FM sops to hike liquidity
 

New Delhi, Oct. 15: The finance minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, on Wednesday announced more measures to ease the tight liquidity situation. These include, immediate package of Rs 25,000 crore to banks under farm waiver scheme and increase cap on foreign investment in corporate bonds.ῠ These steps came after a high-powered meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Tuesday, which discussed measures further required to be taken in view of the global financial crisis.

“Under the agricultural debt waiver and debt relief scheme, the government had agreed to provide a sum of Rs 25,000 crore as the first installment to the commercial banks, RRBs and cooperative credit institutions . It is felt that this money should be provided immediately,” said Mr Chidambaram.ῠ He said that on the request of the government, the RBI has agreed to provide this amount to the lending institutions immediately. The money made available to the commercial banks is Rs 7,500 crore and to the Nabard Rs 17,500 crore. There will be no requirement of providing collateral, said the finance minister.

Mr Chidambaram said that while Indian banks were well capitalised, they would be given access to funds to raise their capital adequacy ratio up to 12 per cent.ῠ “Our banks are well capitalised. Their CRARs are well above the basel norm of eight per cent and the RBI stipulated norm of nine per cent. No bank has a capital adequacy of less than 10 per cent,” said the finance minister.

He said that the details of the capitalisation scheme are being worked out. Mr Chidambaram said that the limit of FII investment in corporate bonds will be raised from $3 billion to $6 billion. “The Sebi has informed me that it will address any requests for relaxation in the proportion of investment in equity and debt required to be maintained by an FII under current regulations,” he said.

Mr Chidambaram said that after the Reserve Bank of India, the government is also issuing an advisory to public sector banks impressing upon them the need to ensure easy drawdown against sanctioned limits and continued active parti-cipation in the inter-bank call money market.

Sensex tanks 674 pts
 

Mumbai, Oct. 15: Weak global cues saw the market open down 250 points and the Sensex plunge further after the L&T results were out. They were below street expectations and raised fe-ars that the corporate res-ults which are yet to come would be on similar lines.ῠ Short selling in the L&T stock saw the stock loose Rs 110. “The stock was ruling around Rs 950 and a few seconds before the announcement of the results the stock went to Rs 942. There was heavy shorting in the stock and several other stocks like Reliance Infra and RCom,” said Mr Alok Agarwal, head, research, K.R. Choksey Securities.

No merger for Goyal, Mallya
 

Hyderabad, Oct. 15: The Jet Airways chairman, Mr Naresh Goyal and the Kingfisher Airlines chairman, Mr Vijay Mallya, on Wednesday ruled out merger of India’s top two private airlines.ῠ The two airlines account for about 60 per cent of the market share.

“There is no equity swap. Our understanding is for purely commercial all-iance,” Dr Mallya said. Speaking to the media, Mr Goyal said that the alliance is not a marriage of convenience and the consolidation in the aviation industry is inevitable.

He said, “It (alliance) had happened in the US and the Europe and it has happened for the first time in India.” He said that the rationalisation of routes, capacity and costs are essential for survival and that market share was not the answer to profitability.ῠ “There are instances where fighting for market share made the companies go bankrupt in the US,” he added.

Mr Goyal said that the break-even point for the aviation sector is at 90 per cent capacity utilisation, while the companies are operating between 60-70 per cent. “On top of this, international airlines are dumping capacity in India, lowering their prices knowing we cannot match the competition…. therefore we have to work together,” he said. On the lay-off of 850 Jet Airways’ employees, Mr Goyal said those employees were on probation and the company has just not extended the probation.

He said even Air-India can join the alliance, if wants. Later in the day, the Union civil aviation minister, Mr Praful Patel, said the government does not have any details of the deal. “In absence of such details, we cannot comment on it,” he added.ῠ However, he said the government will not have any problem, if the alliance is within the rules and regulations of the aviation ministry.

Crude falls to $76 bbl
 

London, Oct. 15: Oil prices fell on Wednesday to their lowest in 13 months, dragged down by expectations that economic weakness will cut further into demand for crude.ῠ The US crude was down $3.76 a barrel at $74.87 by 11:04 am EDT. It touched a session low of $74.62, its lowest since September last year. London Brent crude was $4.03 down at $70.50 a barrel. Stock markets also fell sharply and the dollar weakened against the yen as global recession fears returned to centrestage after governments around the world pledged trillions of dollars for bank bailouts.

