Engineering entrances to be scrapped


The government is expected to scrap all engineering entrance exams from 2013-14. It has also come up with a novel idea of hiking Tuition fees of the students will also be hiked but the students will have to pay up once they get a job.


At present there are around 150 entrance exams a year including various state boards and institutions and the IITs. All these exams would be scrapped including the IIT-JEE and the AIEEE. All this was announced in a meeting of IIT Council (IIT directors) and officials from the ministry of human resource development (HRD). It was chaired by Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal.


He said, “There will be one merit list. Intitutes, including the IITs, will have to pick up students from this list. The list will be based on Std 12 marks and the entrance test results. Also, students will be counselled before they choose a course.” This test will be just like the common entrance exam for medical courses which would begin from next year.


A five-fold fee hike is proposed for IITs (BTech and MTech programmes). Sibal further said that the students would continue paying Rs 50,000 as annual fee, but they would have to “pay back” the difference money — the fee paid by a student and the money spent on him by an IIT after they get a job. They can pay in easy instalments. Due to government subsidy the current fees is nominal. But the actual cost is around Rs 6-8 lakh per student. 


SC/ST and OBC categories and students going for higher education or joining an IIT faculty would be exempted so as to encourage students to take up research work and meet the faculty shortage.


The degrees will be in a DMAT format. They will reflect the difference money as loan and employers will be told to deduct it from a student’s salary and deposit it with the government.


Source: DNA

Diploma in Child Rights, Child Protection and Juvenile Justice by IGNOU

The Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU’s) School of Law (SOL) in collaboration with PRAYAS will soon be launching a Diploma course in Child Rights, Child Protection and Juvenile Justice. This was recently announced by Prof. V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, IGNOU.

The course is structured to create career opportunities and to provide specialized training, understanding and working on contemporary issues of the juvenile justice system and child protection in the country. The professionals who are already working on the child related issues would also find it useful to develop the required skills. It would also be useful in identifying the appropriate resources and treatment plans available in the community.

The course is needed because in Special Juvenile Police Units, at least one police officer with aptitude and appropriate training and orientation may be designated as the Juvenile and Child Welfare Officer. It would help in fulfilling the need of legal mandate and keeping India’s promise to save the rights of children. A lot of trained personnel are in demand in dealing with ‘Children in need of care and protection’ and ‘Juveniles in conflict with law.

The course would benefit the lawyers, police officers, NGO personnel, CWC member and social workers.

This Diploma course in Child Rights, Child Protection and Juvenile Justice, is of one year duration and part-time wherein 8 courses (7 theoretical, 1 practical) would be taught. The practical aspect will include the internship in observation homes, child welfare committees and non-governmental organizations.

Educationist and experts from IGNOU, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Home Affairs, UNICEF, PRAYAS, Special Unit for Women and Child, Jamia Millia Islamia’s Department of Social Work and Save the Children (NGO) together are preparing the study material of the course.

The learners would to gain understanding of the basic nature, problems and issues related to child protection and juvenile justice. They would also learn to build capacities and commitment aimed at ensuring prevention, timely intervention and accountability for promoting a healthy childhood. They would get training in developing a synergy between theory and practice on issues of child protection and juvenile justice.

The programme also prepares the personnel to manage various positions for effectively implementing juvenile legislation; improve their skills and comprehension; creates and enhances large scale social awareness and advocacy; enables legal, administrative and social work practitioners to seek the creation of new law in response to the newly emerging societal needs and improves the institutional infrastructure for implementing institutional services for children.

NGO personnels (at least a graduate) working in various child welfare fields, law enforcement agency officers, lawyers, magistrates, counselors, probation officers, social workers, superintendents/ deputy superintendents of observation/ remand homes and other institutions providing services to children can join this course.

Though the eligibility for the course is graduation in any stream but preference would be given to the post graduate in Social work/ psychology/ sociology from a recognized university or PG Diploma in rehabilitation psychology or professionals having minimum two years of working experience with law enforcement agency.

After doing the course, the students would become eligible to work posts in various government and non-government organizations that uphold child rights and protection, curb child trafficking or deal with the cases of missing children.

