India's current account deficit hits record high

An Indian shopkeeper arranges gold bangles in a Delhi store

India has pledged to do whatever necessary to tackle its current-account deficit, after heavy oil and gold imports combined with muted exports to drive the gap to a record high.

In a worse-than-expected reading that will keep the rupee currency under pressure, the deficit hit $32.6bn (£21.5bn) in the final three months of 2012, compared with $22.3bn in the September quarter. For April-December, the current-account deficit was $71.7bn, 5.4% of GDP.

While robust inbound investments into equities and debt have enabled India to fund the gap, these flows can be fickle and a sharp reversal, possibly triggered by an external shock, would leave the country's balance of payments at risk.

Read More

Top 6 budget tabs with big screens

We always want more - more wealth, more fame, more power, more friends, more bandwidth and more screen area.

Okay, the last two were my additions, but any self-respecting gadget lover will nod in agreement. And, as Indians, we know how to extract the maximum from every rupee we spend.

No wonder then that we want tablets with the performance and form factor of Apple's iPad, but at practically a third of its price.

Read More

Mumbai airport's stunningTerminal 2

The swanky Terminal 2 at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai is all set to open in September this year.

With a vision of making the airport one of the best in the world, the Terminal 2, or T2 has been built with a state-of-the-art four-level terminal with an area of over 4,39,000 sq. mts.

Read More

Godrej ropes in Aamir Khan to increase visibility

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan will lend his name and star power to a new set of commercials for the Godrej Group that will break around the launch during the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League  next week.

The Mumbai-headquartered group is back as a television sponsor of the cricket tournament after a year’s gap.

Read More

Successful Kumbh Earns Akhilesh a Harvard Invite

Lucknow: The successful hosting of Maha Kumbh 2013 has earned Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav an invite from Harvard University to speak on how the 55-day religious congregation, which attracted tens of millions of people from India and around the world, went off like clockwork and was praised its organization worldwide.


Urban Development Minister Mohammad Azam Khan, who has also been invited for the April 25 event, said it was a matter of great honor that the efforts of the state government were being recognized by such a world-famous university.


The varsity would pay all the expenses for the trip.


A 50-member multi-disciplinary team, including faculty and student researchers from Harvard University, had travelled to Allahabad in January to document and analyse the processes involved in the successful Kumbh Mela.


The world's largest religious festival occurs every 12 years and draws millions of visitors to a temporary, purpose-built tent city on the banks of the Ganga and the Yamuna. The Kumbh was also documented by various organizations; over 1,000 journalists had covered the festival, which concluded March 12.

Read More

“HCL Technologies Pool Campus Drive"

Education :  B.E / BTech/ MCA

Experience : Freshers

Location : Panipat (Haryana), Pan India

APIIT SD INDIA, PANIPAT

“HCL Technologies Pool Campus Drive”

HCL Pool Campus Drive on 29th March 2013 at APIIT SD INDIA

Pool Campus Drive by HCL Technologies will be held at APIIT SD INDIA Panipat on 29th March 2013 (Friday).

The details of the Company and Campus Drive are given below.

About the Company :

HCL Technologies Limited, BServ Division. The Company provides internal switching facility within its various departments based on performance and internal appraisal system.

Eligibility Criteria :

1. Students passing out their UG/PG in 2013

2. 50% in UG/PG – upto 6th Semester aggregate

3. CGPA to be converted to percentage to meet the eligibility criteria.

4. Maximum of 2 standing arrears allowed

5. Candidates should be willing to work in night shifts on rotation.

6. Selected candidates will join as Technical Support Officer-for voice Process.

Read More

Funny

Read More

India job market to improve this year

Jobs in India will be back by the end of this year as most global enterprises are likely to resume their expansion activities , after having put them on hold for over a couple of years now , said Pamela Berklich, senior vice president , Kelly Services , a global recruitment process outsourcing services firm.

"India , China and Latin America are high-growth geographies and therefore no global corporate can afford to put their expansion and hiring activities in these geographies on the back burner . Jobs will be back across domains of IT, e-commerce , healthcare , pharma , retail and telecom ," she said . Berklich was speaking on the basis of impressions she had gathered from interactions with large global corporates across industries . She noted that there was also a huge shortage of skilled workforce and tech talent in developed markets .

Globally , IT sector hiring for highly skilled workforce has not come down . Advanced technologies like social , cloud, mobile , big data and analytics are creating huge employment opportunities in India . Telecom, which had seen a big slowdown for a few years , is expected to generate jobs by the end of this year . Almost all global pharma companies are said to be talking about expanding their R&D capabilities .