A weak performance from the US retailers provided evidence of the slowdown. The retailers suffered their biggest monthly drop in sales in more than three years in September. Recession in the world’s top consumer the US and other key markets could further dam-pen oil demand.ῠῠ

Lodha’s son to claim Birla assets
 

HARSH VARDHAN Lodha would soon move Calcutta High Court seeking conversion of his father’s proceedings for the over Rs 5,000-crore M.P. Birla group assets, for which late Rajendra Singh Lodha had filed a probate application vide a will by Ms Priyamvada Birla. “Harsh Lodha will apply in the high court for conversion of Mr R.S. Lodha’s proceedings after it reopens following puja vacation,” said Mr Lodha’s counsel, Mr Debanjan Mondal. The Birlas and Rajendra Singh Lodha had been fighting a bitter legal battle over the M.P. Birla group assets with the probate petition pending in the high court.

Tatas to pay Rs 900/sq mt to Gujarat

THE GUJARAT government on Wednesday decided to charge Rs 900 per square meter from Tatas for the 1,100 acre land given for Nano Car Project in Sanand, officials sources said. The state cabinet meeting chaired by the chief minister, Mr Narendra Modi, took this decision on the basis of recommendation of state-level land valuation committee of the Gujarat government. Tata Group will have to pay Rs 400.65 crore for the 1,100 acres of the land at the rate of Rs 900 per square metre.

Tata Motors develops LPG trucks

COUNTRY’S BIGGEST truckmaker Tata Motors on Wednesday said its Korean commercial vehicle subsidiary has developed the prototype of the 4.5 tonne LPG truck in association with the Korean government. “The vehicle was developed by Tata Daewoo in association with the ministries of commerce, industry and energy, Korea Energy Management Corporation and a consortium of 12 organisations,” Tata Motors said in a statement. The first Korean LPG medium commercial vehicle would be of 4.5 tonne payload and would conform to EURO V emission norms, it added. The truck is powered with a Liquid Phase Injection engine.

No tax for RNOR
 
By Kamal Rathi

Q. I was a non-resident In-dian for the last ten financial years (1998-99 to 2007-2008) and stayed in India for only 370 days in that period. Further, I stayed for only 307 days in India during last seven financial years. Consider-ing this, can I avail benefit of Resident Not Ordinar-ily Resident (RNOR) status for three fiscal years?

Can I claim the benefit of tax free (as available to an NRI) interest for three financial year on my investments such as NRE deposits and FCNR deposits in view of my RNOR status. Kindly tell me, if such benefits are for two or three years, if I fulfil both the conditions.

I have to inform my banks to treat me as an RNOR and also treat my deposits as the same.

Do I have to file income tax return as Resident Not Ordinarily Resident (RNOR) showing interest income and claim rebate or filing tax return is not necessary?

Dwarkanath Narayan, Mysore, Via E-mail.

A. According to Section 6(6) of the Income Tax Act, a person is said to be “not ordinarily resident” in India in any previous year if such person is an individual who has been a non-resident in India in nine out of the ten previous years preceding that year, or has during the seven previous years preceding that year been in India for a period of, or periods amounting in all to, seven hundred and twenty nine days or less.

On the above facts, you will not be liable to tax on the income from investments outside India for two financial years 2008-09 and 2009-10, since you will be able to fulfil at least one condition laid down under Section 6(6), namely being a non resident for nine years during the ten years preceding the relevant financial year.

According to Section 139(1), an individual should furnish a return of income in the prescribed form, if his total income during the previous year exceeded the maximum amount which is not chargeable to income tax.

Hence, if your total income exceeds the threshold limit, you need to file income tax return. You will be entitled to claim the admissible deductions permissible under the provisions of Income Tax Act.

(Kamal Rathi is a chartered accountant, representing Rathi & Malani, a Hyderabad-based accounting firm. Readers can mail their queries on income-tax tokamalrathi.ca@gmail.com)

Honda eyes small car biz
 

Kolkata, Oct. 15: The Indian small car market will see yet another player entering the domain with the Japanese car manufacturer Honda designing a car for domestic consumption, the automobile maker said on Wednesday.  “We are designing a small car which will be launched a few years down the line,”said Mr Jnaneswar Sen vice-president (marketing) Honda Siel Cars India, the Indian subsidiary of the Japanese company said here. The car would be placed in the B, B+ segment, Mr Sen said.

The company would launch a premium hatchback model by 2009 summer. The model has been named ‘Jazz’ and would have a engine capacity of 1200 cc, he said.  Launching the new Honda City, Mr Sen said that the company’s second production base was coming up at Rajashthan and would be ready by the end of 2009.  The company would make an investment of Rs 1,000 crore at its Rajashthan plant. The initial capacity would be 60,000 units per annum, which would be expanded up to two lakh units per annum.  Last year, the company sold 62,000 units across all its models.