Source: India Blooms

Finance and consultancy preferred by IIM-A students'

IIM-A students prefer Finance and consultancy as a career choice. This was revealed by the first final placement report (for 2011) released by the institute. The report is as per the Indian Placement Reporting Standards.

The Director of IIM-A said that after consultancy and finance, manufacturing companies have now begun hiring aggressively.

Jobs opportunities are on a rise in India since offices of the multinational companies are being setting up here.

Consulting and Finance has remained the most preferred choice by those who have pursued the IIM-A's flagship Post Graduate Programme (PGP). There are 314 eligible students for final placements in 2011.

In consulting and finance 91 and 93 offers have been accepted respectively by the students.

The final placements process started on February 12 at IIM-A. There were 120 firms that participated in the lateral and final placement process.

The reports have also stated that the median per year salary offered to students in banking, finance services and insurance (BFSI) and consulting was Rs 15.30 lakh and Rs 13.60 lakh respectively.

IPRS has been adopted by IIM-A since this year so that transparency could be brought about in reporting of placement data and standardise placement reports across campuses in the country. This is expected to provide authentic data to prospective B-school students that would be comparable.

CRISIL has audited the IIM-A's final placement report for 2011 which is as per IPRS.

Source: Bhaskar

Jewellery designing to become a major career option by 2015

Jewellery designing to become a major career option by 2015 

Recently a survey has been undertaken by apex industry body ASSOCHAM, according to which the gems and jewellery industry in India is likely to reach Rs. 2.13 lakh crore by 2015. The industry is said to be continuously growing at a steady rate of 15 per cent.
At present the domestic gems and jewellery market stands at Rs. 1.22 lakh crore. It is expected that jewellery designing will become as one of the most affluent career options in Indian employment market. The reason for this is attributed to high growth rate in the economy.

There is even increase in the demand for courses related to the subject.  This was reported by the premier institute in Jewellery Designing, Pearl Academy of Fashion. Though jewellery has always been an inseparable part of Indian culture but the sector has witnessed major changes in product styles, aesthetics and retail environments all due to ever changing socio-cultural scenario of the country. There is great scope for the professional growth in this sector because of the India aesthetic heritage coupled with the industry growth.

More and more man trained power is needed in jewellery industry. If there is availability of structured training through a well developed curriculum, the industry could grow leaps and bounds with new innovative designs with different materials. Pearl Academy of Fashion offers such courses that equip students with comprehensive skills and knowledge in jewellery design. They are also taught about latest global design trends. They are also given experience and knowledge of marketing, management of a jewellery business.

After the completion of course graduates can be hired as designers in a range of business and manufacturing sectors including jewellery and lifestyle products. They may even develop their own entrepreneurial setup.

Source: IndiaInfoLine

One year internship mandatory for dental students

One year internship mandatory for dental students

Now all undergraduate dental students would have to undergo a one-year-internship before getting their BDS degree. This has become mandatory for them.

It is for the first time that the internship will also include a three-month compulsory rural posting. The re-introduction of a one-year rotational, compulsory and paid internship in the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course has been approved by the Union health minister Gulam Nabi Azad.

The duration of course will be of four years with an additional one-year internship. Though the new norm is going to be implemented from this academic year (2011-12), but it is also applicable for batches admitted in the 2008-09 session.

The Dental Council of India (DCI), in 2007, had made the BDS degree a five-year regular course and had dropped the need for any hands-on training with patients. The reason behind this step was the lack of seriousness among the students.

A ministry official said, "Students on completion of a four-year theoretical BDS course will have to undertake the year-long clinical programme.” This is almost same as that done by the Medical Council of India (MCI) with the revised MBBS curriculum.
It was also considered that most of the dental colleges in India are private. So majority of students wouldn't attend the internship and there were chances of obtaining a fake certificate by them. Moreover in the final year there were nine subjects which led to great pressure on the students. So BDS was made a five-year course without internship. But now it is felt that internship is an important part of the training.

The order by Union health ministry stated, "The revised BDS course — 3rd Amendment Regulations, 2011 — also incorporate three months of compulsory rural attachment. All parts of internship will be done in a dental college duly recognized/approved by Dental Council of India for the purpose of imparting education to dental graduates in the country."

