February 20, 2008 - Salaries are going to be marginally better this year in India — despite the country clocking the highest growth in paychecks globally in 2007.

That's the message coming from the 12th annual salary increase survey conducted by Hewitt Associates, the Illinois, US-headquartered human resources consultant.

In 2007, salaries in India rose the fastest anywhere in the world, by 15.1 per cent. China reported a more moderate rise of 8.6 per cent. Salaries in India had risen 14.4 per cent in 2006 and 14.1 per cent in 2005.

In 2008, Hewitt sees sal-aries rising again by 15.2 per cent, led by big growth in the real estate and infrastructure sectors.

The survey was conducted over a period of six months amongst Asia Pacific countries, including Australia, Malaysia, Japan, and Taiwan, amongst others. In India, nearly 600 companies were surveyed across 19 industries and 22 sub-industries.

"One factor catalysing the increase in salaries is the struggle for attraction and retention of talent," said Sandeep Chaudhary, leader of Hewitt's Rewards Consulting Practice in India. "With new players entering different sectors and companies expanding their bases, pay hikes are seen as a key tool for attracting quality talent and retaining the same," adds Chaudhary.

The real estate sector, which is growing at a rate of approximately 25-30 per cent annually, saw the maximum pay hikes — at an average 25.2 per cent in 2007. Energy (19.0 per cent), retail (17.6 per cent) and telecom at 17.2 per cent followed.

"Realty is currently reeling under a shortage of talent. We are finding it difficult to hire technicians, architects, civil engineers, as also people with backgrounds in finance and marketing," says Kunal Banerji, president, marketing, Ansal Properties and Infrastructure (API).

He said Ansal had kept pace with the market by hiking salaries by about 20 per cent last year. According to Rajnikant Agrawal, chairman of the India chapter of CoreNet Global, an association of corporate real estate and related professionals, the rise in the number of property consultants has also contributed towards a persistent increase in the requirement for chartered accountants and management graduates. "Salaries are seen as a prime measure of retention."

Starting salaries in the real estate sector range from anywhere between Rs 5.5-7 lakh per annum. However, DLF, one of the biggest real estate players in the market, has not effected any pay hikes recently. "There haven't been any hikes at DLF till now. However our appraisals are awaited and hopefully we will swim with the market trend," says a DLF group spokesperson.  Full Story