Quality’s name of game
 

Bengaluru, Oct. 15: While the old slogan of ‘come to us for cost and stay with us for quality’ still holds good for the Indian IT/ITES sector, it has marched way ahead and today plays a distinct role in enhancing the customers’ business outcome. This is accomplished by increasing the customer’s revenue, collections or market share and delivering a great customer experience. The question is, how important is the role of the ‘quality’ in the business of delivering customer delight? While the question seems like a no-brainer, the answer is somewhat startling, as this correspondent discovered, at the fourth edition of the two-day, Nasscom Quality Summit, 2008 which opened in the city on Wednesday.

Says Arjun Singh, CEO (BFSI), WNS Global Services P Ltd: “While it is clear to most people the world over, that by adopting Six Sigma, corporations can save zillions of dollars by allowing for better product development, quicker time-to-market, improved processes and delivering customer delight, the stark reality in the Indian context is that companies in the BPO space score a measly three out of ten when it comes to adopting the power of Six Sigma. The problem lies in the fact that business leaders seldom buy into the Six Sigma strategy, even when it is obvious that it has the power to transform the way businesses are done.” Six Sigma is a business management strategy that uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, which seeks to identify and remove the causes of defects and errors in business processes.

While most organisations continually implement quality practices, they are faced with practical challenges along the way. “One major issue I have to contend with is the fact that the quality team in my company are mere matrix collectors and do not concern themselves with the nuances of delivering product quality. What is actually required is for them to interpret the matrices and for this they need domain expertise. This is rarely the case, as most experts consider the quality function unglamorous,” said Rajiv Mody, chairman, Sasken. Quality is an absolutely strategic function, even in times of a financial meltdown or a storm in a business cycle, because it ultimately reflects in the value delivered to the customer. Even as most companies consider ‘process quality’ an absolute hygiene factor on which ‘product quality’ is built, there is a dire need for quality to be incorporated at every stage in the product development lifecycle.

“Companies create different departments to handle different functions. But quality as a function cannot be the responsibility of one department alone,” said N Chandrasekaran, COO & executive director, TCS.

Bobby Mitra, MD, Texas Instruments, agrees. “If quality is relegated to one department then checks tend to become sloppy. Quality needs to be a part of every deliverable because there is no God at the end to check it for all defects, which get introduced into the product at every level.”

Belt-tightening ahead for IT
 

New York, Oct.15: On Wall Street, the prices of shares in technology companies have been bouncing around even more than most other industry sectors. Tech stocks were battered on Tuesday, driving down the overall market.

The picture is mixed and uncertain. But based on the early readings before quarterly earnings begin in earnest soon. IBM, surrounded by rumours of weakness, announced its third-quarter results in advance last week, beating analysts’ estimates. Oracle, too, says it is holding up fine. But SAP, the enterprise software maker, and Rackable Systems, which supplies server computers to big Web companies and many smaller businesses, recently lowered guidance for the quarter.

Gartner this week presented its information technology spending projections for 2009, and it sees the souring economy taking a toll. Its worst-case projection (incr-easingly likely, it seems) places worldwide growth in technology spending at 2.3 per cent for 2009, down from 5.8 per cent previously. Stronger Asian markets like China are propping up the overall numbers. In North America, Gartner sees spending growth at half a per cent in 2009, down from 5.3 per cent previously.

In an interview, Peter Sondergaard, Gartner’s senior vice president for global research, explained that information technology was now so integral a part of business operations that spending was no longer going to be much higher or lower than the broad economy. “This isn’t like the 2000 to 2002 period, when much of the world lost confidence in IT,” he said.

Horizons will shorten, and projects that can wait likely will. “CIOs have to learn to think like CFOs,” he explained, using the common shorthand for chief information officers and chief financial officers. At a conference this week, Mr. Sondergaard offered a “top 10″ list for squeezing more out of tight budget dollars. In the spirit of the new austerity, we’ll just give you the top five (the bottom five don’t add much):

1. Reduce headcount and freeze hiring.
2. Curtail data center expansions and “virtualise” servers, putting more software loads on fewer machines. 3. Renegotiate with technology and services suppliers.
4. Consolidate functions and systems to achieve greater economies of scale.
5. Outsource commodity services.

It’s enough to warm any CFO’s heart.

Diagnose biz gains traction
 

Bengaluru, Oct. 15: On a computer monitor in his office in the high-tech hub of Bengaluru, Indian radiologist Arjun Kalyanpur examines a scan of the skull of a six-year-old boy who fell off his bicycle. A few minutes later, thousands of miles away, doctors at a hospital in Philadelphia prepare the boy for surgery after receiving an urgent email from Kalyanpur diagnosing a subdural hemorrhage in the child’s brain.

