BT Group Cutting 10,000 Jobs

LONDON -- BT Group PLC last week said it is laying off 10,000 people as part of an effort to improve the profitability of its services business.

The telecommunications operator said that 4,000 jobs have already been cut and that the remaining 6,000 workers will be let go by March 31.

In its latest quarter, BT reported that its revenue rose 4% to £5.3 billion ($7.8 billion U.S.), while its profit declined 1% to £744 million ($1.1 billion).

Increased costs hurt BT's Global Services business, whose profits declined 8% to £611 million ($903 million) during the period. The unit's sales came in at £2.1 billion ($3.1 billion), up from £1.9 billion ($2.8 billion) a year earlier.

-- Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service

Nasscom Expects Hiring Slowdown

NEW DELHI -- India's National Association of Software and Service Companies has slashed its job growth projections for the country's IT services and call center industry for the Indian government's fiscal year, which ends March 31.

Nasscom Chairman Ganesh Natarajan last week said that in light of the global economic crisis, the group now expects the industry to hire about 200,000 people during the period, down significantly from its previous projection of 276,000.

Nasscom plans to review its projections next month.

-- John Ribeiro, IDG News Service

Briefly Noted

Looking to offset a shortage of researchers in India, IBM's India Research Laboratory this month unveiled an initiative called the Blue Scholar Program. The program is intended to provide internships to encourage Indian computer science graduates to take up research as a career.

-- John Ribeiro, IDG News Service

This collection of international IT news briefs originally appeared in Computerworld 's print edition.