TechnoFIRST Magazine - January 2010

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in business 44 Career intelligence

mumbai career destination

www.technofirstonline.com

you would realize that the technical skills could be learned over a period but what really matters is the attitude Aashu calapa

firstsource solutions

Technology Entrepreneurship & Career Magazine Vol. 6

Issue. 1

January 2010

Rs.25

2009-10

the past and Predictions artificial intelligence

58

the dubai crisis

48

October

2009

TechnoFIRST

www.technofirstonline.com

Technology Entrepreneurship & Career Magazine

Hon. Chief Editor Prof. Jyothy John CEO Arun Balachandran Managing Editor Ajay Lal Editor in charge Abraham Tharakan Associate Editor Jayakrishnan.G.Pillai Senior Sub Editor Suchithra Pillai Art Director M U Prajeesh Operations Manager ArunKumar Campus coordinator Mohammed Nijas Circulation Prijo Jose Marketing Jacob Pattara Web Coordination Anitha Reghunathan Event Coordination Jethic Bastian Administration Nileena Thomas Subscriptions - 09388833888 subscription@technofirstonline.com Advertisement JayKay (+91) 9020596524 Corp. Office mediafirst Publication A-44, Road No-2, NH-8, Mahipalpur New Delhi - 110037 Ph +91-9388833888 Admin Office mediafirst Publications C1, Alfa Towers, I.S. Press Road, Cochin-18 Ph - (+91 484) 2397533 Printed at S. T. Reddiar Press, Kochi

Copy Right All the articles published in this magazine are copyrighted. Illegal copying and reproduction by any means is punishable under the copy right laws. Articles published will be made available to the readers for personal use on written request.

The views expressed in the articles by contributors. Great care has been taken in the preparation of this journal and the information contained therein has been compiled using sources believed to the reliable and accurate. Readers are however advised, in their own interest, to reconfirm the data before acting up on the same. TechnoFIRST does not accept any liability for errors or redundancies of any nature whatsoever. All disputes subject to Ernakulam Jurisdiction only

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editorial ‘My heart leaps up when I behold A Rainbow in the sky: So was it when life began; So is it now I am a man”

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he same way, what the iconic William Wordsworth thought about a rainbow, doubts are not fading away about a year to come an end within few days. So READERS, be buoyant about a year in waiting. Cheer up for 2010……In the days that all past, you may have missed or may have gained. Keep those memories in a shell that has different paddles. Whenever, you think to take out the pearls of memories, choose the happy ones. We should have a conviction that next year will be better than the earlier one. As the year putting down the curtain in a few days, my grand total from the year of 2009 will be tumultuous with many issues like Recession, terrorism, global warming and food security. Last year, most of the governments on this Earth might have spent enormous time and money to bail out their wrecking economic ships in the turbulent deep sea of Recession. The unpleasant collision has been limited as many European and US companies are still profitable and have a strong balance sheet. But the commercial real estate, financial services and automobile sectors are still inside the pressure cooker of fund shortage or waiting the next leg of stimulus-soup from the Government side. Besides that credit bubble, last year almost had burned with escalating commodity prices, slide of the income index, heavy debt load and knee-jerking unemployment of educated GENEXT. I believe this situation will change very soon if the falling oil import bill and slowing non-oil imports ponder at ‘southward’ directions and the capital flow stabilizes. With over 60% of global GDP having tumbled into depression, we have also our part to play with that theme park. Lately, world started recognizing that our cruise in the troubled waters are not in a nose dive mission to the deeper side but to a perfect anchoring on the shore of Economic stability. TF cover story diagnoses the velocity of recession that lambasted in the world last year with a specific methodology and a readable melodrama.

We also analyzing about a company that bloomed like a lotus and faded like a purple ice plant by its villainous founder Ramalinga Raju.

But there also we foresee the ray of hope with the new leadership of Mahindra group. The entire crew of TF wishes our readers a very happy and thriving new year.