It’s the middle of the night in the United States, but it’s daytime in Bangalore and Kalyanpur and his team of 35 radiologists are reading hundreds of scans sent by hospitals across the United States during the night shift. “ERs in the U.S. find it difficult to staff at night. There’s a radiologist shortage in the U.S. as well,” Kalyanpur said.

Bangalore, the outsourcing capital of the world, is becoming a global center for telemedicine thanks to a pool of Western educated doctors, extensive outsourcing infrastructure, lower costs and a convenient time zone to diagnose medical conditions during the U.S. night. Teleradiologists in India read X-rays, CT scans, magnetic resonance imaging and other medical images of patients in the United States, Singapore and a host of other countries around the world.

It’s ideal for hospitals facing ballooning costs and a shortage of radiologists. And it’s not just teleradiology, experts say just about every area of medicine that does not require direct patient interaction could be outsourced in the future. This could include scans of pathology samples, ECGs, EEGs and other diagnostic systems used to determine a preliminary diagnosis.

“Telemedicine is on the rise,” said Avinash Vashistha, the CEO of Tholon Inc, a private equity advisory firm, who has written a book about outsourcing. “Once it acquires critical mass in 2 to 3 years, we expect the thrust to come from insurance companies as they recognise the cost benefits and lower premiums for the plans that have components of telemedicine.” There are some concerns, though, that it might lead to dangerous misdiagnosis and even those in the industry admit that regulation hasn’t caught up with technology when it comes to medical malpractice, ethics and legal liability.

Liability, privacy and malpractice issues pose challenges as this new industry expands without a supporting international regulatory framework as well as an ethical code of conduct. “In the end the challenge really is when you’re doing something for the U.S. and something happens, who’s liable for it?,” said Vashistha. The business is lucrative and already there are 10 or more teleradiology firms in India as well as several in the United States, some of which are listed companies.

Deccan Chronicle

Time to bell the CAT
 
Dr. A.M. Sherry

Preparation for CAT needs developing proficiency in a) understanding the fundamentals of the relevant subjects; b) applying the concepts which have been learnt in those subjects; and c) regular test practice. Here is an in depth look at each section῅

Data Interpretation

This section includes questions based on bar graphs, line graphs, pie charts, caselets, etc. The questions could well be observation-based, calculation-intensive, based on deductive reasoning, etc., therefore the right interpretation of such questions is crucial.

Read the questions carefully before attempting them. If you feel they can be solved easily, attempt to do them. If not you can always go back to them later. However, decide how much time you are going to allot to each question or set of questions.

In order to make the proper data interpretation you should be well versed with the latest news. So read business related articles from magazines, journals and newspapers. Regular reading of such articles will make you feel confident and more comfortable with the terms or jargon used in such articles. It will help you understand and analyse data in a better way.

Data Sufficiency

The questions falling in this section may be based on judgment or may need to be worked out. You should therefore use the information supplied in the statements. You will also have to find out whether the statement is sufficient to answer the question. It is feasible that you may get different answers with different statements.

Problem Solving

In this section, there are four main areas - Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Modern Mathematics. You must ensure that you are proficient in the concepts of these areas of Mathematics. You also have to identify the area/s where you are more comfortable so that when you attempt this section, you should start with those questions where you are more comfortable. After that, attempt other questions so that your level of confidence remains intact and no time is wasted on any question.

Reading Comprehension

Develop the habit of doing some general reading on a regular basis. Scanning a passage to find some key words is very helpful if you are answering questions in a very short time. Read the passage as quickly as possible so as to arrive at the essence of the subject matter. In this section, the questions could be direct, indirect or inferential or partly inferential in nature. The level of difficulty in these questions is important and may range from easy to medium to difficult.

Verbal Ability and Verbal Reasoning

Adding to your vocabulary on a regular basis is the key to get a good score in this section. Finding new words from the dictionary and writing them repeatedly will assist you in committing them to memory. This will also help you increase your verbal ability. Knowing the general concepts which are normally tested in grammar, such as subject verb disagreement, mismatch of tenses, defective parallelism, etc. will help you to strengthen your verbal ability. The jumbled paragraphs in the Verbal Reasoning section are meant to test your ability to eliminate the wrong options and thus test your level of reasoning.

The author is Chairman, Joint Admission Committee, IMT, Ghaziabad, Nagpur and Dubai

Your expense account
 

Expenses and budgets are what we are all familiar with. But for students on their way to study abroad, costs can become nightmarish to juggle around especially if you don’t know what to budget for. Apart from tuition fees, you will have to know what available funds you have and what other expenses to expect. Here is a rough guide to get you started῅

You will have to set aside money for tuition fees, accommodation, food, transport (airfare, train tickets, bus fares etc), stationary including buying a computer if you need to/or computer equipment. Personal expenses such as medicine, toiletries, clothes. Health insurance, and of course some money for additional ‘fun’ expenses like movie tickets and so on.

