India’s largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India has announced today that it will hire 950 people in the next financial year.

The majority of the recruitment will take place in India while some will also be recruited from Europe and the US. The company employs 7,500 employees at present.

Maruti recruited a total of 800 people in the current financial year, according to Maruti Suzuki India Managing Executive Officer Administration (HR, Finance and IT) S Y Siddiqui.

He further said that most new recruits will be hired for the research and development department. The company could hire even more than its current target when it will finalize plans relating to capacity expansion at the Manesar plant.

In another development the company has announced plans to phase out its famous model Maruti 800 in 13 cities starting April.

According to the new government guidelines the cars to be sold in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Kanpur, Ahmedabad, Surat and Agra must comply with BSIV norms by April 2010 and hence Maruti cannot sell the 800 model in those cities.

The company will have the opportunity to sell it in other cities until 2015-16. Maruti has denied reports that it is planning to upgrade Maruti 800 to Euro IV emissions norms. The company presently offers M800, Alto, WagonR, Estilo, A-Star, Ritz and Swift models in the market.