AJAYLAL Editor@technofirstonline.com

letters

happen to read the Larry Farrell’s Iedition. interview in your December’s Reading this article was

really an inspirational experience for me. Mr. Farrell is a person with a lot of ideas and thoughts. His quotes and statements were notable, the respond given by him was remarkable and his words reflected his persona. I went through his profile on internet and believe me the story of this man is moving and encouraging. I am really looking forward to read such more interviews in Technofirst of such eminent personalities who can be an excellent stirring factor for young guys like me who are inspiring to make a mark in the industry. Thank you Sharath Mohanan, kochi

About sixth sense

Point Noted

Sixth Sense, it was hard to believe that this technology has not come out of a Hollywood Sci-Fi movie. This article has closed the gap between the real and the digital world for me. I would have never believed if anyone came up to me and say that, 1 can operate a computer with just a pendent around the neck and some rings on the fingers. Now I cant wait to get a 1st hand experience of this cutting edge technology developed by Pranav Mistry. The work done by Mr. Mistry is astonishing considering the time he took to develop this augmented realty system.

Alok Shukla

I always used to find your magazine to be a serious thing but this time around you have brought some really interesting and youthful things. I must say that it helps to grab the attention of the youth and at the same time share with them the serious stuff they should know, I don’t know what your readership count is but being a retired professor I would recommend your publication to my students who really want to know about the IT, Career, Entrepreneurship and all the latest news about the campus and opportunities. Great product, wish things don’t change.

Prof Adityan Rawal Pune

LinkedIn has a story LinkedIn seemed to be interesting and just the usefulness of the site but the anecdotes. The whole idea was clear that, you don’t need to be a big thing to make it big. I was pretty much inspired by the Larry’s interview. The whole idea is that he is unknown to many in the country but he is a genius and he is rightfully called the Highest Authority on Entrepreneurship.

Nayna Madhusudhan, Banglore

Sir, We are indeed motivated by your words of appreciation. It is pretty much inspiring for us as a team when we get recognized for our hardwork.

Your suggestions and opinions are the inputs are the factors that we take into consideration when we plan an issue. Thank you for your motivational words editorial team

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Contents

34 Start up story: akros

A startup story from the offshore

32 Career track: business

intelligence Looking about the future of BI as a career opportunity

22 3 big questions

The few questions that might, if answered correctly, get you the job

58 artificial intellegence

In the world of man against the machine a set of scientific approach to make machine human smart

52 TUC Review: cmeri

National level research institute, CMERI’s mandate is to serve industry and develop mechanical engineering technology

36 The Entrepreneurs speak

2009-10 A Retrospective and Some Prediction

Here are some Entrepreneurs, to share their opinion about entrepreneurship. They have fought their way to be where they are today

page 16

Smart Techie 28 Group Discussion 56 Beta Q 66 Career Guru 60 Company Review 24 Website Review 49 Book Review 60 6 TF January 2010

Have the determination and faith in your abilities to endure the failures that are the steps to Success!!

Sid Prasanna page 12

job destination: mumbai 26 54 innovator of the month 20 placement experince 34 entrepreneurship

30 ‘Ek’, a Bangalore based Band – Where music transcends boundaries & languages and has united these five individuals in their passionate pursuit of God’s greatest creation ‘Music’

8 corporate news 48 the dubai crisis 40 gadgets

ek the band

50 tbi news 23 CAT: off-the-line

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An organisers worry

62 hot jobs

Life within the campus is something you will cherish for a lifetime. A look into the ways of the campus and the life within it

yo campus

corperate news College students vying to be entrepreneurs, on rise

ccording to a new study, graduates in the A U.S. are increasingly showing interest in business and entrepreneurship.

Released by Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the study called ‘Trends in Business Interest came out with these interesting results. The study bases its findings on data available through the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, which for 40 years has conducted the CIRP Freshman Survey, the most ubiquitous survey of college freshmen in the United States.

Among its findings, the study revealed that, through the 1970s and early to mid1980s, the numbers of students that listed “business owner or proprietor” as their intended career of choice trended upward, peaking in 1987 at 3.7 percent. The category then dropped to a low of 2.2 percent in 1993 before beginning an upward climb to 3.6 percent in 2005. In 2008, 3.3 percent of students chose “business owner or proprietor” as their preferred career.