Source: The Times of India

Ban on PhD and MPhil lifted

Ban on PhD and MPhil lifted

The two year ban on distance PhD and Mphil has been lifted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) after widespread protests by various universities. Protests came from many Open Learning Universities like IGNOU on the ground that their respective laws, passed by Parliament or legislatures, allowed them to provide such courses.

A meeting was held by UGC on the issue last month. There it was decided to lift the ban. The minutes of the meeting said, “An open university may be permitted to conduct MPhil/PhD programmes through distant education mode subject to condition that it does so strictly as per the provisions of the UGC Regulations.”

IGNOU vice-chancellor Rajasekharan Pillai has assured that they would follow the rules and their regulations are already stricter than those of the UGC.

UGC has lifted the ban but it has imposed another condition for Phd. It says that the principal guide should be from the Open University. The UGC had clamped the bar by notifying a rule — the Minimum Standards and Procedure for Awards of MPhil/PhD Degree Regulation — in 2009. All this has come up because UGC believes that research courses in the distant mode were of poor quality. 

The regulations would definitely affect the future of nearly 10,000 students pursuing such courses across the country. The academician who has been as to frame a policy on distance education, M. Madhava Menin said, “There should not be any blanket ban on MPhil or PhD in distance mode. If institutions meet the required quality parameters, they should be allowed to offer such courses.” His report would be submitted next month.

The other area of concern is the inadequate infrastructure of many open universities for carrying out research work.Regarding all this a meeting will be held on 15^th September to lay the appropriate guidelines.

Source: India Education Review

Licentiate Test for MBBS graduates

Licentiate Test for MBBS graduates

Those who now wish to practice medicine in future would have to follow up their MBBS course with a licentiate examination.

The MBBS graduates would not have to clear the licentiate India Medical Graduates (IMG) degree test, after a one-year internship if they want to do medical practice in the country. This crucial reform has been mooted by the Medical Council of India (MCI). This will come up for discussion at the national summit to be held at Manekshaw Centre, Parade Road, Delhi, on September 12.

After the acceptance of this proposal, MBBS graduates would have to complete a one-year internship in a hospital before they can appear for the licentiate examination. All the principals from medical colleges in the State have been invited to the meet who woul give suggestions based on the local needs of the state.

In another important move which is put forward by the MCI, there is a proposal of abolition of entrance examination for PG courses. PG entrants will be selected on the basis of the marks obtained at the MBBS level and the marks obtained in the internship to get the IMG. Students for the PG courses will be selected from a national-level merit list, prepared after taking into account the marks obtained in the theory test and in the licentiate test.

These new reforms would be optionally implemented from 2013 and would become mandatory from 2017.

Under-graduate students will have to do a foundation course for two months which would comprise of medical ethics, communication, health economics, biohazards and environmental issues, in tune with the proposed reforms.

There is also a suggestion for the introduction a new two-year M Med scheme at PG level. After obtaining M Med, students will have the option of getting MD, dual degrees, PhD and DM.

The draft paper of the MCI has also suggested that the number of examinations of MBBS will be reduced from four to three.

Source: IBNLive

Indian jobs market remains optimistic

Indian jobs market remains optimistic

There is a spurt of layoffs worldwide which has been triggered by tough business conditions. But Indian employment market, even in such conditions, remains optimistic about the buoyant hiring prospects in the retail sector.  

In India companies are now focussing more on getting the right talent rather than recruiting in large numbers.  

Staffing services firm, Ma Foi Randstad, is of the opinion that till now India remains insulated from the phenomenan of worldwidelayoffs happening at present.  Thus the Indian employment market seems "cautiously optimistic."

It is estimated that about 1.5 million new jobs are being created annually in India, which is way less than the number of people entering the labour market every year.  

Global HR major Hay Group's Mayank Pande said, "Hiring activities are still on the accelerator, with recruitments expected to grow exponentially in the retail sector."

Companies, in India, are now more serious about getting the right talent... many are looking for lesser number but more skilled and efficient people. Companies are also now weighing expenses before recruitment.  

