Monday, November 29, 2010

Jobs in IT and banking sector will grow in the coming years, says CRISIL report

 
A report published by CRISIL Centre Economic Research says that jobs in IT and banking sector are expected to grow in the years to come. The report on the Indian education sector titled, ‘Skilling India – The Billion People Challenge’ was published by the CRISIL Centre for Economic Research. 

It is believed that the demand for labor would be growing rapidly in the next five years in industries such as IT and financials services, which are regarded as knowledge based industries. The same would be seen in construction industry, mining and healthcare. So people with vocational skills such as technicians, welders and so on would be required on a large scale.

The report also forecasts:
  • 0.62 million additional jobs would be generated in the IT sector. 
  • 0.25 million and 0.09 million jobs over 2011 to 2015 would be added in both public and private sector banks. 
  • Labor-intensive jobs would be created in order to absorb the workforce from the agriculture industry. 
  • The industrial sector would have to double its labor demand from 119 million (in 2010) to 274 million by 2030 so that share of employment from agriculture sector gets reduced.
Thus a kind of transition would be seen towards a knowledge based economy and all this would require a new generation of educated and skilled workers. There can be skill shortages which would require vocational training and there can also be unemployment in the knowledge based sector.

The report says that the three factors determining the growth of labor productivity are:
  • More capital as compared to workforce 
  • Technological advancement 
  • Quality of workforce
It is predicted that there would be shortfall of skilled workers in India which can affect the rate at which productivity rises. Due to increase in demand, if low skilled workers are added to the workforce, the overall workforce quality and productivity growth could be affected. The skilled workers would also be needed to put in longer hours in their work.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Jobs to be outsourced to India by Bell Canada

According to a report, a telecom giant of Canada, Bell Canada which is a subsidiary of Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE), is exploring the possibility for getting suitable vendors for outsourcing its key voice-based projects for its internet, Solo Mobility, Bell Mobility and satellite TV divisions to India.  

The headquarters of Bell Canada are in Montreal and is a leading player in wireless telecommunications. It has more than 30% of the total wireless subscribers in the country.

These projects would be outsourced by Bell Canada through it fixed payouts as part of a deal. The deal is expected to be of around $25 million to $30 million a year.
 

So those looking for jobs in the area would have brighter chances of getting them after the projects have been set up.

There would largely be inbound projects which would be sent to India. It is being looked by Bell Canada wants to outsource the work to an outsourcing partner which has strong competencies in the area of  front-end work for international clients. 

The major revenue driver is wireless, which is around 50 per cent of Bell Canada's revenues. 

Bell Canada Enterprises has branched out into areas of cable TV, VoIP, IPTV, broadband internet, and wire line phones. 
 
Source: The Economic Times

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Cloud computing as a “hot career” 

To deal with huge amount of data and information, cloud computing now comes as a rescue for people working in various organizations.  It is the latest technology in this area.  

Resources have to be invested by the institutions in servers to store information but not all of this data is accessed frequently. It leads to underutilization of resources and unnecessary costs. To overcome all this cloud computing is helpful. 

Remote servers are used to store and maintain data. The clients can access and use them whenever needed. The consumer only requires an internet connection to mail.

The software for the server and email management is on a ‘cloud drive’ on the internet which is managed by service providers like Yahoo and Google.

The demand for professionals is high as cloud services have a huge potential. All this was told by the executive directory (advisory) KPMG, working in the domain of cloud computing. He further said that at present our country does not have ready talent so they might command a premium.

A global IT consulting firm Zinnov says that it is expected that the global cloud computing market would be growing over $70 billion by 2015. About 3 lakh job opportunities would be created in India during the same period.

There will be impressive salary levels. At the entry-level, professional with 5-6 years of experience, can get a pay package of 12-19 lakh; while a mid-level executives can get around 20 lakh. People with 10-15 years experience can expect 30 lakh or more.

The options for upgrading of skills as limited at present. IT companies provide training to their own staff. Some certificate courses are now being offered by Aptech and NIIT.
 

Source: The Times of India

India stands at 4th place in top B-school destinations

The education prospects in India seem to be quite bright. The Times News Network reports that India stand at 4th place in the global list of most popular destinations for management studies. 

Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) conducted a survey and came out with amazing results. In the top 10 B-Schools Canada ranks 3rd. Israel and Spain also made surprise entries. 

The GMAC is the body that conducts GMAT which is a global B-school entrance test. Its scores are used by several top ranked business schools for admission process in management courses around the world.

Experts opine that many elite institutions have cropped up in India which is the main reason behind India's climbing up to the top fourth position. IIMs have also contributed to this success. 

Experts are of the opinion that another reason is that the return on investment in a management course is quite high as compared to the fee structure. The cost of getting management education in India is comparatively quite low as compared to the U.S and the U.K.  


It is also expected that India can soon become the most preferred destination of management studies like Singapore and Philippines in Asia. Moreover India is cheaper is as compared to its western counterparts.


For the aspiring Indian students Canada is becoming the most favourite destination for management studies. The economy there is found to be the most robust and with good job prospects and liberal visa policies.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Credit transfer system in Indian universities 

The Association of Indian Universities (AIU) is planning to come up with modalities to introduce a credit transfer system between institutions. This would be according the varsities in the US, Canada and Europe and would encourage mobility of students.

Jadavpur University’s vice-chancellor, in a meeting with AIU, said that the system of higher education in India has been overburdened as compared to the available resources here. He brought to the notice that the structural pattern of the university education in India has not been reviewed since a long period of time. There are different systems prevailing in India, as far as academic calendars and framework of curriculum is concerned.
Now the students will have an advantage to migrate from one university to another and all this has been made possible due to advancement in technology. They, no longer, would have to adhere by the some specific criteria or guidelines in order to go from university to another. They can bring back credits earned again to the previous university. This kind of system is in practice in Europe.

Those studying in various colleges of different universities in India are not allowed to move within the country. This results in debarring of the students from attending a part of the course in another university in which they want to study in order to broaden their knowledge base.

IITs and JU have the system of credit transfer like foreign universities. All this would prove beneficial for the students who come from the families where the parents have transferable jobs. In that case they would be prevented from losing one academic year. 

Source: The Times of India
India emerging as a “skill hub” for functional roles! 

There is huge availability of talent and with due to a lot of cost advantage, India is becoming a "skill hub" both for back-office jobs and global functional roles.

An executive search firm, GlobalHunt, says that in the last two-three years, there has been a 25- 35 per cent rise in global functional roles that came have to India.

Here skilled professionals are available at very competitive cost. The skills that they possess are global in nature. They are second to none in technology and analytics.

India has been given a status of a 'region status' by around 20% of the companies. We are no longer a part of Asia Pacific for them. GlobalHunt said, "Besides, 15–20 per cent of global workforces are reporting to Indian counterparts at various functions and hierarchy levels".

A large number of global companies have opened up their business centres in India which vary in size of their operations. Most of them are focussing on Indian markets.

A gradual but a growing trend is seen in this regard. Global professional interests are increasing and India based work is on rise giving the employees here better career opportunities. 
 
Source: The Hindustan Times.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Google plans to hire 300 people in India

Google Inc has recently announced that it plans to hire 300 people as it wants to double its engineering headcount in India. All this is being done to strengthen cloud computing research and development centre present in Hyderabad, to make it largest in the world.
300 engineers are to be recruited in couple of years. Google plans to increase its presence in India with focus on cloud computing. 300 are already working in Hyderabad and Bangalore. Cloud computing is web-based processing, in which shared resources, software, and information are given to computers and other devices such as smart phones when they are demanded over the Internet.

2,000 employees are already working for Google in India. Hyderabad engineering centre will be focussing on cloud computing whereas the engineering centre in Bangalore is working on cloud computing along with search, ads, maps and news. All the work that is being done is regarded as global in nature the technology being developed in these centre are meant for global business.

There are already cloud computing centres owned by Google in Mountain View in California and New York. But the one at Hyderabad is regarded as the largest in terms of the number of engineers working here.

A Google official said that India was a great market for cloud computing as it was the most price sensitive. There is excitement among small and medium business because cloud computing ensures efficiency and better utilization of resources. There are 100,000 business in India which are using technologies of Google’s cloud computing.

In all there are three million customers in cloud computing all over the world.

