In hiring season, IT firms rue lack of talent

The shortage of professionals in theIT industry is acute and soft skill training modules and communication skills development, usually resorted to by colleges in the last semester, can do little to resolve this, many industry experts feel.

Such programmes don't fundamentally solve the problem of candidates, especially from Tier 2 and 3 colleges, who have trouble expressing freely in English, they say.

"Efforts in the final year alone are not going to help .In fact ,they put a lot of pressure on candidates who start viewing them as serious, in surmountable problems which they have to care of, in an interview, along with their core skills," said T Ramkumar, recruitment head at TCS. He was speaking at a seminar where the shortage of professionals in the IT industry , especially in terms of quality, and the ways to resolvethe problem were discussed.

Many colleges conduct soft skills training in the last semester, focused on placement. Such programmes, many feel, should be held from the first semester to be meaningful. Last semester training is too little ,too late, they say.

At a time when the demand of manpower was increasing and new fields where freshers could be employed were being introduced, experience had become secondary, said XSA Charles, head of performance and talent management at Capgemini India.

"Earlier, we never used to hire freshers. Today, there is a tremendous need to hire freshers," he said.

Many say the gap is more on the quality side and in aligning industry expectations with the educational system. "I have seen multiple situations in our company where toppers picked from campuses have failed whereas students with average academic background have gone beyond our expectations," said Anbu Rathinavel, senior vice-president and dean of Nalanda Corporate University of Polaris, an IT services firm.

"Gap in the industry is huge and it will probably continue to increase," said Senthil Nayagam, vice-president of key account and Hexawarsity at Hexaware. "There is only so much a 3-6 month training can do. It cannot replace the 4 years spent in college when they shouldhaveideally pickedup these skills."

Colleges are trying everything but the demand-supply gap is so large that companies are actually not able to meet the recruitment targets. "We have not met our recruitment numbers for the last 7 years," said Benedict Arockiasamy, director of talent development at CSS Corp, an IT services company.

Sujit Kumar, location head (HR) of Infosys, said there was a huge change in the situation in the last 10 years. "Ten years ago the question was how do I reject the candidate. The question nowadays is how do I select the candidate. We are under more pressure than colleges to find all the talent we need. And still, we are having a hard time finding it," said Kumar.

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Infosys, TCS hire in big numbers; students pick only top-end performers

It is an all-out war at engineering campuses and only outperformers are winners. While a grim global macro-economy has not prevented IT firms from hiring record numbers from topengineering colleges, students at these institutions are vetting offers very carefully and picking firms with a strong growth track. On their part, top IT recruiters are sharing first slots at campuses in their keenness to tap into the best talent.

Take the case of Amrita University which has campuses in Bangalore, Coimbatore and Kochi. India's second largest IT exporter Infosys and Nasdaq-listedCognizant shared the first slot. While Cognizant picked up 1,263 students, Infosys went for 1,255. Around 970 students had common offers and finally, 83% of them opted for Cognizant while the remaining chose to go with Infosys.

A similar trend could be seen at Institute of Engineering and Management, Kolkata, Vellore Institute of Technology, BS Abdur Rahman University (formerly Crescent Engineering College), Chennai and many other tech campuses. The trend is expected to be reinforced even in Karnataka and the National Capital Region where campus placement is going to take place soon. Recruiting has kicked off in a big way in Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and West Bengal last month. It's in full steam in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh now.

With a recession looming large, students are not taking any chances. They are watching every IT company closely as a brand and then choosing where to go very carefully. Around 15 students whom ET spoke to across campuses had one thing in common to say: what matters to them is being in a high growth company which offers job stability and has a good brand name. "I chose Cognizant as they survived reces-sion period two years back," says R Lakshmi of BS Abdur Rahman University.

Microsoft wants to pick your brain for Windows Phone tweaks

Mango has already begun to trickle out into the wild, and Microsoft is still trying to figure out exactly what their Windows Phone users want. Case in point: they’ve just unveiled their new Suggestion Box, where users can submit and vote for ideas that they would like to see implemented in Windows Phone 7.

All snark aside, it’s a much better alternative to shooting your ideas out into the ether via Twitter, as the Windows Phone Blog is quick to point out. By centralizing all of their users suggestions, Microsoft can look at potential improvements and see where user priorities lay.

Despite only being open for the past few hours, a few ideas (like the three above) are already picking up steam among the Windows Phone fanbase. For the most part, the ideas tend to range from completely reasonable (a user named DevilSpawn wants less finicky capacitive keys), to the impossible (oggyb wants all existing Windows Phones to be able to wirelessly tether, even though some devices just don’t have the hardware for it).
With the site still in its infancy, none of the submissions have gained enough traction to warrant a further look from Team Windows Phone. Methinks Microsoft is trying to live up to their new tagline here, but let’s see if anything actually comes of it.

Railways' 'Baby Simran' to help people track trains

The Indian Railways is about to redefine rail travel by devising a new satellite-based technology to help commuters waiting at stations to track down the exact location of their train. The project will first be launched for the Rajdhani Express trains.

Called Baby Simran, the official name of the project is Satellite Imaging for Rail Navigation (SIMRAN), an ambitious project that the ministry has been working on for the last four years. The project involves digital mapping of stations.

A top Mumbai-based official said, “The Research Designs and Standards Organisation and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have been working on the project, which will be launched soon. Four trains would initially be installed with Global Positioning System equipment.”

Google Brings State-of-the-Art Dynamic Layouts to Blogger

Google just launched dynamic views for Blogger, its free blogging platform, and they are something else. Powered by AJAX, HTML5 and CSS3, these new themes for Blogger users are heavy-duty, interactive designs, not mere blog templates. The announcement claims that they also load '40 percent faster than traditional templates,' but that will require some testing. Just in trying to load Google's blog posts announcing this update, this author saw lots of new Blogger loading graphics with spinning gears.

Nevertheless, these designs look amazing. They have infinite scrolling, dynamic loading of graphics and new posts, easy re-sorting, keyboard shortcuts for navigation and, of course, one-click sharing to Google Plus 'and other social sites.' There are seven new templates, and they can be gently customized. More customization options will be added 'in the coming weeks.' The flagship Google blogs for Gmail, LatLong and Docs are getting dynamic makeovers, too.