The CIRP data show that only 0.5 percent of women wanted to be business owners or

proprietors in 1976. This number rose to two percent in 2008. Though in 2008, relatively few first-year students chose “business owner or proprietor” as their preferred career choice, many more (43.3 percent) reported that becoming successful in a business of their own was essential or very important.

The research also found that men have been more likely than women over the last 38 years to consider success in their own businesses as essential or very important.

The gap has been narrowing since the mid1980s. However, over the last 37 years, black students have been more likely than other racial groups to report that entrepreneurial success was essential or very important.

Asian and Hispanic students show comparable values, and white students have consistently placed lower importance on this item.

Indian Techies, the backbone of Japanese IT industry

ndian system engineers are making their Itechnology presence felt in Japan’s information industry. At the end of 2008,

22,000 Indians were living in Japan, nearly double the number a decade ago.

After studying Japanese language for five

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months, the Indians are set to go. In addition to operation and maintenance of financial information systems, they are in charge of systems development for computers and mobile phones, reports Kyodo news agency.

Tokyo’s Edogawa Ward has the highest number of Indian residents, at about 2,200.

After visa requirements for engineers working in Japan were eased in 2001, Indians flocked to the ward because it is close to the centre of Tokyo and prices are lower than in other wards. Until several years ago, there were only men in their 20s whose families were back home, but recently, the number of Indians accompanied by their families is increasing. It is soon expected to become an Indians’ town.

Infosys buys U.S. company

BPO, the business process Ionnfosys outsourcing arm of Infosys Technologies, Wednesday said it has completed the

acquisition of US-based McCamish Systems.

It had earlier announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire the US-based insurance and retirement business process solutions provider for $38 million (around 176 crore).

“With this acquisition, Infosys BPO strengthens its presence as a global outsourcing services provider. We look forward to an exceptional relationship with McCamish Systems,” Infosys BPO Head (Worldwide Sales and Marketing) and Business Head (Banking, Capital Markets, Insurance, Healthcare and Emerging Markets and Americas Operations) Ritesh Idnani said in a statement.

The deal establishes Infosys BPO as a key player in business platform services for the insurance and financial services sector. So this surely brings in a greater job opportunity.

in this category will need to have 12 months’ experience instead of six months as at present with their employer before they can be transferred to the UK, official sources said. The immigration category will be closed as a route to permanent settlement in the UK. This means that IT professionals who come to the UK under inter-company transfer will not be allowed to settle here permanently even after the mandatory stay of five years.

Immigration officials also denied reports that the Tier 2 (Intra company transfer) category of the points-based system was providing a loophole for Indian IT companies to bring foreign workers into the UK.

Ready to quit Employees

ven if the going is tough in the market, E more than half of the people surveyed are ready to quit job, switch the professions or take break. 62 percent of the respondents were ready to consider quitting; taking a career break or shifting to a firm with flexiwork options in order to handle the family responsibilities better, said a survey. So if you are amongst, who are in the waiting for job then might be its time for you to find some opening to start your career.

Tougher times for IT professional to UK

ritain has tightened immigration rules B from January for Indian IT professionals seeking to move to the UK under inter-

company transfers. From next year, workers

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Innovation LAB Truly Innovation

Inauguration of Innovation Lab by Dr A.S. Rao, standing from left Kris Nair, CEO Opdrage, Mr Mervin Alexander, CEO Technopark, Arun Balachandran, CEO Innovation Lab, Mr K.C.C Nair, CFO Technopark, Sanjay Vijaykumar, CEO Mobme , Mr Yatish G, NASSCOM Representative and Arifa Khan, Founder, Genius Incubator

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nce Steve Jobs said “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” This makes sense and that too coming from someone who personifies the phrase. Innovation isn’t just a word but a concept of not only thinking different but thinking beyond the present scenario. More often than not such innovators go unnoticed and thus are the unexploited resources.