Read More

N Sathyanarayanan's startup Central Parking Services making millions through car parking solutions

At social gatherings when people ask N Sathyanarayanan, an engineer from Bharathiar University in Coimbatore, what he does for a living, he tells them he is a "parking guy".

"Most people in India associate the parking business with ruffians," says the 42-year-old, whose company, N Sathyanarayanan's startup Central Parking Services making millions through car parking solutions, provides parking facilities for cars and two wheelers in India's malls, airports and large scale weddings.

Braving preconcieved perceptions is paying off for the Bangalore-based entrepreneur, whose company aims at clocking revenues of about Rs 140 crore next fiscal. More so, as the business is one that he discovered quite by chance.

In 2005 he was running a technology services venture, Building Control Solutions that provided system integration facilities for large buildings. When Bangalore's first shopping mall, The Forum, was setup, the developers approached Sathyanarayanan to take over the parking systems.

"In building management we would install systems and then earn an annual maintenance but in parking management there is daily cash generation," says the intrepid entrepreneur who had to learn the ropes from scratch. On an average one parking bay generates around Rs 2,500 per month with a few busy lots like those within airports generating up to Rs 2 lakh of cash every month.

His initial stint at the Forum mall proved to be a success and brought in newer projects from new clients such as the Select City Walk in New Delhi and Amanora Town Centre in Pune where over a lakh people visit malls every month. "We don't have the bandwidth to manage such traffic and it best outsourced to outside parties like CPS," says Tushar Mehta, Centre Director at Pune's largest Mall Amanora Town Centre.

Buoyed by this growth in the consumer retail sector, CPS soon emerged as the flagship division for the company. "It is a capital intensive business.

Read More

McAfee recruiting Software Engineers Freshers

Position: Software Engineer

Job Location: Bangalore
Note: Locations are subject to change.

Event date: 27 Mar 2013
Last date: 24 Mar 2013

Salary Offered: Rs.525000/-
Experience Required: Fresher

Additional Details:

About McAfee:
Leading-edge technology; fast-paced opportunity; passion, belief and commitment that drive change and create positive IT solutions for a safer world – that’s McAfee.

Read More

How will our future cities look?

 Will we use flying cars to avoid the rush-hour in the cities of the future?

Imagine a city of the future. Do you see clean streets, flying cars and robots doing all the work?
Or perhaps your vision is more dystopian, with a Big Brother-style authoritarian regime, dark alleys full of crime, and people forced to live in hermetically sealed pods because war or some other disaster has rendered whole swathes of the city unliveable.

No-one really knows what the future holds, but the reality now is that our urban spaces are overcrowded and polluted.

Almost half of the world's population currently lives in cities, and by 2050 that is projected to increase to 75%, but what kind of city will they be living in?

The time is ripe, say experts, to start designing smarter urban environments, both new cities needed to sustain an ever-growing population, and retro-fits on the ones that we have lived in for centuries.

Greenification

If the cities of the past were shaped by people, the cities of the future are likely to be shaped by ideas, and there are a lot of competing ones about how such a futuristic urban space should look.

            How do we make our cities greener?

Some of these revolve around the idea that smarter equals greener. Sustainability experts predict carbon-neutral cities full of electric vehicles and bike-sharing schemes, with air quality so much improved that office workers can actually open their windows for the first time.

Read More

Keeping a tab on technology

The other day we were talking about tablets when a colleague pointed out that he preferred the iPad Mini to the iPad, because he could hold it in one hand, a big advantage if one likes to read on the go. While the iPad Mini stays at the pinnacle of one's aspirations, here are a few sub-Rs 10,000 tablets worth checking out in a similar form factor

HCL Me U2

Anyone who has used a tab from HCL before will love the U2 for one simple reason. It supports the Google Play store. This will leave scores of U1 owners seething, because that feature is not available on their more expensive tabs. The tablet looks sturdy and despite a 1GHz processor, doesn't feel sluggish while multitasking. It also supports full HD playback via the mini HDMI port. Now if only the speaker was louder and it offered more internal memory.

Price: Rs 5,999
Screen: 7-inch 800x480 WXGA multi-touch
OS: Android 4.0
RAM: 1GB
Processor: 1 GHz ARM Cortex A9
Memory: 4GB internal, expandable up to 32GB via microSD
Camera (rear/front): NA/0.3MP
Battery: 3000 mAh

Read More

Google to shut down Reader web feed application

Google Inc is to retire Google Reader in July, it said on Thursday, citing declining usage for the application that aggregates content served by web feeds.