Check with your college as a lot of universities provide some guidelines as to what you should budget for as expense money.

When you have totalled up the amount of money you will need you should open an account with a local bank and deposit the calculated amount. Arrange with the bank to have a cheque book and an ATM/debit card issued so that you can access your funds when needed. It is always wise to have some extra funds at your disposal. Says Sanjay Jain a postgraduate student at the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, University of Florida, “Always have some extra dollars to spend kept aside. I never for once thought of the extremely cold weather and when winter came around I found I needed some thermal wear and stuff like that which is quite expensive.” Experts advise that you record your weekly expenses at least for the first semester you are in college. Review your spending and see if you are staying within your budget. If you find you really can’t cut back on anything, revise your expenses. Avoid the use of credit cards. “It is very difficult to keep track of what you are spending if you use plastic money,” advises Jain. “Reserve the use of your card for emergencies,” he adds.

Health insurance is expensive but mandatory in some countries. However, buying health insurance via a group such as the Internation- al Student Organisation - which clubs international students together to provide lower insurance costs - would be a good idea to explore.

Listing down your expenses may be a bit painful and tedious at first but you will discover how beneficial the process will be in the long run!’

Student’sῠcorner

IIPM sweeps Devang Mehta Business School awards
The 16th B School Affaire, held at the Taj Lands End, Mumbai called on Deans, centre heads, professors, researchers and students from all B-schools to receive one of the most eagerly awaited B-School awards this year. IIPM bagged five awards at the competition.

The Best Teacher in Strategic & General Management went to Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri, with the institute bagging awards for B-School Leadership, Best inputs in Marketing, Best B-School for encouraging Leadership in its curriculum and Best B-School in Corporate Interface.

Right to Education Bill to be tabled
The Right to Education Bill, 2008 is likely to be introduced in the coming session of Parliament. Barring a few changes to the language of the draft legislation, the Group of Ministers (GoM) set up to consider the Bill has cleared most of its provisions. It includes 25 per cent reservation in private schools for disadvantaged children from the neighbourhood at the entry level and penal action in case schools conduct admission tests or charge capitation fees. These provisions will be equally applicable to government and private schools.

Aptech launches Campus2Career
Learning solutions company Aptech Ltd., in association with Italy-based training company Seven Rings International, has launched the C2C (Campus2Career) programme in India. The new training programme aims to make youth ‘employable’ by helping them build their soft skills and essential computer knowledge. C2C is to be conducted by Aptech with courseware from Seven Rings. At the end of the course, students can employ their skills in a real-time environment and get an experience certificate from a global organisation, helping them get jobs.

Business schools look to GRE
 

A number of B-schools and institutes across the globe are accepting the GRE General Test scores for admission to their graduate courses and MBA studies to add diversity to their applicant pools and to meet expectations from employers for more creative business leaders.

Says David Bach, Associate Dean of MBA Programs, Instituto de Empresa (IE) Business School, in Madrid, Spain, “Accepting the GRE supports our efforts to attract high-quality participants from very diverse backgrounds.” IE is ranked as one of the top 10 Business Schools world-wide by the Financial Times.

In recent months, other highly regarded European B-schools have also decided to accept GRE scores. These include the Helsinki School of Economics, the Barcelona School of Economics, ESADE Business School in Barcelona and the European School of Economics in London and other cities. In recent months, the GRE Programme has approved applications to receive GRE test scores from Georgetown Univer-sity Mc-Donough School of Business, MIT Sloan School of Management, University of Michigan Ross School of Business and Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School.

“Accepting GRE scores makes good business sense,” says ETS Associate Vice President David Payne. “Some people are surprised to learn that the GRE test measures the same basic cognitive skills as the GMAT test.” According to Payne, the GRE General Test includes many questions presented in a business context, including more than 70 per cent of the data interpretation questions in the GRE Quantitative Reasoning section. Furthermore, the level of Math content knowledge is the same in both the GRE and GMAT tests

Let’s make a new
 

In Indian history, very rarely has our nation come across a situation, all at a time, an ascending economic trajectory, continuously rising foreign exchange reserves, energy of 540 million youth, umbilical connectivities of 23 million people of Indian origin in various parts of the planet, with the potential sharing capacity of knowledge and interest shown by many developed countries to invest in our engineers and scientists including setting up of new Research & Development Centers. The distinction between public and the private sectors and the illusory primacy of one over the other is vanishing. Our technological competence and value systems with civilizational heritage are also highly respected. Foreign Institutional Investors are finding investing in India attractive. Our industrialists are also investing abroad and opening new business ventures. The Indian economy is growing with an average annual GDP growth rate of over 8%. Presently, we have the challenge of high inflation and a slight dip in GDP growth rate.