From the Blogger Buzz blog, here are descriptions and examples of the seven new themes:

Classic (Gmail): A modern twist on a traditional template, with infinite scrolling and images that load as you go
Flipcard (M loves M) - Your photos are tiled across the page and flip to reveal the post title
Magazine (Advanced Style) - A clean, elegant editorial style layout
Mosaic (Crosby's Kitchen) - A mosaic mix of different sized images and text
Sidebar (Blogger Buzz Blog) - An email inbox-like view with a reading page for quick scrolling and browsing
Snapshot (Canelle et Vanille) - An interactive pinboard of your posts
Timeslide (The Bleary-Eyed Father) - A horizontal view of your posts by time period


Blogging Gets Complicated

Blogger is bringing the heat with this update. It builds on last month's overhaul of the blogging control panel and analytics dashboard, and its first native iPhone app launched earlier this month. I guess that rebranding effort we heard about in July isn't happening. Right now, the Blogger brand looks about as strong as ever. The move puts Blogger squarely in the camp of the bigger, louder, more intense new wave of publishing tools. These designs are not quite the full-screen blowouts of new ventures like Jux, but they certainly stretch the constraints of the term 'blog.'

It's a smart move, since competitors are going the other way. Tumblr designs aren't exactly minimal, but the tool is best suited for small posts that get re-shared into all kinds of different venues and layouts, and it pretty much owns that market. Posterous has tried to turn even sharper, rearranging its app around mobile posting and sharing, edging more into the territory of social media tools. And no one can forget WordPress, which is doing just fine, thank you very much, but its ecosystem rests on themes developed by third parties, and these new dynamic Blogger themes are a step or three above, technologically.

What do you think of the new Dynamic Views in Blogger? Tell me your comments.

Assam CM announces laptops for students securing 50% marks

In a bid to make students computer savvy and expand information technology education in the state, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi announced computers and laptops would be given to those who secure just 50 per cent marks in school board examinations from next year.

''My government has all along given thrust to education because this alone can solve problems of illiteracy, poverty and unemployment,'' he said at the Anundoram Barooah Award 2011 here.

''Education has to be in tune with the times. We have already started the process of introducing new courses, especially towards skill development by tying up with universities and colleges like Oxford and Westminster,'' he added.
The award, launched in 2005, is a government initiative aiming to enhance competition in the student community and to help them through the use of IT.

TCS picks 700 students from Orissa institute

Tata Consultancy Services(TCS) picked up 708 students on a single day from an Orissa university during a campus selection drive, an official said Monday, describing it as a record.

The Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in Bhubaneswar has scripted a placement record, senior public relations officer Shradhanjali Nayak told IANS.

"Job offer to so many students by a single company in campus placement on a single day is a record in eastern India as well as another record in entire country in terms of percentage," she said.

The selected students, who will be passing out in 2012, belong to the Bachelor of Technology, Master of Technology and Master of Computer Application streams.

Other companies that selected more than 100 students from KIIT during the exercise held Sunday include Shapoorji Pallonji, TATA Steel, Atkins, SAP and Deloitte.

Last year, TCS had picked up 658 KIIT students, Nayak said.

Trai will cap SMS to 100 per day from Sept 27

Make sure that you draw up the list of who you want to wish this Dussehra very carefully since the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has decided to cap the number of text messages that you can send every day at 100.

The new set of rules has ostensibly been framed to check telemarketers from bombarding you with unwanted messages from sauna belts to real estate deals but it will end up putting curbs on how many SMSes you send from your phone.

With the cap coming into effect from September 27, several mobile users would have to resort to making phone calls instead of sending out text messages, seen to be less intrusive. Besides, many who pay up to Rs 100 a month to get a daily dose of free text messages would now see a sharp rise in their phone bills as these schemes would no longer be valid.

Although there are several mobile phone users who send more than 100 messages a day, the regulator and government officials are unwilling to buy this and argue that this is the best way to deal with pesky calls-a menace that Trai as well as the government have been unable to tackle for years.

What's more, telecom operators say that it may be tough to monitor if the 3,000 SMS a month cap for postpaid subscribers is adhered to or not. "In case of prepaid users, you can monitor it on a day-today basis but for postpaid customers , you will look at the number at the end of the month," said Rajan S Mathews , director general of COAI. Trai chairman J S Sarma could not be reached for comment .

Earlier this month, the telecom regulator mandated that commercial communications be sent between 9 am and 9 pm to all subscriberswhether registered for the National Do Not Call Registry or not. For those who opt to be under the 'fully blocked' category, a telemarketer cannot disturb you.

Alternatively, you can opt for the facility which allows you to access information on any of the seven segments-banking and financial products, real estate, education, health, consumer goods, automobiles, communication and entertainment, tourism and leisure.

An exception will be made in case of transaction-related messages such as those from banks, insurance companies, railways, airlines or telecom service providers for providing information related to customers or passengers.

Companies have been mandated to register with telecom service providers who would assign them numbers in the 140 series. "What if the 101st message is in an emergency?" asks COAI's Mathews.

Forget 3G, 5G is on its way

The days of waiting for smartphones to upload video may be numbered thanks to Rice University researchers who have invented a new "full-duplex" technology allows wireless devices like phones and tablets to both "talk" and "listen" to wireless cell towers on the same frequency something that requires two frequencies today.

"Our solution requires minimal hardware, both for mobile devices and networks, which is why we've attracted the attention of every wireless company in the world," said Ashutosh Sabharwal, a professor at Rice. "I expect people may see this when carriers upgrade to 4.5G or5G in just a few years."

Sabharwal along with Achaleshwar Sahai and Gaurav Patel have set records with a signal quality at least 10 times better than any other. "We've shown that we can add full duplex as an additional mode on existing hardware. Device makers love this because real estate inside a phone is at a premium, and it means they don't have to add new hardware that only supports full duplex," Sabharwal said.

How is full-duplex possible?
To explain why full-duplex was long thought impossible for wireless networks, Sabharwal uses the analogy of two people standing far apart inside an otherwise empty arena. If each shouts to the other at the same time, neither can hear what the other is saying.

The easy solution is to have only one person speak at a time, and that's what happens on two-way radios where only one person may speak at a given time. Phones achieve two-way speech by using two different frequencies to send and listen.

Rice's team overcame the full-duplex hurdle by employing an extra antenna and some computing tricks. In the shouting analogy, the result is that the shouter cannot hear himself, and therefore hears the only other sound in the arena - the person shouting from far away.

"We use antenna tech called MIMO, which are common in today's devices," Sabharwal said. "MIMO stands for 'multiple-input multiple-output' and it uses several antennas to improve overall performance. We took advantage of the multiple antennas for our scheme, which is the main reason why all wireless carriers are very comfortable with our tech."

