Says Gagan Adlakha, divisional resource manager, corporate human resources organisation, NIIT: ``The idea is to enable the staff member spend his birthday with his family, rather than slog it out in the office.''

Another first is the dating allowance - Rs 2,000 annually for all the years the person stays a bachelor and an equal amount as a gift cheque when he decides to tie the knot. Not only that, you get a Rs 10,000 interest free marriage loan, restricted of course, to your first marriage.

``The whole idea of allowances for dating, marriage or vehicles loans is part of our corporate culture. If 3,500 NIITians are busy in achieving a single goal of taking their organisation forward and generatingeconomic value addition (EVA) for the company, it is only fair that we share it with them. We believe that the more EVA you create the more you get,'' says Sanjeev Kataria, Vice President, corporate communications and marketing services, NIIT. But why is human resource development such an important issue with NIIT ? Is it linked to productivity or employee welfare?

``Employee welfare is a term which smacks of the industrial era -- when you had factory workers and on one hand and the management on the other. The expression is taboo, in the digital age, at least in NIIT. Our employees are the creators of value at NIIT. Creativity happens there. Therefore, we have to take care of the needs of each one of them. For us looking after our people is driven by two dimensions: how do we make NIIT a fun-place to work and secondly, how do we participate in the life cycle of an individual working at NIIT. Our staff members don't work at NIIT only between 9 am and 6 pm. We may want to take care of them even between 6pm and 9 am by making their life comfortable at home, by providing them some facilities of life and do it at a time when they need them most,'' claims Kataria.

For instance, there is this scheme called Little NIITian Care. Both female and male staff members can avail facility of working half time on half pay for a year when their baby needs their attention the most. Similarly, realising that the costs of child education have hit the roof, NIIT has a scheme to encourage savings on a long-term basis. Called the Little NIITian Fund, this plan provides an initial investment of Rs 3,000 in the Public Provident Fund or other such long-term schemes. The office also adds the second installment of the same amount on the first birthday of the child. A number of new schemes have been added in the recent past. These include WWW.Wedding.Com, where the office provides you with a chauffeur-driven car at your service, on the most important day of your life; WWW.Anniversary.Com extends the same chauffeur and a long car, onthe house on your fifth, tenth and 15th (every multiple of five, actually) anniversary.

WWW.Hello.Com is a unique service -- it provides you a cellular phone in the one month preceding the birth of your child when you are living a life of suspense, calling up the hospital and home for the good news.

Then there are regional variations of the perks. ``We have given the independence to all our regional headquarters to come up with plans of their own. An example of this is WWW.Fun. East.Com where you can avail of a paid-for holiday for your family if you are holidaying in Eastern India. A similar venture designed by the NIIT Mumbai office is WWW.Fun.West.Com where you can have an on-the-house outing for the family to a theme-park like Essel World,'' says Kataria.

With WWW.Fun.South.Com, a concept planned by NIIT, Hyderabad, families of staff members can visit the NIIT Family Club for fun and games and browse through exciting LEDA CD-ROMs. In Bangalore, there is a free lunch on Friday and the NIIT DiscoverKarnataka quiz. The northern headquarters also offer fun and games at the NIIT LEDA Family Club.

The company also offers interest-free loans for a motorcycle at the entrance level, for a car at the middle management level and for a bigger car for the top management and a family raising allowance every month increasing with the age of the child. ``The essence of our policies comes together beautifully on the annual family day, where the top brass of the company plays host to every member of their family, including their girlfriends if they are bachelors. Also, the children of our staff members who have excelled in studies, cultural activities or sports are recognised and awarded in front of all the employees. A token cheque of Rs 2,000 and an applause from all NIIT families, makes the day for the achievers,'' says Kataria.