percent compared to November due to year-end holiday season. Companies remain cautious about hiring even this quarter (January-March), though the employment outlook index for the January to March period is estimated to be at 47 index points, 1 percent higher than the previous year.

According to Vice-President Rajesh, TeamLease Services, a leading staffing firm, said that “Hiring sentiments have marginally improved this quarter, in line with the Industry’s positive outlook. Our estimates show that there would be a leap of faith during this current quarter and trends will not just hold out, they will be bolder and result in higher employment gains. That said, employers are cautious and are placing stronger emphasis on skill-gap and employability. It must be noted that the intention to hire is still weak this time around. The jitters have been shaken off, however, and the numbers are now likely to ramp up steadily.”

IT companies have started hiring employees after a year of flat growth. The intention for hiring is increased for marketing and customer service levels and not much on managerial positions. According to the survey done by TeamLease, there has been a rise in employment outlook index points of all cities except Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Ahmadabad. And hiring sentiments is on the rise across most of the sectors except financial and pharmaceutical sector.

The central bank’s eagerly awaited policy review scheduled for tomorrow has managed to pull the markets down for the sixth session in a row. The steady slide was broken today with a commendable jump amidst optimism.

The market remained volatile from the fag end of last week due to a combination of bad news. Below-par quarterly results of corporates influenced the market in a big way. The colossus of the construction industry, Larson & Toubro had earlier declared a drop in revenue.

These just point to the delicate constitution of the Indian stock market, which can crumble like cookies even with mild pressure. It has to be remembered that it is this same market that rallied consistently last year to recoup the ground it lost to global recession.

The stock market displayed the same fickleness when it rose today based on the landslide-profit report of DLF Ltd., the country’s largest developer. Software exporting companies like Wipro Ltd also posted gains, as dollar strengthened.

The Reserve Bank of India is expected to initiate strong measures to contain inflation, which is threatening to get out of control. It is expected that the RBI would tighten the monetary policy, which includes hiking bank cash reserve ratio, repo rate and reverse-repo rate. Among these, the central bank may raise one or two and leave the rest untouched. We have to wait and see which ones are being picked up.

Whatever RBI’s moves are, it would be aimed at curtailing inflation and overheating of economy. The direction the Indian economy takes will depend on the rates chosen for the hike.

Indian economy is set to grow at 7 per cent this fiscal despite the global slowdown. Addressing the, “ The Indian Economy: The Outlook 2010 Business Interaction”, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Confederation of British Industries, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said that he hopes to get over 8 percent growth in 2010-11 and 9 per cent in 2011-2012. He further said India would have grown at 9 percent last year if not for the recession.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia also pointed that the India is on the right track and is giving importance on developing infrastructure, including telecommunications, power, railways, road, airports and ports. Government has considerably increased the pace of approval of projects and this should drive foreign investment as India is a good place to invest. Answering a question regarding FDI investment ceiling in the medical insurance sector from 26 percent to 49 percent, Ahluwalia said, “The government is very clear that it should go up to 49 per cent and the issue is before a select committee of Parliament.”

Though war of words between the two main players appeared to abate last week, it has raised its head again. The verbal dual is far from over.

Bill Gates has expressed his views on the ‘complex’ issue. As expected, he has taken a realistic approach on the subject. He said, “The role of the Internet in every country has been very positive, letting people speak out in new ways. And fortunately the Chinese efforts to censor the Internet have been very limited. You know, it is easy to go around it.”

He drew parallels with censorship laws of Germany, where pro-Nazi statements are banned, while it is allowed in the US. “And so you have got to decide do you want to obey the laws of the countries you are in or not. If not, you may not end up doing business there,” Gates said.

A point to ponder for India is how this will affect the country. While some argue that India will be the eventual beneficiary, the arguments are not convincing enough. It is true that India’s laws on intellectual property and corporate governance are much superior to that of China. This may help India garner more attention from the search giant.

One drawback is the huge chasm in the number of internet users of both countries. India can never replace China in terms of market size and revenue. However, India scores well in mobile internet market.

Google realizing the potential has launched an SMS-based Google search. Information regarding train and flight timings to horoscopes and local business listings are available through this service. Also on offer is a voice-based mobile search from Google.

Whether Google remains in China or not, consumer is the ultimate winner.