Biggest Businesses Run by College Dropouts

Bangalore: Ever wonder where the chief executives of some of the world's most successful companies went to college? Well, don't tell your kids, but some CEOs never graduated college?and some never even bothered to apply reports Kaitlyn Bigica for CNBC.

These CEOs made it to the top without a college degree and defied the idea that to be successful you don't have to have a degree.

Michael Dell:

The founder and CEO of Dell expanded his company with the idea that "technology is about enabling human potential." In 1992, he became the youngest chief executive to earn a ranking on Fortune magazine's "Fortune 500" list. His staff also grew from a one-man operation to 100,000 employees in just eight years.

Today, the company provides information-technology services for global corporations, governments, health care providers, small and medium businesses, education institutions, and home computing users.

Bill Gates:

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft , enrolled at Harvard as a freshman in 1973. Gates, who lived down the hall from Microsoft's current chief executive, Steve Ballmer, created BASIC, a programming language for the first microcomputer, during his first year of college.


Gates dropped out of Harvard in his junior year to concentrate all his efforts on a company he called Micro-soft with his childhood friend Paul Allen. As if founding Microsoft wasn't enough, Gates went on to found Corbis , one of the world largest resources of visual information. He also earned a seat on the board of directors for Berkshire Hathaway .

Paul Allen:

Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates, his childhood friend, is another chief executive who never got a college degree. According to Allen's memoir, "Idea Man," Allen was inspired to write a coding language when he saw the Altair 8800 computer on the cover of a Popular Electronics magazine.


Today, Allen has a multibillion-dollar investment portfolio, which includes multiple technology and media companies, along with a major real estate redevelopment in Seattle.

Mark Zukerberg:

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, showed an early interest in computers. As a child, he created early communication tools and games from his bedroom. In high school, he created an MP3 program and soon received offers from AOL and Microsoft , which he ignored.


After being accepted at Harvard University, Zuckerberg built a program called Facemash, which showed pictures of students and allowed their peers to vote on who was more attractive.

Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard before graduating to put all of his focus on the social networking site, which could be worth as much as $100 billion.

Steve Jobs:

When he was 12, Steve Jobs, the former chief executive of Apple , called Bill Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett Packard , after finding his number in the phonebook. When Hewlett answered, Jobs said, "Hi I'm Steve Jobs. I'm twelve years old and I'm a student in high school. I want to make a frequency counter. I was wondering if you had any spare parts I can have?"


Hewlett gave Jobs the spare parts and hired him that summer to work on the assembly line at his company. During this time, Jobs formed a friendship with Stephen Wozniak, a soon-to-be dropout from the University of California at Berkley.

Jobs enrolled at Reed College after high school, but he later dropped out. He connected once again with Wozniak and the pair quit their jobs to start production on a computer in Jobs' garage.

World's Most Innovative Companies

Bangalore: We have been using various innovative products in our daily life. Innovation is wide ranging in nature and touching so many parts of an organization and areas of potential opportunity. While the staggering array of possibilities can be intimidating, innovation is most effective when implementing this diversity and including as many points of perspective as possible. The top innovative companies listed down have worked to give their best for the consumers so no wonder they top the list of the world's most innovative companies.

1.Google:

The search engine giant tops the list of most innovative companies in the world. Their creativity in the layouts, display ads, Google talk, Google docs and spreadsheets, Google calendar, Google checkout, Picasa web albums and so many. The Google Picasa and other apps which has made the search engine very user friendly and Google has answer for every question in people's mind.

2. Apple:

Steve jobs innovations have made a mark in the world of technology. The former CEO of apple gifted with great intellectual brain has brought the company's revenue to the
top which is more than U.S. government treasury. The iPod saga is still in demand and will be as their planning and new innovations have always excited people. The graphical user interface, iMac, iTunes, Mac OS X and iPhones are the devices which have lead to rebellion of the war between the top tech giants. They are the king of the this gadget generation.

3. Nokia:

The Finnish company which has created a strong goodwill for the quality of their products top the chart. Nokia's first phone, the 1100 series, 2100 model that int
roduced Nokia ring tone are unforgettable, they brought mobile phones to every corner of the world. Their Smartphones may not be upto the mark of apple phones but they are different from them in applications and usage. They have their own mission and vision which is to maintain their good will rather than just selling their product.

4. Facebook:

Mark Zuckerberg the young chap who created the site when he was a student in Harvard. This website has been called as one of the worst innovated piece of the decade
by many critics but the demand and usage of this social site has proved they are the best. Facebook enjoys monopoly because of their applications and layout and advancement which bring people together from every corner of the world. This site is very easy to use, public search; the privacy settings are perfect till the users know their limits. The surveys conducted have proved Facebook to be one of the best innovative website for their virtual gaming, chatting and status updates.

5. Disney:

Disney is an art of innovation. Their animations for movies, cartoons, the Disneyland have attracted billions of people who can never forget the founder, Walt Disney.
It's a land of innovations where fun, illusions, their works have been memories for millions.

6. News corp.:

Rupert Murdoch is no wonder called as a media Mughal. The turning point brought by him in the world of journalism and media. The fox, Wall Street journalism, ac
quiring MySpace, The New York Times, and The Sun have dominated the whole print media which lead to the closure of thousands of newspaper in U.S. Their E-papers is a great hit and the fox channel and movies are no less popular.

7. Nike:

The sporty generation is in love with Nike for their amazing products which gives the heights of comfort and richness. The new Nike air max 360 lets the person to run on a
ir the latest innovation which has created a buzz among all the youth. The idea of full air cushioning system designed for the runners has been called as the most amazing shoes in the world by the users. Their jerseys, bags, shoes and deodorants have always had a great demand for their comfort.

8. Samsung:

Samsung Electronics has been honored with 37 CES 2011 Innovation Awards and so no wonder they are also listed down here. Samsung's HT-C9950W 3D Blu-ray home theater
system, The Samsung NX100 camera, NX 20-50mm, the world's first intelligent i-Function lens, Samsung's 55-inch 2-sided Edge-lit 3D LED panel, Samsung WF520 Front-Loader Washing Machines they are more famous for their electronic appliances than their mobile and tablets.

9. Amazon:

The business model of Amazon and their innovation techniques are unique and highly creative. Their goal is to be highly informative rather than making their websites l
ook attractive. Professionalism in their work is the foremost aspect to be seen. The elastic compute cloud has been in demand among the top organizations. It is one of the most informative website on internet.