Sectors like defence, hospitality, nuclear power and retail are likely to increase hiring activities in the coming years. Here, small and medium companies increase their workforce by about 10 to 15 per cent every year, while large corporations increase their head count by around five per cent every year, says an estimate.  

Many global corporations  like Cisco, Nokia, Research In Motion (RIM), Credit Suisse, and US-based Merck & Co have decided to have massive job cuts in the wake of tough global economic  conditions. There are also aggressive cost cutting measures that are being taken. 

American pharma major Merck & Co has recently announced their plans to slash around 13,000 jobs. In the same way Blackberry-maker Research In Motion said it would cut 2,000 jobs while Cisco intends to reduce its workforce by about 6,500. 

Source: The Economic Times

Outsourcing demand fuels TCS to hire 60,000 more

Demand for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)'s outsourcing services is increasing tremendously. The company has hired 70,000 workers during the last fiscal year and looking forward to add 60,000 more this year.
Tata Consultancy projects annual sales have quadrupled since 2005 to $8.4 billion. There are further expected to increase 20 percent this year.  Being the rivals, Infosys Technologies and Wipro are also rushing to find large number of qualified candidates beacuse global IT purchases are growing by 7.1%.

TCS specializes in using low-cost IT workers to replace more expensive labour in developed countries. Due to this it succeeded in having contracts with Deutsche Bank, Hilton Worldwide and Air Liquide last fiscal year. TCS which is regarded as Asia's largest computer-services provider by market value reported record annual income of $2 billion.

TCS' vice-president for human resources said, "What we're trying to do is make sure the supply chain is large enough to meet our growth requirements in the future."

Since Microsoft and International Business Machines are going to open facilities in India, and the local banking, finance and manufacturing industries also are hiring their own computer engineers, TCS wants to keep the pipeline of talent filled. One can also see that attrition at TCS, Infosys and Wipro rose to its highest annual levels in the year.

There is rise in attrition over the last four quarters is essentially due to the pent-up demand. There is a race for hiring from each other.

It is expected that TCS will offer raises of 12% to 14%, which the highest in three years.  Following the trend, Infosys is expected to raise salaries for domestic workers by 10 percent to 12 percent this fiscal year.

The International Monetary Fund said that our economy would grow by 8.2% this year after expanding 10.4% in the previous 12 months. India's software industry now employs about 2.5 million people and there is still a hiring spree in the IT companies.

Source: The Economic Times

Fees hiked for many professional courses

Fees hiked for many professional courses

Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ranchi, and Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Mesra, have hiked the fees, making professional courses expensive by up to 50 per cent from this academic session.

The PG program in management at IIM-Ranchi now costs Rs 9 lakh (for two years) from the 2011 academic session. It has increased by 50 per cent. In the last session, the fee was Rs 6 lakh.

Tuition fees, room rent, course material and library and computer charges will now be Rs 1.5 lakh per semester. Working executives with five years of experience will have to pay Rs 4.5 lakh for the 18 month post graduate executive programme in management.
BIT-Mesra has also hiked fess by 25 per cent for the undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

The new fee structure would be effective from July 2011. For BE and BPharm studies, the per semester fees would be Rs 65,000. Apart from this there is one-time admission fee of Rs 5,000 and caution money (refundable) of Rs 10,000. This a BE or BPharm student ends up paying Rs 80,000 per semester.

Per semester of bachelor of architecture (BArch) has increased by Rs 5,000. The total semester fee is now Rs 70,000. Bachelor of hotel management and catering technology (BHMCT) students need to pay Rs 60,000 a semester while BSc in food production technology (FPT) will cost Rs 40,000 every six months. 

Fees for postgraduate programmes like masters in engineering and master in pharmaceutical sciences, besides MTech and MSc programmes, has also been raised at BIT-Mesra. 

Jamshedpur-based XLRI has increased the for its two-year postgraduate programmes in business management and human resource management from Rs 8.5 lakh to Rs 9.8 lakh from this academic session. 