To bring out such innovators to the

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masses and also to prepare them to be the entrepreneurs for the future, we have with us something called the Innovation Lab. Innovation Lab. With the sole aim of promoting, developing and nurturing entrepreneurship, Innovation lab is the first of its kind in India promising a brilliant opportunity for innovative ideas to flourish and the perfect platform for innovative thinkers to establish their products. Equipped with state of the art infrastructure

at Every Breath facilities, technology and support, at innovation lab startups are never started from scratch anymore. In addition to all the technical support imaginable, Innovation Lab also provides consultation, product support and product formation assistance. The Innovation Lab fund provides seed money to serve as catalyst and a vehicle to promote development in the field of technology for the budding entrepreneurs.

Innovation Academia is intended to turn innovative student thinkers and developers to real entrepreneurs by incubating innovative academic projects and turn them into startups, providing full access to all facilities of Innovation Lab. Students are exposed to direct interaction with leading technocrats from the corporate world, live training sessions, consulting and video conferencing opportunity.

Innovation Lab is undoubtedly the best combination of every flavor for a startup to grow into the next huge thing.

We at Innovation Lab hosts a pool of angel investors, venture capitalists, technology advisors, mentors and management teams to promote and manage all possible aspects of a budding startup. With an impressive list of advisors/mentors to the likes of Larry Farrell, the International Authority of Entrepreneurship in the world, Innovation Lab is poised to be the best place for anything to be born or to grow.

Technopreneur 2009 workshop was also organized by Technopark in association with Innovation Lab, TechnoFIRST magazine and ITIH-TBI, with an intension to create

awareness on Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship, among the Innovators and the campuses of Academic Institutions across Central Kerala. The inspiration behind this initiative has been to utilize and effectively convert the skills and expertise of students and rural innovators to start entrepreneurial ventures.

Innovation Lab was inaugurated in Cochin and amongst the dignitaries present were Dr. A S Rao, Advisor and former Head, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Govt. Of India, Mr. Mervin Alexander, CEO Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, Mr. Yathish G, Initiatives and Product Forum, NASSCOM, Jyothi John , Arifa Khan, Genuine Incubators, Ms Chandrika Shah, Mr. KCC ,CFO Technopark, Mr. Kris Nair, a cluster of innovators and students. This initiative is not just to find future entrepreneurs but at the same time nurture and groom them to be the face of the future entrepreneurship. An initiative started by Mr. Arun Balachandran who was also the brain child behind the TechnoFIRST Magazine, is all focused to nurture the young and vibrant talents from across the Kerala and thus change the career scenario in the state. With a positive support from various organizations, both private and government, Innovation Lab is surely going to make a mark with innovation and entrepreneurship. As it was truly said “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.�

TF January 2010 11

HR talk

The Non Philosophical Thought profile AASHU CALAPA

aashu calapa

executive Vice President, Human Resource first source solutions

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id BA - History/Economics/Political Science from Mysore university followed by MA in D PM&IR from Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

Worked for 11 years (1989 to 2000) with Wipro in various roles. These roles spanned across the hardware business, the corporate office & the software business. At the time of leaving Wipro, Aashu was heading the HR function for the Finance vertical in Wipro Technologies.

Aashu has been with Firstsource for the past 5 years heading the HR function. ashu oversees the people function for the company. He has over 14 years experience in the HR functions. Prior to his move to Firstsource, Aashu worked with Wipro InfoTech, one of India’s leading IT companies, leading the Human Resource activities.

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ashu holds a Master’s degree in Personnel Management & Industrial Relations from A the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

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he year came to an end and the world is waiting for the New Year, TF caught up with Aashu Calapa who speaks about the career opportunities, the year that went by and in a non philosophical way explains about the current job market. Aashu in conversation with TF.

tf: What is the current job scenario according to you under the given circumstances post recession?

