The news is almost sure, if the present promotion batch was made to wait unofficially in the name of recession, the future batches will be made to wait in the name of new eligibility criteria. For the past batches the eligibility criteria is 3 years in a particular grade ie to become an ITA an associate have to spend 3 years in ASE (After confirmation) ie a total of four years.
But as per new guidelines to be released very soon, the 3 years is to be increased to 4 years (total of 5 years from fresher to ITA) for each grade or atleast for ASE to ITA promotions.
The news is from some HR’s who are simply not accepting current eligibility criteria and asking the associates to wait for new criteria.