"There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we are pouring all of our energy into fewer products," Google said in its official blog.

The Reader application was launched in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. The service will be retired on July 1.

Google said users and developers interested in alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with "Google Takeout" service over the course of the next four months

Read More

In a world first, Japan extracts 'fire ice' gas from seabed

TOKYO: Japan said on Tuesday it had successfully extracted methane hydrate, known as " fire ice", from its seabed, possibly unlocking many years' worth of gas for the resource-starved country.

In what they are claiming as a world first, a consortium is drilling for the hydrate, a fossil fuel that looks like ice but consists of very densely-packed methane surrounded by water molecules, one kilometre (3,300 feet) below sea level.

The solid white substance burns with a pale flame, leaving nothing but water. One cubic metre of it is estimated to contain many times the equivalent volume of methane in gas form.

The consortium, led by Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, began initial work in February last year and on Tuesday started a two-week experimental production, an economy, trade and industry ministry official said.

"It is the world's first offshore experiment producing gas from methane hydrate," the official said, adding that the team successfully collected methane gas extracted from the half-frozen substance.

Read More

Earth on track to be hottest in 11.3 millennia: Study

The Earth-facing surface of the Sun is pictured in this NASA handout photo taken February 28, 2013 by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

WASHINGTON: The Earth is on track to becoming the hottest it has been at any time in the past 11.3 millennia, a period spanning the history of human civilization, a study published on Thursday has found.

Based on fossil samples and other data collected from 73 sites around the world, scientists have been able to reconstruct the history of the planet's temperature from the end of the last Ice Age around 11,000 years ago to the present. They have determined that the past 10 years have been hotter than 80 percent of the last 11,300 years.

But virtually all the climate models evaluated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predict that the Earth's atmosphere will be hotter in the coming decades than at any time since the end of the Ice Age, no matter what greenhouse gas emission scenario is used, the study found.

"We already knew that on a global scale, Earth is warmer today than it was over much of the past 2,000 years," said Shaun Marcott, the lead author of the study, which was published in Science.

"Now we know that it is warmer than most of the past 11,300 years. This is of particular interest because the Holocene spans the entire period of human civilization," said Marcott, who is a post-graduate researcher at Oregon State University.

Read More

Future of transport: journey of a lifetime

What is the future of travel? From driverless cars to ‘lilypad cities’, Vision considers how we will get from A to B and beyond in the decades to come 

Within the next 20 years, transport systems will need to accommodate rapid population growth throughout the world. The population in Asia and Africa alone is set to triple, which will put pressure on the world’s oil reserves, 85 million barrels of which we consume every day. But thanks to advances in technology, the world of transport looks set to adapt to the changing demands, and in many cases, in the not so distant future.

Read More

Internet scam: Beware of personalised mails from fraudsters

BANGALORE: Cyber fraudsters now land up in your inbox as advocates, police officials and friends through emails laced with links to malicious software that can steal your credit cards and bank accounts details.

One of the most successful on-going email scams is the job offer letter claiming to be from the office of the Vasant Kunj, Delhi-based human resources executive at carmaker Maruti Udyog announcing selection to the final round interview. Another one claims to be from a senior advocate based in New Delhi and talks about a case that has been registered against you in a local court.

"These emails are no longer sent by bored teenagers from college basements; most of the scams are pretty well-researched and advanced," said Huzefa Motiwala, regional head at computer security software firm Symantec. "Rise in email scams is directly proportional to the increase in internet penetration in the country, especially with the number of first-time internet users going up each day."

A recent Cisco study found that India is the world's largest source of internet spam, followed by the US, South Korea and China. With over 130 million users, India's internet population is one of the fastest growing in the world, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India.

According to Ravindra K Gadadi, deputy superintendent of Police at Karnataka police's cyber crime division, hundreds of email scam cases get registered with his department every week. "Until recently, most of these scams originated from Nigeria, making it extremely hard for police to find the actual culprits. But that has changed." He added that the cyber police team in Bangalore recently arrested a person from Andhra Pradesh who was behind an email scam campaign.

In another scam, "e-challan" of 500 for parking illegally, claiming to be from police department, were sent via email. The email offers several links for paying the fine by credit card, internet banking or even physically into an SBI account (No: 30119276964). "The hunt is on for a person based out of Bellari (in Karnataka) who is suspected to be part of a large internet scam," Gadadi added.

Read More

Mphasis recruiting Technical Support Associate

Company : Mphasis an HP Company
Website : www.mphasis.com
Education : Any Graduate
Experience : 0 – 5 Years
Location : Pune

About us:
It’s about what excites you most..
The passion for innovation?
The thrill of measuring up to the big challenge?
The fascination for an upbeat career growth?

