Undeterred by the economic downturn and lower sales volume, state-owned banks and India's largest Insurer, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) have initiated steps for recruitment of around 45,000 people this fiscal. LIC plans to strengthen its workforce by hiring 10,000 people by March, LIC's Managing Director, A K Dasguptha said. "Slow down in the market will not pose any hurdles for LIC to strengthen our team as the corporation is on an ambitious expansion mode. Nearly 10,000 professionals will be recruited by the end of this fiscal," Dasgupta said in Mumbai. The insurance major, which has a 78 per cent market share in terms of total premium, has already kicked off the recruitment process, to give more teeth to its marketing force. The corporation plans to induct around 5,000 professionals in its marketing, while the remaining will be placed in its administrative divisions, Gupta said. Similarly, the biggest lender in the country, State Bank has started head-hunt to support its fast expanding network by planning to hire about 20,000 clerical staff and around 5,000 supervisory staff by the fiscal-end, the bank said. Other major public sector banks, which have huge hiring plans include Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank and Bank of India. Union Bank has plans to recruit 5,000 people in the next five months that would fill the shortage of officals in around 500 of its new branches, its Chairman and MD, M V Nair said adding the lender has plans to hire around 4,000 officers and 1,000 clerical staff this fiscal. PSUs have embarked upon a hiring spree at a time when even leading private and foreign bankers are realigning their divisions and cutting down staff strength to face the difficult times. HSBC announced 193 job cuts in its consumer assets business and redeployed around 620 others recently. Other leading public sector lenders, Bank of India (BoI) and Bank of Baroda (BoB) too are going ahead with their recruitment plans despite the slow down in economy and adverse conditions in the banking sector. Bank of India will hire around 1,737 people this fiscal itself to man its expanding network. This include 500 officers, 500 clerical staff and 237 specialist officers in the next three to four months, a BOI official said. "This is an ongoing process and we would continue to hire more people in the next few months. This would include the recruitments of 237 specialist officers," the official said. Bank of Baroda is readying to enhance its staff-strength by March with an addition of 1,950 people including 1,000 clerical staff. Chennai headquartered state-owned lender, Indian Overseas Bank plans to scale up its staff strength by March by adding 1,000 clerical staff and 200 probationary officers.