We have to meet this challenge and work for realizing the target of 10% GDP growth within the next two years. Now, let me give my visualization of India during the year 2020.

Distinctive profile of the nation

1. A Nation where the rural and urban divide has reduced to a thin line.
2. A Nation where there is an equitable distribution and adequate access to energy and quality water.
3. A Nation where agriculture, industry and service sector work together in symphony.
4. A Nation where education with value system is not denied to any meritorious candidates because of societal or economic discrimination.
5. A Nation which is the best destination for the most talented scholars, scientists, and investors.
6. A Nation where the best of health care is available to all.
7. A Nation where the governance is responsive, transparent and corruption free.
8. A Nation where poverty has been totally eradicated, illiteracy removed and crimes against women and children are absent and none in the society feels alienated.
9. A Nation that is prosperous, healthy, secure, devoid of terrorism, peaceful and happy and continues with a sustainable growth path.
10. A Nation that is one of the best places to live in and is proud of its leadership.

Discover your skills
 
By Sushmita Chatterjee

Schools and colleges help students in learning their subjects well. However, what they don’t teach is how that learning can be used to get a job of their choice. Apart from subject knowledge, acquiring training in soft skills has also become an important requirement by corporates these days. To cater to this problem, Metis ERC Pvt Ltd has come up with M-cube Campus Programme that can help students deal with the problem. Deccan Chronicle spoke with Rajesh Athihalli, Director of Metis to find out more about it.

QWhat is the aim of the programme?

It is called M-cube as it will help mould, mentor and mobilize the students. It will help students in “experiencing” and “applying” essential skills which is a corporate requirement. Training, assessment, recruitment and support would be the key focus areas. Anyone from PUC to professional course level can take the course.

QHow are you planning to execute it?

We have already started the programme and are working in partnership with institutions to enhance employability through training and recruitment, assessing and profiling candidates for job suitability and ensuring smooth transition for students from college to corporate life. We provide them training in live skills, stress management, aptitude, and test preparation for the corporate interview. They are also trained in organisational skills, team building, problem solving, and business writing.

QWhat is the duration of the programme?

If the students enroll with us individually, it is for two and a half months. However, if colleges tie-up with us for some specific batch of students, we customize it to their needs. It can be for 25 to 60 hours. We are targeting students of the remote areas as well.

QHow do students benefit?

The students learning is assessed on a day to day basis. They are sent for internship mid-way through the training. We also help them prepare a docket of their own having handwritten resume, our assessment, and our job suggestion presented to client. It helps the student walk into the interview room confidently. We help fix interviews for them through the industry contacts we have. Apart from all this, we take care of the student even six months after they get a job. We keep them updated on the soft skills and help them sort out issues of work place, till they learn to manage everything on their own. A certificate is awarded for the skills they acquire during the training.

QHow much is the fee for the course?

Rs 10,000 + tax for 100 hours of teaching.

QWhat is the eligibility to enroll for the course?

Anyone who is appearing for final semester exams or has cleared it with minimum of 50% marks is eligible. We conduct a written test before taking them in.

QWhich are the colleges with which you have tied-up with?

We have conducted workshops in RV College of engineering, BMS college of engineering, MATS Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Jain group of institutions, BTL College of engineering, SIT-Tumkur, SSIT-Tumkur, Acharya College of Management and Sciences, Manipal Universal Learning, Bhavan SIET college of management, SJC Institute of Management Studies, REVA Engineering college, Yellamma Dasappa Institute of Technology, St John’s College of management, Deva Matha Central School and SJES Institute of Management Studies, KLE International School. We haven’t gone ahead with any tie-ups yet, but we also have nearly 60 students who have enrolled with us individually from Mysore, Hubli and Bangalore. We also started an induction model for 11 schools across Karnataka.

QWho are the trainers? Is it classroom based training?

Yes, it is classroom based training and the trainers are mostly experts in soft skills. We constantly train the teachers as well. For remote areas, trainers are sent from Bangalore to upgrade the knowledge of the trainer present there. We would like to take it online by bringing in reference modules, case studies and role plays for student reference.

IT competition for school children
 

Schools in the IT city can now motivate their students to showcase their scientific talent through the ‘IT competition’. The competition is aimed to train the young minds in various learner-friendly aspects. Students for standard I to IX are eligible to participate.

