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CHENNAI, Feb. 3

STUDENTS recruited on campus last year by Wipro Technologies, the software export arm of Wipro Ltd, may have to wait for one more year before they can join the company.

The company has sent out a letter to the students indicating that it would revert to them by January 2003 with details of when they can join.

According to a spokesman for the company, "The difficult period and uncertainties for the industry have progressively evolved. We were initially hopeful that the industry would recover and we would not be required to make changes in the normally phased joining of the campus recruits. The current communication has emerged only when the time lines have become clear, and we have communicated this immediately."

Asked how many offers had been made, he said, "We are not in a position to share the exact number of offers we had made. Till date, 310 candidates have come on board from the campus offers made last year. We will be honouring all the pending offers."

However, for waiting candidates, Wipro's letter gives little comfort. Business Line received an e-mail from the parent of one such candidate. It said, "Wipro should have explicitly announced earlier that it would delay the dates till January 2003. The joining date in the case of my son has been postponed from June 2001 to January 2002 and now to January 2003. Now, those students betting on the offer letter are left with few options."

The e-mail adds, "Some students in the class of 2001 have left India for higher studies. Others who preferred a job in India will be acutely embarrassed if they still have offer letters without jobs when their peers return with a master's degree in June 2003, ironically."

In response, the company spokesman said, "Even in the normal situation, the candidates would have joined in a time schedule ranging from 4-12 months. It is surely rough on the students to go through this uncertainty. However, this is a difficult time for the entire industry. Everyone related to the industry, including current and potential employees, will have to share the difficulty and uncertainty. We have encouraged the students to enrol in our online training classes and tutorials, which is free of cost to them. This will ensure their engagement and higher preparedness when they enter the industry. We are committed to honour the offers we have made. This is despite a tough business environment when many companies have had to resort to lay-offs."

He also indicated that Wipro would not be terminating any offer and would be honouring all of them. This year, the company had visited only a few management campuses and had no plans to visit engineering campuses in the immediate future, he added.

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