Sorry people, I know it’s a bit too late but better late than never. I was a bit caught up in my Research and Development assignment for last semester of my post grad degree in Business Administration and currently busy with my new job. I haven’t got much time to update in here but some of my updates can be found at Mtaram’s Daze . I promise there would be more updates in here soon as and when I get settled with my new work…

For the second year in a row, job hunters will want to brush up their math, science and computer skills if they want to land a top-ranked, highly rewarding position. Being an actuary, calculating statistics to determine probability and risk, is the best job to have in 2010, according to a study released by CareerCast.com, a job search site that analyzed 200 jobs in North America.

An actuary earns about $85,000 a year and has few physical demands, little stress, a good work environment and a positive outlook for employment and income growth. Using five key measurement criteria – stress, working environment, physical demands, income and hiring outlook – the ‘Jobs Rated’ report seeks to compare and contrast careers across a multitude of industries, skill levels and salary ranges, sorting them into a definitive list of jobs that can be called worst and best.

The second-best job is that of a software engineer, followed by computer systems analyst, biologist and historian, said CareerCast.com. What truly helps Software Engineer stand out from other career choices is its hiring outlook. With low unemployment compared to the national average and projected job growth of nearly 45 percent through 2016. In fact, Software Engineer currently has the best hiring outlook of any available job in 2010.

Being a roustabout (a laborer typically performing temporary, unskilled work) has been rated as the worst, followed by lumberjack, ironworker, dairy farmer and welder. A roustabout job typically pays about $31,000 a year, with high unemployment and a negative outlook for growth, the study said.

Switching to many of the best jobs would mean returning to school, said Tony Lee, Publisher of CareerCast.com’s 2010 Jobs Rated Report. This is its 12th annual study. The worst jobs tend to require working outdoors regardless of the weather, have elements of physical danger and do not pay very well, he said. “On top of that, the job opportunities are not very good so if you really want one of these jobs, you may even have difficulty finding one despite the fact that they’re dangerous, in bad conditions and don’t pay very well,” he said.

The 17th National Children’s Science Congress 2009 is set to begin in the Gujarat Science City in Ahmedabad on Sunday. The venue will see a convergence of around 800 child-scientists from across the country and 50,000 students from the state. The five-day national academic event will conclude on December 31.

National Children’s Science Congress is initiated by the National Council of Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) which functions under the Department of Science and Technology of the GoI.

Premier science institutions will participate in the National Science Congress being held in Gujarat for the first time since its inception in 1993.

During the programme, eminent scientists from across the country will hold interaction sessions with child-scientists and orientation programmes for teachers. It will also include technical sessions, science exhibitions and theme presentations by premier institutions, poster presentations and cultural programmes.

1)Total Telephone subscriber base reaches 509 Million
2)Wireless subscription reaches 473.7 Million
3)Wireline subscription declines to 37.8 Million
4)14.98 Million new additions in Wireless
5)Wireline subscription declines by 0.02 Million
6)Overall Tele-density reaches 43.70
7)Broadband subscription is 7.41 million

The number of telephone subscribers in India increased to 509.03 Million at the
end of September-09 from 494.07 Million in August-2009, thereby registering a
growth rate of 3.03%. With this, the overall Tele-density in India reaches
43.50. The set target of 500 million telephones by the end of 2010 has
been achieved by September 2009.

Click image to enlarge

Previous tracking details

Yahoo and Microsoft have finalized their agreement to install Microsoft as the exclusive search provider for Yahoo’s network of sites, the companies announced Friday.

The deal, first reached in July, still needs to be approved by the U.S. government before it becomes final. But the companies said in October that they needed more time to complete the deal due to the “complex nature of this transaction,” and Friday’s announcement is likely the result of hundreds of hours of painstaking review from expensive lawyers.

At least company executives didn’t have to rack up the frequent-flier miles to finalize this year; they signed it virtually, with Microsoft’s Qi Lu and Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz representing their respective companies on the licensing agreement and Ballmer and Bartz inking the definitive agreement, according to sources familiar with the deal.

Under the terms of the deal, Microsoft will provide search technology to Yahoo for up to 10 years, also gaining access to Yahoo’s search technology assets and several hundred employees. It will then pay Yahoo a significant portion of the ad revenue generated alongside those searches.

A Yahoo representative declined to comment on the specifics of what held up the final approval of the deal. Both parties said they still expect the deal to become final in early 2010, although the government is sure to take a long hard look.

via CNET

Norway’s Telenor Group alongwith its Indian partner Unitech Wireless today launched GSM services under the Uninor brand name in 7 circles of India namely Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, UP East, UP West and Bihar including Jharkhand.
Keeping in line with the ongoing competitive tariff trends in the country, Uninor is offering subscribers two tariff structures to choose from. Talkmore@29p offers local calls at 29 paise per minute and STD calls at 49 paise per minute with a call set up fee of 39 paise.
Another plan Callmore@29p offers local calls at 29 paise per minute and STD calls at 49 paise per minute. This plan comes with a daily rental of Rs.2.
Uninor’s logic is that its plans suit best when the user makes more than 4 calls a day and whose call duration on an average is around 100 seconds. The company says that the per second pricing does not suits each and every subscriber and may prove to be costly to some segment of the subscribers.
The company has set up a retail network comprising of 210,000 retail points including 1,000 exclusive distributors. The company says it is the largest retail network set up by any operator in India during the launch phase.
The marketing campaign revolves around the communication message ‘Ab mera number hai’ and is mainly targeted towards the youth segment.
Uninor claims its launch is the largest Greenfield GSM launch across the globe.
“With launch in 7 circles and roaming agreements in place for the rest, we have started our service in India on day one as a pan-Indian national operator-the first GSM service to have done so. This is a proud achievement of a committed and talented organization. While our launch today is indeed a milestone in longer journey to become a significant operator in India, we are delighted to have made such a strong start,” said Stein-Erik Vellan, MD, Unitech Wireless.
“The launch of Uninor mobile services marks a significant milestone for the Unitech Group-mobile services being a major diversification for the Group beyond the real estate. I am confident that our long term ambitions from the business will be realized. I have full faith in the Uninor team and will like to assure them of continued support from Unitech in whichever way required,” said Sanjay Chandra, MD, Unitech Ltd.