Aashu: I think we are doing pretty well, as the industry expected this to be a tough year but the year turned out to be better than what we anticipated of it to be like. It seemed like a dooms day at the beginning of the year with the market falling and the Lehmann happening in September. But speaking generally and in the particular the larger players have done pretty well than what was expected with chaos around. tf: The recession brought in the pink slip saga and the companies were firing just for the sake of it. What is your take on that?

Aashu: I think we should understand that, the BPO and the IT companies are fed on the business from the American and the European Market. So it turns out that these industries were indeed affected by the turn down. I think most of the pink slips were handed out in the IT sector and the reason is IT companies, traditionally, maintained a large bench whereas the BPO’s don’t have a bench. So we have been continuously hiring in BPO over the last year. To be honest I don’t think any of the large BPO companies handed over the pink slip in a way. You could have specific cases of operations shutting down and companies closing down but the majority of the pink slip were handed over in the IT sector. You know most of the large BPO companies have increased their bench strength. tf: What do you think is the future requirement of BPO industry in terms of the employees’ quality?

Aashu: I think we are quite happy with the kind of talents we have now. Typically for our international clients we look for people who can speak English well. The conversation skills should good enough to maintain the conversation with our customer. If there are more graduates in the market who have the soft skills and particularly who can speak English well. There are other skills, something like the technical skills and for

the companies who are working on different vertical would hire economists, HR, techies. tf: in 2000 the BPO boom started, what changes do you see since then?

Aashu: The things have slowed down. The industry used to grow at 55% or 60% but the growth rate has come down to 5 or 6 %. The boom town is over. Our growth is connected to what happens in UK, Europe or the US. As in when the growth rate picks up in these countries our growth id affected tf: The tech graduates, what future do you see for them in BPO Aashu: That’s a difficult question; my understanding is that apart from the IT industry, which was at a loss or as you said were giving pink slips, the BPO and the other industry is seriously hiring the tech guys.

Companies like dell it seems to be hiring on a positive note. tf: You have been working in the industry for a long time, what do you look for in a new recruit?

Aashu: Most important thing is attitude, you also would realize that the technical skills could be learned over a period but you find that once you have the basic knowledge, what really matters is the attitude. We cannot compromise on our attitude. Education in India is basically an individual sport so you don’t have to collaborate with anybody else.

You study hard and you get good marks, but when you join corporate you have to work with other people, so you should have the mindset to work with other people at your work place. You sort of sometimes give importance to team victory rather than individual winning. We have often found that people who have the academic excellence need not be good with the team spirit and working together. So that attitude is important, and will take you places. Apart from that we don’t want people to be political thinker and when I say that I mean the office politics. tf: A lot of young people have taken entrepreneurship as their career Aashu: As India developed, a lot of people have gone ahead with entrepreneurship and there are still people who are happy with a safe job and with out risks involved.

Entrepreneurship has taken on to the youth.

There are lots of people who are ready to invest; there are angel investors, private

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equity funds, venture capitalists and a lot more. This is something that didn’t exist earlier. And I also think that there are one group people who have gained enough knowledge about the industry and are willing to take the risk and get into entrepreneurship. They have the money, knowledge and experience that will take care of their new venture. tf: What is your advice to those who have just joined the company and for the fresher who are waiting to join?

Aashu: Every IT company that I know has started hiring. I think the message for those who have not been hired from the campus is to wait as the things have improved.

Trust me the job market is improving.

My second message is not to compromise and keep trying and if you are not getting a job. I would suggest you to read up and

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would ask you to improve your technical skills and above all if you can attend some training program that would be great. Invest in yourself and you will get yourself a job.

India is a growing economy and its growth rate is measurable by all means. People do get carried away by salary and I think there should be a change in that attitude. Salary is something that will change over a period and time.

you would realize that the technical skills could be learned over a period but what really matters is the attitude

cover story

2009-10 A Retrospective and Some Prediction The year of mixed emotions just went by and we are into the new year of possibilities and opportunities. with nothing to be assured of and nothing much asked for come the last for the decade. TF looks into the year that went by and for the future to come by.