Here is the opportunity
MphasiS is an HP company that drives talent in creating a global footprint. Talent, passion and the will to excel is the winning combination we seek in delivering world-standard services through technology know-how, domain and process expertise.

MphasiS and HP come together as one big company to provide integrated solutions involving Infrastructure Technology, Applications & Business Process Outsourcing capabilities. From Manufacturing, Financial services, Healthcare, Communications, Energy, Transportation, Consumer and Retail industries to Governments around the world, our client list features global players. We have over 130,000 employees spread over 64 offices across the globe helping clients increase their competitiveness

We work on a wide range of technologies that include Dot Net, Mainframes, AS/400, Java / J2EE, Testing, Oracle D2K / PLSQL, Pro*C / C, C++ / Unix, BA, ERP / SAP / PEOPLESOFT, DBA, Datawarehousing / COGNOS, BUSINESS OBJECTS / DATASTAGE / MICROSTRATEGY, Web Methods, EAI / Seebeyond / Siebel / Tibco, Open Systems, etc.

A career with MphasiS-HP means:
Making the most of your special abilities as you contribute, succeed and grow with a dynamic company.
All-round skill enhancement and continuous learning.
Skill and knowledge enhancement on the job.
Transparent Work Environment
At MphasiS, an HP company, we are committed to creating an environment where every employee feels valued and respected.

Walk-In For Technical Support Associate- International Voice Process On 5th March to 7th March 2013 @ Pune

Read More

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) - Scientist/Engineer

 

Post Name: Scientists/Engineers

Organization: State Govt.

Qualification: 

Last Date of submission of Application Form: March 14, 2013

Annual Recruitment of Scientists/Engineers SC with BE/B.Tech. OR Equivalent Degree in Civil, Electrical and Air Conditioning & Refrigeration

ISRO offers the position of Scientist/Engineer `SC in the pay band of Rs.15600-39100/- + Grade Pay Rs.5400 to the to young engineering graduates in the following specialized fields:-

•Scientist/Engineer SC - Civil (Code: BE004): 03 posts

•Scientist/Engineer SC - Electrical (Code: BE005): 03 posts

•Scientist/Engineer SC - AC & Refrigeration (Code: BE006): 04 posts

•Scientist/Engineer SC - AC & Refrigeration (Code: BE007): 01 post

 Eligibility: BE/B.Tech in First Class or equivalent with an aggregate minimum of 65% (average of all semesters for which results are available). Candidates who are slated to complete the BE/B.Tech course in the academic year 2012-13 are also eligible to apply provided final Degree is available by 31/8/2013.

 Age Limit: 35 years as on 14/03/2013 (40 years in case of SC/ST candidates and 38 years for OBC candidates, Ex-serviceman and Persons with Disabilities [PWD] are eligible for age relaxation as per Govt. of India orders).

  Application Fee:  100/- for each application in the form to be pais in any branch of SBI through a payment challan voucher.  No fees from SC/ST/PH/Women candidates are exempted from the fee.

How to apply: The application for on-line registration is hosted in the ISRO web-site between 22/02/2013 and 14/03/2013.

A written test for selection will be conducted 0n 05/05/2013 at 10 major cities throughout India.

 For more details: http://www.isac.gov.in/ced/advt.jsp

Read More

Apple’s ‘iWatch’ to reportedly launch this year

Apple (AAPL) plans to debut its much rumored smartwatch later this year, according to a new report. Bloomberg on Monday issued a claim that the so-called “iWatch” could pose a larger revenue opportunity than the HDTV Apple has supposedly been working on for years. The report suggests that Apple hopes to launch the device later this year and is considering a variety of functionality such as voice calling, mapping features and the ability to display notifications from the user’s phone on the watch’s display. The report claims Apple’s iWatch will also include pedometer features, and it may even monitor the wearer’s heart rate.

Read More

Budget 2013: Proposal to give Rs 10,000 to each youth for skill training may make 150 million youths job-ready

MUMBAI:   Despite its apparent packaging as a pre-poll carrot and legitimate concerns over it becoming a new fount of corruption, the Budget proposal to give Rs 10,000 to every person availing a certain standard of job readiness through government-registered entities also tacitly addresses critical shortcomings plaguing the skilling ecosystem, say subject and industry experts.
"It (the Rs 10,000 incentive) could be a game-changer for skill development," says Dilip Chenoy, MD and CEO of National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), the nodal body in charge of the government's drive to make 150 million Indian youth job-ready in various sectors by 2022. Besides incentivising the youth to partake of such job training, which pays for itself wholly or substantially, the proposal is likely to increase the comfort level for industry to hire more such candidates, adds Chenoy.