10. Proctor and gamble:

They give a wide list of options for people as they manufacture various goods for domestic purpose. They manufacture the normal home products
which has gained great reputation among consumers. The best products by P&G are Head and Shoulders, Gillette, Pantene, Actonel which shows that they are more into innovation of beauty and grooming products which has great demand.

Smart Ways to Create More Wealth

Bangalore: Well, many of us always seek ways to create wealth. However, most of us always succumb to one common route work for money. But how many of us have really given a thought to make the money work for us. Yes, this is one of the smart ways to accumulate more wealth without you always having to strive for money.

Start making investments in stocks

This is one of the well-known means to make your money work for you. Again while making investments, you can look for several ways like- investing in stocks, derivatives or futures. Active participation in trading consumes your quality time. However, if you are making long-term investments for lasting benefits from your investments, you would work less and your money would work more. Smart! Isn't it?

How about investing in commodities

Investing in commodities has become popular only after the emergence of dematerialization of commodities like gold, silver and other base metals. Holding commodities in demat form has its own benefits. Certain products like copper, bronze are not actually bought by people, but are only traded for making profits.

Why not make money from your hobby?

Now that sounds great. Who doesn't love to make money out of something which they love doing it. Be it anything- painting, photography, jewelry making, sewing or interior designing, you can turn your hobby into a part time business to make wealth.

Freelance writing

If you love writing, then great, you can always opt to become freelance writer in any domain that you specialize. Freelancing for newspapers, magazines or even in Internet is a great way to make money in your free time.

Bank deposit savings

This is the simplest yet most effective and safe saving method that anyone could make. A small amount of savings at regular intervals could become a huge wealth after years. Added to that comes the interest amount to boost your savings.

Make long term deposits

While recurring deposit helps in achieving gradual accumulation of wealth, long term deposits like fixed deposit would benefit you in not attaining a huge sum as wealth but also in restricting you from spending out such huge sum.

Investing in insurance

Investing in insurance is another great way to earn huge wealth. It again requires payments, which is usually much lesser, at equal intervals. Insurance is also a safe product to rely upon. On maturity, one can earn good amount.

Go for an apt pension plan

One cannot live old without money. At least this thought would compel one to opt for a pension plan. Pension plans, these days, are aplenty. Wide range of options and plans are available with several benefits attached to it. Opting for the right pension plan would make your life fruitful even after your retirement.

IBM to build 1000 times faster PCs

Get ready for next-generation computers and smartphones that are up to 1,000 times faster than the systems you use today. Computer maker IBM is developing "skyscraper" computers using huge sandwiches of silicon chips by sticking layer after layer of chips covered with tiny components together.

The process, for which IBM has roped in glue maker 3M, will make PCs and smartphones up to 1,000 times faster than the existing ones and are expected to be available in market by 2013.

The 3M currently makes heat resistant glues, adhesives used in the aerospace industry and sticky tapes, but the hi-tech glues created for IBM could actually be the key step towards making the next evolutionary leap in computing, the Daily Mail reported

4G services: 4 spectrum bands identified

NEW DELHI: Facing shortage of spectrum for mobile telephony, the country looks to use four new spectrum bands, some of which will also support latest 4G technology, for wireless telecom services, a senior government official said.

"In line with International Telecommunication Union Conference 2007, we have identified frequency bands between 698 to 806 Mhz, 2,300 to 2,400 Mhz, 2,500 to 2,690 Mhz and 3,400 to 3,600 Mhz for use of IMT Technologies," Head of Wireless Planning Commission (WPC) Ashok Chandra said.

Chandra was speaking at a TRAI workshop on Regulatory Framework here.

These bands, however, are not vacant and there are various challenges associated in getting them vacated for wireless telecom technologies.

For instance, the 698 to 806 Mhz band, also known as 700 Mhz band, is under dispute between DoT and Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

This particular band (700 Mhz) is considered to be very efficient and could fetch the government revenues more than it got through auctioning of 3G spectrum last year.

The band would entail less investments in infrastructure by the telecom firms as they would be required to set up less number of towers.

While public broadcaster Doordarshan has claimed its right on the said spectrum, WPC had earlier said an organisation can claim spectrum only after it obtains Wireless Operating Licence (WOL), which needs to be renewed at regular intervals -- generally on annual basis.

As per WPC's record, Doordarshan(DD) never obtained WOL for spectrum in 700 Mhz frequency band and hence, its claim on this band does not stand.

On the other hand, I&B ministry in a communication to the DoT has said that DD has 40 Mhz frequency assigned for mobile video link and 8 Mhz for digital transmission in four metros in this band.

The ministry has also frequently emphasised that it needs spectrum for mobile TV services on which it has received recommendation from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Similarly, some of the players in the other frequency bands need to be compensated for shifting to other frequency band as this will call for expenditure on new equipment and devices.

Though an internal committee of DoT has recommended the need for a compensation fund for migrating services to new bands, the department is yet to make final announcement.

Top 3 Innovative Earphones

Bangalore: Today every cell phone has a default feature; Bluetooth. Bluetooth headsets have become a trendy accessory with most of the future phones. It is a very good option for those who have an aversion towards wired headsets.

As long as Bluetooth electronic equipment is within approximately 10 meters of each other, they can communicate and transfer data, speech, music, or images without a physical connection. The benefit of this wireless device is hands-free chatting, no more fiddling with tangled wires of regular headsets. Here is the Top 5 Best Bluetooth Headsets which are stylish, compact and with excellent features at reasonable prices.

1. BlueAnt Q2

With rich audio, unsurpassed call clarity and industry best wind noise reduction the BlueAnt Q2 is the best sounding Bluetooth headset ever built.

This smart Bluetooth headset comes packed with more advanced features than any other headset in the market today. The Q2 includes a comprehensive voice recognition command set, text to speech technology that announces the names of incoming callers, voice access to a world of information and incoming SMS readout.

The BlueAnt Q2 is has superb call quality even in windy situations. It has good quality, has high music quality, voice dialing/voice instructions and has an excellent battery life. Its text-to-speech technology and voice recognition commands, announces the names of incoming callers and reads SMS messages aloud and it is lightweight on your ear. The Q2's high quality speaker is precision tuned and tested in a professional sound studio, with advanced equalization to sculpt the sound and provide incredibly smooth incoming audio. It costs around $129.99.