Source: The Economic Times

Monday, November 15, 2010

Marriot International plans to hire 8000 employees in India

8000 people would be hired in next years as Marriott International Inc. plans to open 100 hotels in India in five years. At present there are 11 hotels but it would be bringing its seven leading brands, including Ritz-Carlton to India. All this is being done in order to tap the opportunity presented by a rapidly growing economy.

The expansion would be through management contracts.

Many other top international hospitality firms such as Carlson, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Hyatt Corp., Inter Continental Hotel Group Plc, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc., Hilton Worldwide and Accor SA are also planning to set up more hotels in India. More capacity is also being added by Indian firms ITC Ltd, Hotel Leela Ventures Ltd and Indian Hotel Co. Ltd.

Foreign as well as domestic travellers would be benefited by the growth of international and national hospitality industry in India besides creating employment opportunities for many Indians.

Marriot International are getting help from the real estate developers in setting up of there coming up projects. Launching of 7 new hotels was announced recently while 23 are under construction and they are expected to start operating from 2013.

Franchises hotels under the Marriott are JW Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Autograph Collection, Renaissance Hotels, Residence Inn, Courtyard, TownePlace Suites, Fairfield Inn, SpringHill Suites and Bvlgari brands.

The Vice President and Chief Operating officer was quite thrilled when he said, ”India has the second largest hotel development pipeline in Asia, and is expected to double the number of branded hotel rooms over the next three years to approximately 120,000”. He was of the opinion that India comes among the top 5 markets in terms of the number of hotels being developed.
 
Source: Livemint

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Rs 40 Lakh package to students of BITS Pilani  

The graduates of Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani have been offered the highest pay package this year. All records have been broken by eight graduating students of the institute. They have been offered Rs 40 lakh per annum each.

They are hired by Schlumberger, the world's leading supplier of technology, integrated project management and information solutions to customers working in the oil and gas. Facebook, a social networking site would also be hiring some more students with an expected annual package of Rs 38.5 lakhs.

The final round of interviews would be conducted this week of the shorlisted students.

300 of 400 students of batch 2011 in both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes have already got jobs reputed companies. Pay package of Rs 12.8 lakh has been D E Shaw, a global investment and technology company based in New York. It is the highest domestic package.

25% of the batch students i.e. seventy-five students currently have job offers with a compensation of more than Rs 9 lakh. Thus many renowned national and international companies have provided placements to the students from BITS Pilani, which is one of its greatest achievements. It is believed that all this has been made possible with the support of the alumni network among the companies. 

An amazing fact coming to the surface level out of all this is that the U.S companies like Yahoo, Google, E-bay, Facebook are creating jobs for Indian students abroad at the time when the U.S President was busy asking for jobs for his countrymen here in India.
55 companies have registered in Pilani for recruitment and 20 are waiting to visit the campus. 100% placements are expected to be achieved by the end of November 2010.

Source: TOI

Indian students to be attracted by Canadian universities

Presidents of 15 Canadian universities are on a seven-day visit to India. The objective is to attract students from India which is considered as the second fastest growing nation in the world.

The two countries have signed a memorandum of understanding on higher education during the Prime Minister’s visit there last year. This is regarded as the biggest mission by Canadian educational institutions since then. It is estimated that more than 150,000 Indian students go abroad for higher education every year but only 3000 students go to Canada for the purpose of higher education. Only a fraction of Indian students got enrolled in the universities of Canada last year.

The foreign students pay more than $15,000 as fees which can amount to around $6.5 billion. This means the same amount can be pumped into the Canadian economy if more and more students get enrolled in their universities.

The Canadian education mission would be travelling to Pune and Delhi. All this has been organized by Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC).  The meetings would be held with the administrators of the educational institutions of public and private sector. All this is expected to create special ties between the two nations.  

There would be roundtable with Indian university presidents Human Resource minister Mr Kapil Sibal and his Canadian counterpart would be attending the roundtable. 
 
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) are also organizing the higher education summit and this Canadian mission would also participate in it.

Before leaving for India, AUCC president Paul Davidson said, “This mission is a way for us to get to know India and its needs more deeply - and to make sure that when Indians think of research and higher education, they think of us.”



He also said that the educators and business people should be aware that Canadian universities would like to build partnerships with Indian universities. All this can strengthen the bonds between the countries apart from bringing about advancement in research collaborations.