Companies have been lukewarm to hiring candidates trained by NSDC-affiliated entities because they felt the skilling curriculum, in which they had little say, fell short of their standards. According to Chenoy, sector councils, represented by industry, will now set training and exam standards for candidates to avail of the Rs 10,000 incentive and this new certification, which will carry more weight.

Read More

IT industry to focus on mobile tech, big data, cloud computing

BANGALORE:      The IT industry will focus on internet and mobile technology, big data and cloud computing technologies for speedy growth in order to achieve USD 300 billion revenue by 2020, Nasscom today said.
"The IT industry has a vision and aspiration to aggregate USD 300 billion revenue by 2020 by focussing on IT products, Internet and mobile technology, big data, cloud computing and 3G/4G technologies, for speedy growth," NASSCOM Expert Committee Chairperson N R Narayana Murthy told reporters here.
To achieve the milestone, NASSCOM in July 2012 set up an independent Expert Committee to address key needs of the industry in order to help realise Vision 2020.

The findings and recommendations of the committee report address the growth opportunity for IT industry by size and potential as well as key enablers for NASSCOM to partner industry in building future growth opportunities, he said. Murthy said the report would help IT industry realise 2020 Vision by not only identifying distinct priority areas, but putting together focused deliverables for each of those areas.
He said seven pivotal initiatives have been highlighted in the report that will enable NASSCOM achieve the target.The report highlights the initiative of expanding focus on industry segments based on size and potential, he said, adding the potential of IT industry is in Internet and mobile (content and commerce) segment.
It has also recommended reconstituting the Executive Council for adequate representation for seven identified priority verticals.The recommendations will be implemented in a phased manner and NASSCOM Vice Chairman Krishnakumar Natarajan will help lead it.

Read More

Syntel is looking out for Java/J2EE professionals

Company : Syntel Limited
Website : www.syntelinc.com
Education : Any Graduate /PG
Experience : 3 – 6 Years
Location : Chennai

Syntel (Nasdaq: SYNT) is a leading global provider of integrated information technology and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) solutions spanning the entire lifecycle of business and information systems and processes. Founded in 1980, Syntel leverages dedicated centers of excellence, a flexible global delivery model, and a strong track record of building collaborative client partnerships to create sustainable business advantage for Global 2000 organizations across nearly every industry. Syntel is assessed at SEI CMMi Level 5, and is ISO 27001 and ISO 9001:2008 certified.

The Company has been recognized for its excellence and financial growth by many organizations and media outlets, including Forbes, Fortune Magazine, and IAOP. Syntel employees more than 21,000 people worldwide with development centers in Mumbai, Chennai and Pune, headquartered in Troy, Michigan.

To learn more about Syntel, visit www.syntelinc.com

Walk-In For  Java/ J2ee Professionals On 2nd March 2013 @ Syntel, Chennai

Industry Type  :  IT-Software / Software Services
Role  :  Team Lead/Technical Lead
Functional Area  :   IT Software – Application Programming, Maintenance

Job Description :

Syntel is looking out for Java/J2EE professionals with the below skill sets in Chennai location.

Job Details:

Exp : 3yrs – 6yrs

Job location : Chennai

Skills Required:

If you have any of the below skills:

1. Strong hands on basic and advance java skills including Java, J2EE, Struts, Hibernate, Spring
2. Spring is Mandatory

Mandatory:
1) Require Hands-on experience
2) Problem Debugging Skills
3) To share knowledge with other team members
4) Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Candidates Interested can send across their updated resume.

Current Location: Preferred and Current Location is to Chennai

Date of Interview: Saturday(2nd-March-2013), Timings: 9:30AM to 3:00PM

The venue detail is as given below:
Syntel Ltd – Chennai (Adyar)
Arihant ePark – 7th floor
117/1 L. B. Road
Adyar, Chennai 600 020
Land Mark – Ganapathi Ram Theater

Note :
Please bring your Hard copy of Resume
Please bring your Last 3 Months Salary Slips and Passport size photograph-2 Nos.
Kindly acknowledge this mail and confirm your availability.
Please mention your time of arrival for the interview.
Also, carry the copy of this mail while you are coming for an Interview and mention my name on top of your resume

Thanks & Regards
Sivakumar Sridharan
Syntel | Human Resource
e-mail:- sivakumar _ sridharan @ syntelinc.com
Telephone     91-22-40470000</div>

Read More