Wipro Technologies will hire around 8,500 employees this fiscal. The company also plans to go ahead with the campus recruitment early next year to meet the requirement of next fiscal, said Girish Paranjape, joint CEO, IT business, Wipro.
“Our strategy is to recruit non-engineering graduates, in addition to engineering and make them fit into the slot. We are still working out the details,” Girish Paranjpe said.
Refusing to divulge more details for next year’s recruitments and outlook, Paranjpe said it would be a mix of 60 per cent freshers and 40 per cent experienced.
“Wipro will honour the offers it had made last year. We will be hiring 5,000 people in a space of two months and by June next year, we should have brought on board all those who were offered ,” he said. The new recruitments will have a mix of 60% fresh graduates and 40% experienced people.
The company will firm up its hiring strategy after knowing its client’s budgets better. “Many of our clients are in budget-making stage and with evident signs of revival in the industry, further cuts in IT budgets of companies is not expected. We hope to know their budgets by January-February next year. Once we get an idea about their budgets and spend levels, we will get a good sense of what to hire,” he said.
According to him, unlike IT companies
, Wipro has been hiring not just from engineering graduates but also has hired from other streams and trained them over a period of time to be industry ready.
The IT solutions provider employs around 9,000 people at its Hyderabad centre. The company which has gets around 4-5 % of revenues from the Middle markets will not be affected by the Dubai debt crisis, he said.
Last year the company made offers to as many as 8,500 persons through recruitment drives in colleges and institutions.
“We expect clients to make no further cuts in their budgets. We expect 2010 to be a better year than 2009,” Paranjpe told reporters here on the sidelines of dedicating renovated Manikonda Lake at Hyderabad facility to the community.
He said the new hiring strategies will be worked out in a month or two. Attrition rate in the company stood at ten per cent.
On becoming energy efficient, he said the company is determined to reduce the carbon emission per employee by 45 per cent from the present 3.96 tonnes to 2.5 tonnes in the next five years.
“Our power consumption went down by 12 per cent last year and we are planning to set up a micro windmill at our Hyderabad facility soon,” Paranjpe said.
The company consumes nearly 75 megawatt power from both Government and internal sources.
He said the company’s exposure in the Gulf market is around 4 per cent and the Dubai financial crisis will have no impact.

India’s Serious Fraud Investigation Office has filed seven cases of Companies Act violations against Ramalinga Raju and others involved in the accounting fraud at Satyam Computer Services Ltd., a senior official said Tuesday.

“Cases have been filed (Monday) for technical violations under various sections of the Companies Act against people such as Ramalinga Raju, Rama Raju, the chief financial officer and others,” Puneet Rastogi, joint director (investigations) at the SFIO, told Dow Jones Newswires.

He added that although violations of the Companies Act carry a maximum sentence of seven years in jail, the SFIO cases filed before a Hyderabad court are for “technical violations and hence would carry a much lesser sentence, if charges are proved.”

Mr. Rastogi declined to elaborate on the details of the cases.

The SFIO, a multidisciplinary body that operates under India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs, along with India’s Central Bureau Of Investigation, a federal probe agency, has been investigating the Satyam Computer accounting scandal.

The company’s founder, B. Ramalinga Raju, admitted in January that he overstated the software exporter’s profits for several years and created a fictitious cash balance of more than $1 billion.

While the CBI has looked at the fraud angle of the case, the SFIO has focussed on violations of the Companies Act, Mr. Rastogi said.

The CBI has already filed two charge sheets in the case and has said the fraud is now estimated at 118.8 billion rupees ($2.56 billion), much larger than the initial estimate of 71.36 billion rupees.

After the scandal broke, a government-appointed board sold a majority stake in the company through an auction to Tech Mahindra Ltd., which now holds a 42.7% stake in Satyam.

Massive job losses are in the offing in the textile sector, says the the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC).
“The high prices of cotton have pushed up the cost of the fabric and the end product. We are now in a situation where we are forced to reject repeat orders as we can’t justify the high prices to our foreign buyers. In the coming weeks production would have to go down and it would result in unprecedented job cuts in the industry,” said Mr Rakesh Vaid, Chairman, AEPC.
While he did not give an exact figure on the number of jobs that could be cut, Mr Vaid said “lakhs of jobs” are likely to be lost as companies start reducing production in the coming weeks.
“Right now the demand is growing in the international market. But we are losing out on the opportunity because fabric prices are rising at an unprecedented level. This would eventually hamper job creation,” said Mr Sudhir Dhingra, Member State Level Committee of AEPC.
AEPC voiced concerns that export of cotton is actually aiding other countries to price their fabrics and garments more competitively. “Exporting finished product would provide a greater price realisation and help us capture a greater share of the international garment market,” said Mr Dhingra.
While AEPC says that cotton prices have been increasing at an unprecedented level in the country, prices have been going up internationally as well. In order to give a boost to the domestic manufacturers, AEPC has urged the Government to curtail exports of cotton by increasing the export duty on cotton. “We call upon the Government to take a market survey of the prices and July and the prices prevailing now. We are not calling for a complete ban on cotton exports but we want the Government to encourage the domestic textile industry and create a more conducive atmosphere for the domestic industry.”