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MUMBAI, April 15

HIRING time is on for Corporate India if the Business Expectation Survey conducted by Dun & Bradstreet Information Services is to be believed.

"Cutting across segments firms in general expect to recruit more in the April-June 2003 quarter compared to the past. Neither war, nor the economic impact of it has dented the hiring plans of Corporate India," said the survey conducted in India for April-June 2003.

Twenty nine per cent of the firms surveyed expect to add people while 64 per cent expect no addition, only a marginal five per cent plan to retrench. The Optimism Index for employees is at 24 per cent touching an all-time high since the inception of the survey in the country.

The survey takes as sample, randomly selected companies from several sectors including basic, capital goods, consumer durables, consumer non-durables and service sectors.

However, the Composite Business Optimism Index has remained virtually unchanged at 119 from 118.6 in the previous quarter. Five of the six optimism indices, namely net sales, net profits, selling price, new orders and inventory levels declined marginally compared to the previous quarter with the employment index being the only one to indicate improvement.

The Business Expectation Survey was conducted in March 2003, when there was uncertainty in the economy because of Iraq war. However, as the Indian economy is relatively insulated from this development, the economic numbers were still showing resilience, said a release.

An observation made by the survey was that the domestic business community expects to reap benefits from the recent trend of rising prices. The widespread apprehension that the US-Iraq conflict would fuel further inflation primarily through the route of oil prices has led more people to believe that the price rise would impact other commodities as well.

According to the survey, 27 per cent expect to charge more, majority of 60 per cent expect no change in their selling prices, whereas 13 per cent expect their products to sell for less.

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