The competition, which for the last five years was held at the Karnataka State Level, will now be extended to entire South India. Organisers of the event, VAPS Knowledge Services Pvt. Ltd., say that this is a step ahead for spreading awareness. “The society has transformed from brick economy to click economy and we all have to see that children don’t lag behind. Thus, we want the students themselves to compete with others across the region and find out how they fare amidst a larger crowd,” said MD, R. Siddesh.

This year, the contest has been divided into three segments. First is the school level, where a maximum of 3 students in each team, from each class can be selected and be made to compete with each other on the basis of quiz, concept presentation, models, group discussion and projects. The winning teams from each school goes on to participate in the State-level, from where two teams qualify for the South India level competition to be held in Bengaluru in early January.

“As the teams move ahead in each level, the competition will get tougher. But to make it fair, schools belonging to a specific division will compete in that division itself. For instance, a CBSE student will compete with CBSE student from other State,” added Siddesh. The winning team at the South India level will be given Rs 50,000 and guide faculty will be awarded with Rs 15, 000. A rolling shield for 1st champion school will also be given. For more details, schools can log on to www.itap.co.in

Get paid to study
 
By Asha Sachdeva

Some time ago, the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) did a manpower assessment study that pegged the shortage of registered clinical psychologists at 200, while our current output has remained stagnant at 20.

The consequence is that nearly two thirds of the posts of clinical psychologists are lying vacant at the 45 licensed psychiatrist hospitals in the country, and at least 50 per cent of one thirds of the occupied posts are filled by non-qualified people. That was the assertion of Prof. Tej Bahadur Singh, HoD of the Clinical Psychology Department at the Delhi University affiliated to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) some time ago.

IHBAS began offering a two-year M.Phil programme in Clinical Psychology five years ago, which is recognised by the RCI and, fortunately, the response has been good - an average of 125 students apply every year for the entrance test for the 12 seats that IHBAS offers.

In order to draw talent, the institute is an exception in offering a stipend of Rs 5000 per month to every student who gets inducted into the programme. There are two other, nationally recognised institutes that offer such stipends, namely, the Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP) in Ranchi and the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Science (NIMHANS) in Banga-lore. The programme offered at all three is an M.Phil in Clinical Psychology.

The RCI rules mandate that any institute offering a degree, diploma or certificate course in counselling must also have an Out Patient’s Department (OPD) and that nearly 70 per cent of the student’s curriculum must be practice-oriented.

Besides these three institutes, there are several others offering diploma programmes, such as that offered by a few Regional Centres of the National Council of Education Research and Training, NCERT and more recently by Jamia Millia Islamia University as well as certificate courses, although not all meet the strict quality norms laid down by the RCI.

Entry requirement

The minimum requirement to an M.Phil programme is an MA/M.Sc. degree in Psychology with a minimum of 55 per cent marks in aggregate, preferably with a special paper in Clinical Psychology. For the SC/ST/OBC category, this condition is relaxed by five percentage points. Some institutes also ask for a two-year clinical experience.

The scope

The scope is tremendous, as for every 5000 psychiatrists in the country we only have 500 certified clinical psychologists. This is because, Clinical Psychology, as an applied science is still very young in India.

The first programme was offered by Banaras Hindu University in 1951, followed by an M. Phil in Clinical Psychology by NIMHANS Bangalore in 1956.

The Indian Association of Clinical Psychologists came in 1968 and the Indian Journal of Clinical Psychology in 1974. between 600-1000 clinical psychologists working in India.

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IGNOU launches yet another programme
 

The Indira Gandhi National Open Univer-sity (IGNOU) has just launched a new programme in acupuncture. IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai announced that the course, which is a collaboration with the Institute of Acupuncture and Natural Medicines, New Delhi, will begin from November 2008.

A traditional method of therapy, acupuncture has been found useful in all types of diseases especially chronic illnesses. Needless to say, the cost of treatment is cheaper than it is in other systems of medicine. The programme, which will be available to medical graduates in the fields of allopathy, ayurveda, unani, siddha and homeopathy, can be completed in a minimum period of one year and a maximum of three years. Because of its broad-based content, it is hoped that the course will be of relevance to those wanting to make acupunture a career.

“The course is intended to strengthen the acupuncture field in general. It will help graduates of different system of medicine to learn a new modality of therapy and utilise it for patient benefit in treating acute and chronic diseases,” said Professor Pillai.

This is the first time that a medical programme will be offered online with contact sessions for practical training. Internal assessment will be done through online tests and examinations as well as via an end of term exam. The entire theoretical component will be online and as for practical training, students can opt for any one of the eight centres in India specified by the varsity. Centres are located in New Delhi, Kolkata, Indore, Chennai, Hubli (Karnataka), Kota (Rajasthan), Rourkela (Orissa) and Thiru-vanathapuram (Kerala).