Source: EconomicTimes 

2 Top Indian Institutes Become Partners in Leadership Training with Yale University

It was announced by the Yale University last month that a partnership would be formed with two of India's top management and engineering institutes. It would be done to train Indian university leaders on the practices in academic administration and institutional management in the United States. Its partners would be the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, in the north, and the Indian Institute of Management in Kozhikode, in the south.
The Indian government would be financing the project with $1-million.


India's government wants to modernize the higher-education system here as it not able to meet the country's growing educational demands. Kapil Sibal, the minister in charge of higher education, has been trying to reform our ongoing educational system and partnership with foreign universities would help in achieving the objective.


The Director of the institute in Kanpur endorsed the move and said that there would be a need foe high quality academic leadership would be critical in the wake of expansion of the educational system here. He appreciated the work done by the Yale University in this area. The training programs are expected be open to public-university administrators from all parts of India.


The program would start from January and would be developed by the three institutions. It is a five-year arrangement which will be based in two Centres of Excellence for Academic Leadership and would be financed by the education ministry.


There would be research on higher education by these three institutions. Workshops and seminars would be organized in areas of academic administration and leadership. All this would aim at supporting the expansion of Indian higher education.


Yale has pledged $30 million two years back in order to develop deeper ties with India by offering more courses and faculty expertise, expansion of recruitment of students and partnership in research. demonstrated an interest in working in India. Two years ago, the university pledged $30-million from its endowment to develop deeper ties to India through more course offerings and faculty expertise, expanded student recruitment and research partnerships. This amount has increased to $75 million now.


There is also a possibility of developing 14 “Innovation Universities” by the Yale University in India.
Source: Chronicle.com
Avenues for the opening of foreign universities coming up with Obama’s visit


Indian students might be getting the advantage of obtaining a degree from an American university now as many U.S university officials are also visiting India along with the U.S President Obama. These universities might get permission from Indian government to set up their bases in India.


Representation from Boston University, Arizona State University and Rugers University are accompanying President Obama. Boston University is ranked 56 and Rutgers University is ranked 64 on the on the National Universities Ranking on U.S. News.


Though a “foreign university bill” has been passed in March 2010 which allowed the foreign universities to set up their campuses in India and foreign direct investment has also been allowed here but these institutions are not allowed to grant their degrees here.


India has the largest student population and a severe shortage of educational institutions, the opening up of these universities would definitely prove to be quite beneficial. IIMs and IITs are the top most institutions here but have limited amount of seats which deprive many students of such a kind of quality educational facility.


Opening of foreign universities is expected to bridge this demand and supply gap.


According to statistics there is a need of about 600 universities and 35,000 more colleges over the 12 years to enrol 30 percent of its potential students in the country.


It is expected that quality institutes would be drawn to the huge population and revenue models.


For-profit institutions like Apollo Group and DeVry Inc are looking towards the Indian markets for acquisitions in higher education sector here.


Source: IBTimes.com

Friday, November 05, 2010

Indian businesses say they are making US jobs 


The world’s largest democracy i.e. India is said to be creating jobs in the U.S rather than taking them away. And all this is happening despite of the fears over the impact of outsourcing. This statement was given by a leading Indian business group. 

During his visit to India, US President Barack Obama focused on increasing US export opportunities and said that there was a need of creating much-needed jobs which could erase their 10-percent unemployment rate back at home.

The secretary-general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Amit Mitra stated in clear terms that it was wrong to think that jobs in U.S were being robbed by India due to outsourcing.

Mitra said, "We are creating jobs in the country (US) in the thousands”. He was of the opinion that investments coming from India have the potential to generate more and more employment in U.S.


 India's investments in the U.S between 2004 and 2009 were around $5.5 billion. It was done in new offices, plants and equipment. Acquisitions amounted to $20 billion. 

U.S is a favoured destination for Indian foreign direct investment. It was done in information technology, media and entertainment sectors. 

According to the U.S government figures, Indian companies stood at the second place as the fastest-growing investors in the United States. The United Arab Emirates, being the first one, supported 57,000 jobs. 

Mitra said that fears of U.S about IT professionals losing their jobs would not go away so easily in the wake of outsourcing when the American workers were without employment. 