2. Aliph Jawbone 2

Comprised of an outer shield and inner surface, the new Jawbone experience is two-fold. The outer shield, curved and rectilinear to follow the face, is lightly textured in a sound-reflective progressive relief, a three-dimensional texture visually representative of noise abatement surfaces. This unique surface becomes animated as light creates highlights and shadows when worn. The inner surface, the one touching the face and creating contact with the Voice Activity Sensor, is gently curved to be ergonomic and comfortable on the skin.


The Aliph Jawbone is a Bluetooth headset with high-end features, innovative design and amazing audio quality. Its price starts around $69.99 and it can be worn on either of the ear, you can also customize your fit by choosing an ear bud and ear loop from the several sizes, shapes provided. It is very compact and light and has an awesome audio quality with superior noise cancellation technology.

It has just two buttons- Talk button and Noise Assasin button and also comes with a Voice Activity Sensor, LED indicator. Jawbone's Voice Activity Sensor (VAS) is able to detect very accurately when the person is talking and capture the frequencies of his or her speech even in the presence of noise. Other features like call waiting support, voice command support, low-battery status indicator and gives a talk time nearly 4 hours which is enough for a day.

3. Plantronics Discovery 975

Plantronics upped the ante in the Bluetooth performance competition by introducing a new wireless cell phone headset that claims improved audio quality and advanced technology for keeping the headset charged.

Plantronics Discovery 975 is ideal Bluetooth headset for users looking for a solution for wireless cell phone conversations. It features includes voice-dial assist, multipoint, good audio quality, noise-canceling technology, wind-noise resistance and is potential to switch Calls from the headset to the telephone and vice versa.

It has a lot of improved charging case that charges the earphone with a battery status indicator. A fully charged 975 offers five hours of talk time. The charging case is designed to recharge the headset twice before it has to be plugged into an outlet to be recharged, thus offering 15 hours of talk time before the user needs to search for an outlet. An LCD screen in the case displays the charging levels of the case and the headset. Its price starts around $70.

TCS bids $500m for 80% stake in Lufthansa IT Systems

India's largest software services exporter, Tata Consultancy Services, has put in a bid valued at $500 million to acquire a controlling stake in Lufthansa IT systems, the captive information technology unit of the Frankfurt-based airline, two people said on condition of anonymity.

TCS is in talks to negotiate a multi-year contract from Lufthansa which could yield revenues in excess of $2 billion for the company according to people familiar with the bidding process.

Credit Suisse is advising TCS on its bid for Lufthansa IT systems.

A spokesperson for TCS declined comment for this story. Claudia Lange, a spokesperson for Lufthansa also declined comment.

One of the people quoted above said Hewlett Packard-EDS and IBM were also in the fray to buy a stake in the unit but TCS may be able to propose a structure that would make it compelling for Lufthansa to consider them as a favoured partner. a

IT hiring drops 49% in August

Recruitment by Indian IT companies witnessed a slowdown in the month of August, owing to the crisis in the US and Europe region, but the overall hiring mood in the country is upbeat, says a survey.

It might take 2-3 months for recruitment activities in the IT sector to gain momentum, according to recruitment tendering platform MyHiringClub.com, which said that hiring activitysaw a 49% drop in the IT and ITeS sectors in August vis-a-vis the previous month. The US accounts for almost 60% of the revenues of the $60-billion Indian IT industry.

In contrast, other industries such as FMCG, banking, telecom and automobiles saw 14% more recruitment in August, compared to July. "This data show the strong impact of the US and Euro crisis in Indian IT sector hiring.

We had seen the overall hiring trend was healthy in the previous month, except the IT and ITeS sectors," MyHiringClub.com CEO Rajesh Kumar said. "When discussed with some employers, they indicated it will take 2-3 more months for hiring from these sectors," he added.

Flipkart gets jump on Amazon in India‘s e-shopping market

On some days when they were starting out, the Bansals would get on a motorbike to make the rounds of book warehouses around Bangalore, ride back to their two-bedroom apartment and package up orders for online customers. 

It was a humble beginning for Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, two ex-Amazon.com software developers who set out in 2007 to beat their old employer at its own game long before the world's top online retailer had even drawn up plans to enter the Indian market. 

"We were doing everything ourselves for the first four to five months - from packing to shipping. Because our volumes were very low, our courier partners would sometimes refuse to pick up items from our apartment," Sachin Bansal recalls of the six months before they moved into their first office. 

"So we used to get on a motorbike, hold the shipment in our hands and personally deliver them to our Bangalore clients." 

In those rocky first days, Sachin told Reuters, the Bansals' suppliers -- seeing two youngsters who had quit stable employment with a reputable firm to go it alone -- would sit them down and counsel them to get a proper job. 

The young Bansals have since been feted at home as poster boys for entrepreneurial India, establishing their company, Flipkart, as a leader in the fledgling Indian e-commerce market. 

Flipkart is now India's biggest online bookseller, with over 10 million titles distributed from warehouses in five cities. It has branched from books into mobile phones, appliances, gaming consoles, music and movies, and now sells 10 products a minute. 

It generated $11 million in sales last financial year, expects revenues to cross $100 million this year and is aiming at $1 billion by 2015. 

That sharp growth trajectory has attracted $31 million in funding from US venture capital firms Tiger Global Management as well as Accel Partners, which has a stake in Facebook. 

Sachin Bansal declined to comment on a media report this week that Flipkart is lining up a $150 million fourth round of funding, but said earlier there are no current plans for an initial public offering. 

Flipkart's business model and even its website resemble those of Amazon. But as a company it is dwarfed by the US-based giant, whose revenues stood at $34.2 billion last year. 

It is possible to order Amazon products from India, but the cost of postage is high and delivery is slow. Amazon still has no formal presence in India yet, though a source familiar with the matter said it is mulling plans to set up in the country next year. 

"Amazon's idea is not new ... It's all about the execution," said Sachin Bansal, 30, now chief executive officer of the company he co-founded. 

Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, Flipkart's 28-year-old chief operating officer, are not related. But they both grew up in Chandigarh, they are both alumni of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi and they briefly worked together for Amazon in Bangalore, the southern IT hub where numerous global companies have back-office operations.

15 comapnies that can be next Infosys

India is a giant in software services, thanks in great degree to the extraordinary vision and work of NR Narayana Murthy, who retired this month from the company he founded, Infosys Technologies. There are skeptics who say that India will never be able to overcome this services mindset and move on to develop creative global products and platforms.

We don't share that scepticism. We believe that the success of the software services industry has created talent that now has the desire, confidence and expertise to build global technology products. 

Thousands of such initiatives are in the works around the country. Here's we bring to you a sample of these, some that have reached a degree of maturity, others that have seen amazing success in a short period. 