Lending a helping hand
 

In an effort to bring more people with disabilities into the workforce, The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), organized a job fair for unskilled persons with disability on October 5 with the support of Enable India.

The job fair was organized forrecruitment of persons with disabilities for unskilled positions such as housekeeping, helpers, office assistant, and other unskilled positions that are available in the various sectors of industry. These positions are available for persons above 18 years of age with low vision, hearing impairment, mild physical disability, mild mental retardation with qualification lower than 10th standard.

Companies like Integra Garments, Building Control Solutions,Coffee Day, ITC Agarbathi, ITC Hotels, IBC Hotels, Dusters, etc. participated. 70 trained candidates participated in the event who were screened, trained and presented through various sessions in September-October by Enable India Team.

“People with disabilities remain unemployed in the nation’s workforce. Together, with the focus and efforts of employers nationwide, we will work to ensure more citizens with disabilities become part of the active workforce” , said Mr.Viswanathan, Chairman,CII - Karnataka.

Several NGO’s who are a part of the CII Disability Networking Forum such as LSI (Leonard Cheshire International), Vocational, Rehabilitation Centre (VRC), etc. contributed to the job fair with candidates, space,training and other support to make the people employable.The cause is also actively supported by goverment Department of Disability.

“It has been a a good and succesful experiment by all the like minded NGO’s .The job fair has actually helped the employers to get suitable candidates as they are already trained.” said Shanti Raghavan, Founder, Enable India.

The candidates will also get a special job role training , if selected , by CII disability networking forum and Enable India to ensure complete employers. The CII disability networking forum already has 30 corporates as its members including ITC Hotels,Cafe Coffee Day,Reuters,Shell,Infosys BPO,Mphasis to name a few.

“We started in 2006 ,and got a modest response to our inititatives to create awareness about employability quotient of differently abled community.Since then things have changed drastically. There has been change in mindset of HR professionals of various companies. There are more and more companies coming forward to employ disabled people.We still have a long way to go,but the starting,nevetheless, has been encouraging”, said Rohit Mallick,Regional Manager(South)-Learning Services.

It’s fest time
 

PES Bangalore is organising its international fest for MBA programme, “MANage”. MANage 2008 will be held from 16th Oct to 18th Oct 2008 at Bangalore unleashing a plethora of activities and events covering a wide range of activities including several management competitions as well as cultural, fun and entertainment events.

It will be organised in association with Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), USA accredited by AACSB International. The MBA programme at PES Bangalore, located on a sprawling campus of 25 acres, is rated among the top 50 B-school in the country. PESIT is South Asia’s 1st ISO 9002 certified institution and is ranked the number one engineering college in the state of Karnataka.

Students from Korea, Thailand, Germany, Lebanon, U.S.A. and India will be taking part in the three day fest in a global arena of competitive activities. The theme colour this year is Blue connoting efficiency and reliability.

New courses for students
 

Adarsh Institute of Research and Development, a part of Adarsh Vidya Sangh, joined hands with PRIST University, Tamil Nadu recently. With this collaboration, Adarsh Institute of Research and Development offers diversified programmes with its various schools like School of Life Sciences offering M.Phil and Ph.D Programmes; School of Tourism and Hospitality Studies offering MBA in Tourism and Hospitality; PG Diploma in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Management; School of Commerce and Management Studies offering MBA in International Business; MBA in Portfolio Management & Risk Management, MBA in Industrial Relations; School of Computer Science & Information Technology and School of Vocational Studies.

The core objective of this collaboration is to provide opportunity to the students to undergo the courses in a precise and standard manner. To create an aptitude amongst the students towards education that it is a life long process of formal and practical learning on the platform of assimilation of experiences. The knowledge and skill are of value to oneself and therefore to the society.

Deccan Chronicle

GEORGE TOWN: Wawasan Open University (WOU) has stepped up its recruitment drive to rope in more professionals from multinational corporations in the northern region to study in its distance learning programmes.

For its January 2009 intake, WOU senior marketing and admissions executive Teh Kim Kow said at least 10 roadshows would be organised to cater to the increasing needs of life-long learning in the region.

Teh said WOU’s main objective was to get enrolments from the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone and the Kulim High Tech Park.

“There is a growing demand for distance learning from professionals who do not have the time to attend classes on a daily basis.

“The marketing team will highlight the flexibility and accessibility of our undergraduate courses in business and information technology fields,” he said at a roadshow here yesterday.
He added that a similar roadshow would also be held in Alor Star and Sungai Petani, with emphasis given to WOU’s unique Commonwealth Executive Masters of Business Administration and Masters of Public Administration programmes.

Staged in hypermarkets and retail outlets in Penang and Kedah, Teh said the roadshows would conclude in January.

New Straits Times