The board approved grant of options to eligible employees at a grant price which is the closing price on the stock exchange where the shares are listed and which has the highest trading volume on November 22, 1999, the grant date.

The scheme will significantly increase the coverage of NIIT employees who already own part of NIIT. The company had offered one per cent of company's equity to over 1100 employees at the time of its IPO in 1993.

"We have been moving towards Economic Value Added as our primary performance parameter, over the last two years. The ESOP scheme will help us convert our managers into owners and align employee interests with the shareholders interest," said Rajendran.

The scheme intends covering its key global employees of NIIT and its overseas subsidiaries exercise of grants in either physical or cash-less form. NIIT has staff strength of 3,768 operating in over 30 countries through wholly owned subsidiaries in the USA, Europe, Asean, Japan and India. The ESOP grant is based on parameters like performance level, consistent improvements in EVA and potential to contribute to NIIT's growth, the company said.

NIIT has made significant investments to create e-commerce products and components - NIITePayServer, NIITeMart, NIITePortal and NIITeService - to enable customers to have cost effective e-commerce solutions in less than 90 days, it added.