India will produce more doctors 

India is expected to produce over 4,400 more doctors every year as the Medical Council of India (MCI) has increased the number of seats for undergraduate medical course from this year onwards. Around 4,452 have been increased. 

Approximately 2,650 seats have been increased because of the opening of new colleges. And around 1,802 seats have been created as the strength of the existing colleges has increased.

There are 335 medical colleges in India out of which 185 are in private sector and 150 in public sector. So these colleges are likely to produce over 40,000 MBBS doctors every year.

There is a huge gap between demand and supply of the doctors in India and the increase in seats is taken as a positive step in this direction.

According to MCI 86 applications were received by them this year for the permission to start new medical colleges. Out of these 43 were disapproved on scrutiny, and 43 were inspected. Of those inspected, 22 weren't cleared. 21 new colleges were cleared, and out of these16 are in private sector whereas 5 are in public sector.

MCI also received 104 applications from registered colleges for the increase of seats. 43 applications were disapproved on scrutiny, and 61 were inspected. Of those inspected, only 33 have been able to fulfil the criteria. So the colleges which have been approved were given permission to increase their strength.

This move is expected to remove the serious shortages of doctors in the country, as India is short of six lakh doctors, 10 lakh nurses and 2 lakh dental surgeons. All this has led to an adverse patient-doctor ratio here in the country.

Source: The Times of India

 Indians choose jobs based on salary, job security, office atmosphere

Salary is the foremost consideration for the Indian professionals while choosing a job. It is followed by job security, office atmosphere and the work-life balance in the company, says study.

The study has been conducted by the leading HR firm Ma Foi Randstad. The study further finds out that Indian professionals choose a company in a different way than their global counterparts. In many other countries, older professionals want to work for companies that are known for their good quality of product and service. On the hand, the younger professionals are more inclined towards innovative companies that provide interesting jobs and pleasant working atmosphere.

Male professionals, here in India, prefer to work with strong and financially stable companies with high quality products and services. Whereas female professionals take into the consideration the job location, atmosphere and job content while choosing the job.

The study furthers throws light on another aspect. IT and BPO are the most preferred companies, which are followed by energy, consulting, consumer goods and retail, travel and hospitality, auto, banking and financial services, telecom, engineering and infrastructure.

As far as future prospects are concerned, IT and BPO sector are at the topmost position. Moreover they are rated best because of their amiable atmosphere, job content, training and salary. Whereas, high job security is found in the energy sector along with the attractiveness of consulting jobs lies in high salary and interesting job content.

Financial stability is also one of the major concerns for the Indian professionals. Moreover they also tend to lay stress on strong management practices as they grow old, but the desire for good training and international career opportunities declines with age.

Source: The Economic Times

India's biggest recruiters

Recently the placement season has ended. The placement season shows the hiring trends, salaries, preferences of students etc. ICICI has emerged as the top most recruiter across the B-Schools as it has hired the largest number of students. 

Placements in 2011 reflected the happy sentiment of 2010. Many top notch jobs returned to the campuses in 2011. The students were on a roll due to this positive trend. There has been an overall growth in all the sectors. 

IIM Kozhikode director Debashis Chatterjee says, "The number of offers at campuses was back to 2008 levels." And all the companies agree to this statement made by him. 

According to Priti Rajora, who is VP and head, global talent acquisition at Wipro Technologies: "We have been witnessing very strong economic growth indicators for the past several months. Due to positive changes in the demand side ecosystem and organic and inorganic growth and projections, our outlook for hiring in the current fiscal has been very optimistic." IT companies are being regarded as the biggest recruiters in this placement season of which Infosys stands at the first position. 

Source: The Times of India

AICTE lower eligibility criteria for engineering

The eligibility criteria for admission to the first year engineering courses have been relaxed by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in Maharashtra. It is an advisory body regarding technical education in India. , has relaxed the basic eligibility criteria for admissions to the first year engineering course.

The minimum criteria is now 45 per cent (40 per cent for reserved category) aggregate in physics, chemistry and mathematics (PCM) group in standard XII exam, which was 50 per cent till last year.