But there can be no denying in the fact that India also represented a vast potential export market which was capable of creating jobs in U.S. 
 


Source: Economic Times

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

SEBI for pay hike to staff; salaries may nearly double

SEBI has proposed to raise the salaries of it staff. There would be an annual payout of around 14.46 crores. The biggest beneficiaries would be the senior level employees. There would be 90% hike in their salaries.  
There were more than 600 employees in Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) at the end of last fiscal. There are around 500 officers of various ranks. Apart from this there are secretaries and other support staff.

There was a discussion at the SEBI board about the issues regarding higher investment limit. The issue for hike in pay scales was also discussed at the same time.


A memorandum was presented which said that no pay hike has been there since 2007 although RBI had accorded special allowances for the officers and a revision in the salaries during the period. It had earlier been decided by the SEBI board that the pattern of the scale of salaries would be according to the pattern of RBI.


Since RBI has again revised the pay scales and allowances, SEBI has also proposed to extend the benefits of this revision with effect from NOV 1, 2007.

A special grade allowance has also been proposed to be implemented by SEBI like the one introduced by RBI in 2005 and 2007.


The top grade officers are expected to get salaries as high as Rs 67000 per month which is Rs 35600 at present. There would be an increase of even more than 92% for senior most officers. Junior level officers would be getting a rise from Rs 23185 to Rs 35313.
Staff allowances on medical, briefcase and telephone reimbursement has also been increased since last year. The benefit of reimbursement on family health check up and Eye refraction Test is also provided.

All this was being planned since quite a long time. The estimated total revenue of SEBI for the financial year 2010-2011, is at about Rs 155.13 crore, as against revised revenue expenditure of Rs 766.5 crore in the previous fiscal. This is mainly due to the rise in expenditure due to the revised salaries.

The proposed salary of the next Chairmen of SEBI is Rs 3 lakh per month.  

Monday, November 01, 2010

2.3 Lakh jobs to be created : Ernst & Young  


It is estimated that 2.3 lakh jobs would be created by in six sectors namely Healthcare, Realty, IT/ITeS, Banking, Education & Training, Manufacturing, Financial Services and Insurance during the last three months of 2010.


This has been made possible due to the recovery of domestic economy. Headcount in local industries is expected to rise in the coming months. All this was reported by Ernst & Young's Partner, National Head and EMEIA Leader to PTI. 


It is projected that 60,000 jobs would be generated in the healthcare industry in fourth quarter of 2010 whereas 50,000 would be generated in Real estate and IT/ITes sector. The healthcare industry shows such a bright future due the demand and supply gap. Moreover investments in this sector are also increasing. Another factor that has contributed in the growth of this sector is the rising number of government schemes.



30,000 jobs would be generated in Education & Training and 20,000 people would get jobs in BFSI sectors.



A bullish recruitment trend is seen in public sector companies which can speed up the hiring process in the last few months of present year.

Jobs are growing in the banking sector because there new branches are being opened up and the retired staff is being replaced.



The worth of the education market in the country is expected to be around $40 billion. Thus this sector also has great employment potential.  


Source: Times of India   

400 people in India to be hired by a British hospitality chain

There is good news for those qualified in hotel management courses. Nearly 400 people in India are to be hired by the British hospitality chain Premier Inn. The chain is known for its budget hotels. This hiring will be done in a little over three years. All this is being done as a part of its expansion efforts.
  
At present there are 70 employees in the country but around 470 would be needed till 2013.
This expansion will come out in different cities. There is one in Bangalore at present. Another one is expected to be opened in New Delhi in few months that is around January. For the New Delhi hotel they would need around 8 qualified people for the recruitment process is in full swing. This was told by the head pf Human Resources Department of Premier Inn India.

Most of the employees at present are recruited in Bangalore where the operation began in 2009.


Total of 900 hotels are going to be set up here till 2009 for which 407 employees would be required.


Extensive training programs for the newly employed staff are available which would help them to understand the working of industry in a better way. There are even cross training opportunities available for the staff. It can help them in acquiring experience in different areas of working with in the same company.

There are around 590 hotels in Dubai which Premier Inn has opened apart from India and U.K.
 


Source: Economic Times