OnMobile

Founders: Arvind Rao & Mouli Raman 

Founded in 2000, in California, but moved to Bangalore two years later. 

Business: Mobile value-added services like ringtones, ring back tones, alerts, voice-based searches. More recently, introduced innovative products like Karaophone that allows users to play karaoke with their social networks via mobile or landline phones, and RCS Phonebook, an interactive user address book that synchronises all contact information, including friends on social networks, into one central location for easy management and live access. The company has onsite presence in 52 countries and boasts of 105 million unique users every month. Rao, 52, who was in the venture capital industry in the US prior to forming On-Mobile, says the company's strength has been its risk sharing and joint work with operators to make the products a success, instead of simply licensing its technology. 

Mouli, 42, who worked for many years in Infosys, says OnMobile frequently receives requests from developed market operators to teach them the things being done in Asia. "They are hit by Google and Apple (app stores), and they believe we can help them counter this." The company is now focused on providing multilingual content. 

Customers: Most of the Indian telecom operators. Vodafone uses them globally; Telefonica of Spain 

Revenue: Rs 537 crore in 2010-11; international revenues contribute over 27%. It's not official, but it's possible that OnMobile is today the world's biggest company providing mobile value-added services. 

Tejas Networks

Founders: Sanjay Nayak, Arnob Roy, Kumar Sivarajan 

Founded in 2000, in Bangalore 

Business: Developing intelligent network technologies, networks that not only transport data between two points, but also do it at the precise speeds that customers require, rerouting traffic when any one lane is choked or disrupted, and clean up disrupted signals. "It's like a bus that behaves according to the nature of its occupants. If it knows that its occupants are students, then it behaves in a particular way, and if it knows they are tourists, it behaves differently," says Nayak. 

Customers: Tejas solutions are deployed in all major telecom networks in India. It also sells in 60 countries. South Korea, which has the most advanced wireless broadband network in the world, has its backhaul (intermediate links) running partly on Tejas equipment. 

Revenue: Over Rs 750 crore. Tejas was initially funded by Gururaj Despande, and then by Intel Capital, Mayfield Fund, Battery Ventures, Goldman Sachs and Sandstone Capital. 

TringMe

Founder: Yusuf Motiwala 

Founded in 2007, in Bangalore 

Business: Browser-based voice application. Unlike Skype, this requires no downloads or installations. Users just need to open a browser, log in and start talking. Motiwala, 38, provides the application programming interfaces so that anybody can integrate the voice application into their browsers. TringMe handles the backend network, technology and data centre, and charges for each minute of call that passes through the system. The technology also allows communication amongst multiple voice sources -- Web, mobile phone, instant messenger. "Skype has the first mover advantage. But we have significant advantages over them," says Motiwala, who previously worked in Lucent Technologies and Texas Instruments and who started the business with Rs 5 lakh. 

Customers: Over 120 enterprises, including IBM, Infosys and AOL 

Revenue: Not available. But TringMe handles over 42 million minutes of calls per month, and serves over 11 million users. The call minutes doubled in the last one year. Winner of Nasscom's most innovative startup 2009 award. 

Kayako

Founder: Varun Shoor 

Founded in 2001, in Jalandhar 

Business: Helpdesk solutions to deliver better customer support. The company's flagship product brings all communications and support channels -- tickets, email, live chat, self-service, calls and remote desktop support on one platform. Another product is a comprehensive live chat and visitor monitoring solution that helps deliver real-time support. 

"Using our products, one can centrally manage all customer support channels. Our tools empower employees," says Shoor, who developed the technology and started the business when he was only 17. 

Customers: Over, 30,000, including GE, NASA, Virgin Mobile, FedEx, SEGA and ICANN. 

Revenue: It's in multiple million dollars. 

Sourcebits

Founder: Rohit Singal 

Founded in 2006, in Bangalore 

Business: App developer. The company has developed over 300 apps, twenty of these are in the top 100 in leading app stores. It has apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Palm Pre and Windows 7 mobile platform. Sourcebits most popular apps include Robokill, Knocking Live, Daily Deeds, Night Stand, Skyfire, and Beast Farmer. 

Night Stand, an app which converts the iPhone/iPad into an alarm clock, reached the number two spot for all-time top download on the iTunes App Store within four days of its release and has been downloaded more than 3 million times. Knocking Live, the first live streaming app for iOS, has more than 2.3 million downloads. Singal, 35, is targeting the gaming space next. 

Customers: GE, Coca Cola, Sling Media , P&G , Hershey's , MIT Sloan School of Management 

Revenue: $6.5 million in 2010-11 Sequoia Capital and IDG Ventures India invested $10 million in Sourcebits in May. 

United Mobile Apps

Founders: Sriram V Iyer & Arun Samudrala 

Founded in 2009, in Bangalore 

Business: Mobile platform development. The company's flagship product is UConnect, a connection management solution; if cellphone traffic on an LTE network is clogged, it offloads traffic to another available network such as Wi-Fi, so that the connection is not cut. UManage is a device management solution, helps device vendors (USB dongles, mobile phones, tablets, even TVs and set-top-boxes ) to fix/configure their devices even after it reaches the customer. Currently, the only way to upgrade is by connecting them to a PC or taking it to a service station. "There have been even instances of large scale recalls of devices to address problems. With our solution, such recalls will become unnecessary," says Iyer, 32, who previously worked with Samudrala, also 32, in Beceem Communications. Customers: Broadcom. Working with two of the world's leading semiconductor companies/ODMs to bundle UConnect with their LTE devices. 

Revenue: Rs 1.5 crore expected this year. Finalist at Qualcomm QPrize India 2010, finalist at Microsoft BizSpark India Startup Challenge 2011, finalist at YourStory.in's TechSparks 2011.

Orangescape

Founder: Suresh Sambandam 

Founded in 2003, in Chennai 

Business: Orangescape was one of the early entrants into cloud computing. Its platform as-a-service product allows businesses to build customised applications using a visual modeling interface. These applications may either be deployed locally or on public clouds -- the Google App Engine, Microsoft's Azure, IBM's Smart Cloud or Amazon's EC2. Sambandam recognised the importance of partners early on, and today works with application developers and system integrators like TCS, Wipro, 3i Infotech, Mphasis and L&T Infotech. "One of the most important things for a startup to survive is to start selling at the early stages," says Sambandam, who previously worked with HP and Selectica. 