In another decision there is lowering of the bar for polytechnic admissions to 35 per cent from 50 per cent in standard X exam from any board. The AICTE’s decision has come recently. So the Director of Technical Education, DTE would be making changes only after getting official intimation in this regard. Thus the last date of submission of forms is also likely to be extended if the new criterion is implemented.

The decision came as it has been realised that the demand for engineers is very high and there has been poor response by the candidates as the fees has been quite high and the eligibility criteria of 50% in PCM was also not being fulfilled by the candidates

At present there are over 1.14 lakh engineering seats in 309 colleges across Maharashtra. But the number of applications was around 90,000 this year. So this the raised fears of many seats going vacant across the state.

Now as AICTE has lowered the bar, any candidate scoring 135/300 marks would become eligible for admissions to BE first year.

Source: The Economic Times

Kerala to become new Sillicon Valley 

Kerala is expected to become an IT hub soon. Bengaluru is now at some disadvantageous place to remain as IT hub.
 
The CEO of Infopark Kochi while talking to Gulf News, said that there is congestion in India's leading IT hubs at present. But Kerala presents an encouraging picture in this respect. It offers a unique opportunity to market itself as an alternative investment destination for IT and IT-enabled services companies. Kerela presents lower operating expenses as compared to other IT hubs. It has the advantage of Tier 2 and Tier 3 locations.
 
A study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India says that 55% of IT companies located in Bengaluru prefer to shift their operations in Kerala.  Bengaluru has the risk of crumbling infrastructure at present which is putting it a disadvantageous situation. 
 
It is expected that by 2015, Kerala would offer 200,000 direct job opportunities in IT and related industries. Infopark is also expected to create more than 100,000 jobs.

Source: Economic Times

Jobs to be provided by Clinical Research companies

India is growing as a hub for global clinical research. There are over 100 domestic and multinational companies here in India, that are conducting trials, an apex industry body ASSOCHAM said today.

Clinical research industry is an Rs 8,000 crore industry, which is expected to employ 50,000 professionals in the next five years.

Clinical trials have an important part to play in discovery of new product and its development without which products cannot be brought to the market.

There is an availability of large patient population in India along with educated talent and wide range of diseases, There are strong patent laws as well and lower cost of operations.

The pharmaceutical industry is based on innovation and clinical trials are meant to introduce new drugs. They are to be conducted as per International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) Good Clinical Practice (GCP) norms.

The global outsourcing market of clinical research is estimated at 45 billion dollars. It consists of services provided to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in clinical development process for innovative molecules as well as generics.

The clinical research companies are likely to conduct more than 15% of all the global trials in India in the current year. Among such companies in India are Pfizer, Glaxo SmithKline, Aventis, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Astra Zenica, Eli Lilly, Dr Reddys, Nicholas Piramal, Cipla and Lupin.

Tax concession is also offered according to the WTO guidelines to these companies. There is installation of electronic medical records by hospitals which has proved as a major attraction for international clinical research organisations and multinational companies for human studies to India.

The trials are being done in areas like oncology, endocrinology, traumatology, sports medicine, pulmonary diseases, pediatric diseases and infectious diseases.

Source: Orissa Dairy

Graduate from any discipline would be able to join CA course

Those who aspire to be a chartered accountant and are not commerce graduate, would now be able to join CA course. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India i.e. ICAI’s central governing council has decided that it would allow graduate from any stream to join CA course.

The proposal for it has been submitted to the Government of India and as soon as it gets Parliament's permission, graduate from any discipline will be able to pursue a course in CA.

This was announced recently by ICAI vice-president Jaydeep Shah. He was attending a two-day National Convention 2011 organised by Baroda branch of Western India Regional Council (WIRC) of ICAI.

There is huge demand for CAs and thus this decision would really help in bridging the demand and supply gap. Students would be able to complete their graduation before choosing a specialized line for themselves. Once the changes are implemented, a graduate from any discipline, with 55% marks, would be able to join the course with appearing for CPT which is an entry level test for the joining the course. Students from diverse branches will enter the field and this will given diversification to the profession itself.

Source: The Times of India