XLRI’s course fee for one-year general management programme has also been jacked up to Rs 13.7 lakh from Rs 9.9 lakh i.e. almost a hike of 40 per cent.

This hike has been there due to salary hikes of the teacher according to the Sixth Pay Commission

Source: Telegraph

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

Salaries to increase around 10-13% across industries this year

Many companies are about to increase the salaries of their employees by 10% to 13% this year.  The job market in India now looks promising. The trend will be seen across various industries this year. Many innovative methods are now being explored to retain the workforce. All this came from a survey undertaken by Kelly Services.

Kelly Services' which is a staffing firm, says in its annual Employment Outlook and Salary Guide 2011-12, that the year 2011 has proved a breather for the Indian employees as far as salary hike is concerned.

The Managing Director of Kelly Services recently said, "Companies are now exploring innovative methods to successfully retain their workforce across sectors. They are actively involved in finding out what their top talent wants and are implementing various motivational methods”.

Most of the companies are also offering 'spot bonuses' to employees in order to retain them. The companies now want to maintain parity in terms of basic salaries among their workforce. This is expected to keep bright talent from being taken away.

The industries where salary hike is seen are manufacturing sector, construction, pharma & healthcare, BFSI, education, IT and ITES and real estate & construction.

IT industry has also seen increment of lateral hiring especially positions with niche skills. Even the middle level has also seen a rise in salary. An increase in salary for senior professionals is also witnessed in the finance/sales & marketing segment of BFSI sector. In order to attract the manpower, the Engineering sector - oil & gas mid and senior level has also seen a rise in salary this fiscal year. In the oil and gas sector, the salary hike of around Rs 10 lakh is seen.  


Source: The Economic Times

ICICI Bank and NISM to offer 1 year PGCSM programme

National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM), an educational initiative undertaken by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) together with ICICI Bank which is India's largest bank in private sector, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding the a specialised programme in "Post Graduate Certificate in Securities Markets" (PGCSM) which is being offered by them. 

This partnership is being considered as a unique tie-up between industry and education sector.  

The MoU was signed by the Senior Vice President, NISM and the Senior General Manager, ICICI Bank in the presence of Chairman of SEBI and Chairman, Board of Governors, NISM and Managing Director & CEO, ICICI Bank.

The objective of the programmed is to create integrated professional programmes that would be useful in imparting functional skills to improve the quality of securities market professionals. It would also help individuals in their career and overall growth. 

There are exciting opportunities in the financial sector. Those who are seeking growth, diversity and challenge in their careers can bank upon such opportunities. This programme would enable these professionals to meet their aspirations. This partnership is expected to be a landmark initiative and a great success.

PGCSM is of one year duration. It is a specialized and integrated programme. It would focuses on providing a high degree of conceptual grounding and skill building. It would also give industry exposure. On successful completion of the PGCSM Programme, the candidates would be placed in the treasury and investment functions within the ICICI Group companies. 

Money Control

Gujarat University to start India's first dual degree system

The Gujarat University has given a proposal to the University Grants Commission (UGC) that it should be allowed to give two degrees simultaneously to its students.
All this has come up after getting inspiration by the tenth plan of UGC, which wants to have parallel education system. The tenth plan of the UGC clearly states the parallel education concept should be given encouragement. Students should be able to obtain a degree and diploma or a dual degree. Colleges and university should be encouraged to do so.

There is no university in India at present, as per the UGC norms, which allows a student to study for two degrees simultaneously. But the existing rules allow students to take up a degree course and a diploma course together.

The Vice Chancellor of the varsity, V-C Parimal Trivedi has written to the UGC, said that they want to follow the footsteps of foreign universities and has asked for the permission to confer dual degrees. 

After getting permission from UGC, a student who is pursuing post graduation in arts, commerce or science would also be able to study for the bachelor of law (LLB) degree simultaneously. 

The V-C says, “If a student has the capacity and eligibility, he or she can study for one course in the morning, while attending classes for the other one in the evening or afternoon”.

After the approval of the proposal, the Gujarat University will be the first university in the country to offer dual degrees. The students would be given admission in two different courses on the basis of the subjects studied in previous classes.

Source: Times of India