Customers: Unilever, Pfizer, Citigroup, Astra Zeneca, Ford, among others. 

Revenue: Over $1 million. TiEcon 2011 recognised it among the top 50 global startups. CRN magazine featured Orangescape among the global top 20 coolest cloud platforms. Nasscom recognised it as a top IT innovator in India for two successive years. 

iWave Systems

Founders: Abdullah Khan & Mohamed Saliya 

Founded in 1999, in Bangalore 

Business: Embedded hardware, semiconductor platforms. The company provides integrated solutions for developing innovative products or systems in the areas of data communications, consumer electronics and multimedia. Khan previously worked with Tata Elxsi and CDoT, and Saliya in Philips Semiconductors and ISRO. 

Customers: GE Healthcare, Honeywell, Continental, Visteon , Japan railways, Panasonic , and many more 

Revenue: Not disclosed. Microsoft awarded iWave the Windows Embedded Partner Excellence Award in 2009. The award recognises visionaries and organizations around the world that use technology in an innovative and creative manner. 

Subex

Founder: Subash Menon 

Founded in 1992, in Bangalore 

Business: Products that allow communications service providers to improve their operational efficiency and deliver enhanced service experiences to subscribers. It has solutions for revenue assurance, cost management, fraud management, provisioning automation, data integrity management and more. The company started by providing fraud management solutions and its product Nikira became the No.1 fraud management solution in the world. A series of global acquisitions has enabled Menon, who started the firm with a Rs 20,000 loan from a former employer, to offer a wider portfolio of solutions 

Customers: 16 of the top 20 wireless operators worldwide and 26 of the world's 50 biggest telecommunications service providers. The company has more than 300 installations across 70 countries. Almost all telecom service providers in India are customers. T-Mobile, Verizon, Telefonica, Comcast, Sprint are among customers in the Americas. 

Revenue: Rs 492 crore in 2010-11. Awarded the Global Telecoms Business Innovation Award 2011 along with Swisscom for the industry's first successful Risk Reward Sharing model for fraud management. 

FusionCharts

Founder: Pallav Nadhani 

Founded in 2001, in Kolkata, when Nadhani was 16 

Business: Charting products. Nandhani had begun by writing a charting component using Macromedia Flash, which enabled animation and interactivity in charts. He also wrote articles detailing this work for a technology publication that got him $1,500. "That became the seed capital for my company," he says. His biggest learning has been that customers do not look for features, they look for benefits. The company has been profitable from day one. Barring some advertising in technology magazines in the US and Europe, marketing has been through free online options and customer recommendations. 

Customers: 18,000 customers, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Intel, IBM 

Revenue: $4.5 million in 2010-11. Winner of the Deloitte Fast 50 India 2009 award and Nasscom's emerging company 2009 award. 

Idea Device

Founders: Saju Pillai & Aaditya Sood 

Founded in 2009, in Bangalore 

Business: Data centre management products. Automates processes in the data centres so that systems work faster, with fewer faults and greater security. And everything can be viewed and managed from a single window. Competitors include BMC, HP, CA. "But we do it better than them. We have competed against them and we have won every time," says Pillai, 31, who together with Sood, 30, had previously worked in Oracle. 

Customers: Six customers, including Astra Zeneca, UK, Endeavour Tech, one of the world's biggest stock exchanges, and one of the world's biggest banks. ISV to RedHat, VMware, Microsoft 

Revenue: Not disclosed. Finalist at YourStory .in's TechSpark 2011. 

Eka Software

Founder: Manav Garg 

Founded in 2004, in Bangalore 

Business: Products to manage risks in commodity trading. Commodities markets are notoriously volatile. A bad crop in Brazil or Vietnam, currency fluctuations, geopolitical situations --- anything can affect an organisation's ability to deliver. "A Nestle cannot tell customers they don't have coffee to sell. They have to manage country risks, quality risks, risk of shipments, risk of suppliers, to ensure they have enough coffee all the time," says Garg, 37. Garg saw the opportunity for such a software when he worked with Singapore-based G Premjee Group in their commodities trading business in the late 1990s. 

Customers: AWB (formerly Australian Wheat Board); Louis Dreyfus, Geneva; CHS, an US agricultural cooperative; New Boliden, a Swedish mining and smelting company; and more. 

Revenue: $10 million. Winner of the Nasscom Innovation 2009 award. Was in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 for India in 2009. 

Manthan Systems

Founder: Atul Jalan 

Founded in 2004, in Bangalore 

Business: Analytics products for the retail industry. The products analyse customer behaviour, merchandising, supply chain performance, supplier performance and a host of other parameters and help retailers decide where to set up a store, what kind of products to stock in a store, where to stock them, which products should be placed together to optimise sales, identify the right promotions. "These are decisions that were earlier taken on the basis of gut feelings and hearsay," says Jalan, 41. 

Customers: Over 76 customers, most in the $1-20 billion revenue range, including McDonald's, Prada, Bally, SM Group, Haggen, Crocs, Ecco and Robinson's. 

Revenue: Approx $18 million IDG Ventures India, DFJ ePlanet Ventures and Fidelity International have invested in Manthan. 

Ventuno Technologies

Founder: Subbu Murugan 

Founded in 2006, in Chennai 

Business: Video management and publishing platform. It's a platform for video interstitials. Its video enables your websites, and allows you to easily organize, customise, publish, distribute, analyse and monetize your video assets. "The market for internet advertising in India is nearly Rs 1,000 crore; 8% of that is dedicated to video advertising," says Murugan, 39, who did an MS in computer information systems in Georgia State university, US. The company has a presence in 15 countries, mostly in Europe and the Americas. 

Customers: Many Indian publications and advertiser clients including Fox Networks, YuMe and Jivox. 

Revenue: Murugan does not talk about this. But he says 45% of the revenues come from outside India. 

Capillary

Founders: Aneesh Reddy & Krishna Mehra 

Founded in 2008, in Kolkata, but soon shifted to Bangalore 

Business: Capillary's solution captures data about those who come to shop in a store or for a brand, analyses them, and offers them discounts in real-time. "Even as they are at the billing counter, they would be sent a discount message on their cellphone based on their age, past purchases, etc. 

These customised real-time offers translate to much higher conversion of discount and loyalty offers than the generalised offers that are typically made," says Reddy, 26, who studied together with Mehra, 26, in IIT-Kharagpur . 

Customers: Madura Garments, Raymond, Indus League, Levi's , Pizza Hut, Puma and more. Over 40 brands use the solution. 

Revenue: Not disclosed. Capillary reaches over 10 million consumers in over 5,000 stores in 400 cities. Winner of Qualcomm QPrize 2009 and finalist at YourStory.in's TechSparks 2011. Qualcomm has invested in the company, as have angel investors Harminder Sahni, Rajan Anandan and Venkat Tadanki.

Negative Effects of Job Hopping

Bangalore: Some employees are well aware of the fact that their economic survival depends on the maintenance of cutting edge skills. And this is the reason why they do not feel guilty when they switch to some other jobs for a better salary or better opportunities for growth. However changing jobs all the time and looking for the best deals and offers can be a risky business and can have an adverse effect on your resume and sense of professionalism.

Suggested below are the negative effects of job hopping

Questions may be raised about your skills

Many of short shifts in jobs on your resume will undoubtedly raise questions about your skills and work ethic, therefore be prepared with explanations, As most of the employers today hesitate to hire people who have held several positions for less than a year, because it demonstrate that their skills were not a match for several companies. Especially during non-recessionary times job hopping can prove to be a risky task. 


Employers may question stability

This can be especially difficult in some large companies that place a higher value on job stability. If your resume exhibits that you have not halted long in any company, future employers might think of you as a high risk recruit. You can never avoid the question as to what your reasons are for leaving all the past companies behind. This can be a major deciding factor for future employers because they would think that they are just endangering their company by someone like you who has the reputation of being dissatisfied with your work and always moving to better job.

Employers are least interested in investing on a job hopper

 

Employers are never interested in investing money and training time on a job hopper. They would rather invest

in people who are stable because they will be able to contribute back into the company. With constant job hopping you will convey a message that you are not ready to make commitments. Organizations show their interest in people who have their career goals adjusted with their corporate goals. Job hoppers cannot see their career path in a company beyond a year.
Employers will consider you as inefficient, inadequate  

 
 Although you may know within yourself that you are quite effective in your work, you posses great caliber, a resume that posses a bright background will eventually speak for itself. But frequent job hopping will give employers the perception that you will not be with the company long enough when it comes to effectiveness in your job and handing adequate work tasks.

You will be seen as shortsighted

                                                                

Frequent job hopping can affect you as well. Hence you should start thinking about what you really want in life before you move on to another

career opportunity. Skipping jobs may eventually ruin many things for you such as friendship with your co-workers, relationship with your family and other important aspects in your life. Frequent job hopping is like starting all over again every single time.

4G, 3G to grow parallelly in India: Ericsson

New Delhi: Swedish telecom equipment manufacturer Ericsson said that the fourth generation (4G) services for wireless communication will not effect the existing 3G services and the two will grow parallelly in the country.

"4G will complement 3G with its data services. We are optimistic 4G will be a big market in India. In most cases, 3G and 4G would go parallelly," Mikael Back, vice president of product and portfolio management, business unit networks, Ericsson AB, told IANS.

Ericsson is working with many players in India on long term evolution (LTE) technology. The company has already conducted field trials of 4G LTE mobile technology with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Qualcomm and is in talks with other players as well.

LTE is the global standard for the fourth generation of mobile broadband and is being supported by all major players in India. LTE is expected to transform the mobile-broadband user experience by providing the ultra-high data speeds needed for services such as internet TV, mobile video-blogging, online video games and the mobile office environment.

RIL won pan-India broadband wireless access (BWA) licence in the BWA spectrum auction last year, while Qualcomm acquired BWA licenses in four circles including Mumbai and Delhi. Aircel, Bharti, Tikona and Augre also won BWA licenses in select circles.

"The market in India is very good and we will be extremely strong," said Back.

Talking about the pricing of LTE devices, Back said that unlike 3G devices, LTE devices will be expensive in the initial phase, but prices will slide once there is a growth in demand.

The roll out of 3G services in India begun last year in a phased manner. However, the service has so far garnered lukewarm response from the price sensitive Indian market. 

IT hiring: 30% comes from employee referrals

Companies are increasingly relying on existing employees to rope in fresh recruits, especially in the IT space, and experts believe employee referrals account for about 30 per cent of hiring.
 
The existing staff members get to benefit by way of a fixed amount paid to them by the employers for every successful hire based on their recommendation, while the companies also benefit in terms of savings on costs associated with the search process.

According to experts, 25 per cent to 30 per cent of employees in the IT and ITes space are recruited through the employee referral process.


"We hire almost 30 per cent of our lateral talent acquisition through our employee referral programme," Infosys BPO Vice-President and HR Head Raghavendra K told PTI.

Echoing a similar view, iGATE Patni Associate Vice-President (Global Recruitment) Mahesh Guru said, "We had hired 24 per cent of employees through the referral plan last year."

Explaining the reason for such hiring, MyHiringClub.com CEO Rajesh Kumar said, "Employers prefer this programme because it's very cost-effective for them and employees are dedicately referring candidates to earn some extra money. It's a win-win situation for both."

He further said the major resource through which employees source candidates is social networking sites like LinkedIn, SiliconIndia, TooStep and TechGig.

"From a candidate perspective, there is no better reference point than their friend/ex-colleague who works with the company and is there to provide unbiased information that one needs to know before making a decision to change their careers.

"Employees also see this as an opportunity to continue their camaraderie with individuals and, hence, are motivated to refer their friends and/or past colleagues," Guru said.

Guru further said that companies in almost all sectors have some form of employee referral programme in place. 

Microsoft, Oracle, TCS line up at DTU for placements

Within three weeks of the start of the new academic session, Delhi Technological University (DTU) students were offered 86 jobs.

As many as 16 companies including Microsoft,Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Direction, Texas Instruments, Indian Oil, Maruti, TCS and Indian Navy visited the campus. The placements for the 2011-12 academic session started on August 2 with a number of companies visiting the varsity to recruit students.

While the first three weeks had 16 companies offering 86 offers, another 30 are scheduled to visit the campus by September 30.

The highest package offered so far is Rs 16 lakh per annum, but the figure is expected to rise significantly. According to Neeraj Nimwal, placement officer, DTU, "The companies for which the dates have already been booked include Mckinsey,Oracle, Engineers India Limited, NTPC, Wipro, Info Fidelity and foreign companies such as Work Applications of Japan, EPIC of America which offer pay package ranging from Rs 28-37 lakh per annum."

Last year DTU students had received 955 job offers from 176 companies during the placement period and the university is expecting to cross the 1,000 job-offer mark this year. Leading companies besides making job offers to final-year students are also offering paid internship to the third-year students.