Suchithra Pillai, Anuj Mukhopadhyay

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s the mantra goes Athithi Devo Bhava, we did welcome a lot of foriegn companies through liberalisation and globalisation under the watchful eyes of the then finance minister and now prime minister, but the real turn or the pouring of the foriegn investment came in the late 90’s. Information Technology in India was just like a premature baby in the incubator when the y2k bug scared the world. Once a nation of rope tricks and snake charmers, we are now considered as the most sought after destination to start of a technology venture and not just because of the cost efficiency but because of the innovation and technology skills. The year 2009 saw the world falling apart and the companies switching performance gears and operation verticles. Many were fired and some were hired, some gained and some beared the recession pain and lot more in the waiting. TF looks back into the year that gave us the Realisation of a life time.

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IT started with a bug 2k bug, that scared almost all the IT giants world over since 1996, was a problem that turned out to be a blessing for the Indian IT sector.

When the world was worried about the turnout of the events, India came out with the solution, rather, only India could have come with the solution then. Since India was the only country in the world which had the abundant workforce required to write the many lines of code, considerable business was sent to them. Till mid-1999, Indian companies had provided Y2K solution to many leading multi-nationals, resulting in cumulative export revenues of $2 billion from 1996 to 1999. And thus began the story of the Indian IT but now 10 years down the lane we are a major player, when it comes to IT.

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Trouble 09 he year was a mix of who is losing and whio is gaining. The sensex dropped and crashed, the world stood still, it was a mixed impact at the

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job front with the world accusing the american economic depression for the “ no money, no job” syndrome. The head honcho’s were hired and the lower level labours were fired. The salary packages were dripping and bleeding. Promised jobs pending and above all IT was one sector which was hurt the most.

Satyam Saga hether it ws the satyam saga or the swine flu scare. The world had to wait and watch the turn of event. When the world was dealing with the madoff and lehmann, India had found its madoff in satyam. The year started off with satyam confession on the morning of the 7th January.

Ramalinga Raju acknowledged his culpability in hiding news that he had inflated the amount of cash on the balance sheet of India’s fourth-largest IT company by nearly $1 billion, incurred a liability of $253 million on funds arranged by him personally, and overstated Satyam’s September 2008 quarterly revenues by 76% and profits by 97%.

As executives at other Indian outsourcing companies nervously assess what impact the scandal will have on them, many industry observers now argue that the Satyam case will damage India’s reputation as a reliable provider of IT services. Many lost jobs and many more are still scared of their status.

But it all seemed good for us as soon as Mahindra took over the steering wheel to bring in some hope.

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Recession Cry veryone knows the word recession.

Thanks to the year 2009 A.D. that spread the word of recession. From the fruit vendors to the IT giants, all cribbed about recession. There was a price hike and there was meltdown.

The IT majors handed over the pink slip like christmas greetings without acknowledging the reason and well if someone asked, the reason was recession. The recession really took a toll but it really didn’t affect the indian IT much, It was more or less a “save for the uncertain future” strategy by the IT companies.

Many management gurus blamed the senseless attitude of the companies, they suggested that instead of firing the

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companies could have gone with the cost cutting. But then the BPO’s saw some of the worst cost cutting measures ; the added advantages and incentives were gone and in some worst scenario, the toilet papers.

The Job That wasn’t hat the graduates saw through out the year was “hired but will have to wait” situation. They were hired from the campus through the campus recruitement but had to wait and are still waiting for the company’s to give them a call. It was a situation wherein they didn’t knew what they had to because they were hired and so had a job but they were still not given a call so they were unemployed. No matter where you passed out from , you had to go through this waiting period and the companies blamed the US economy and the Us economy blamed the recession.

No matter who blamed whom the student had to suffer with this waiting.

There were other factors that added on to the pain of waiting. The students couldn’t join other companies in the mean time as they weren’t sure about the call coming in for joining. The other factor that took a toll on them was the fact that the companies were hiring and firing like an arm and nobody liked a resume with a pinkslip for underperformance and those who wanted to pursue education couldn’t make up their mind.

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The positives very coin has two sides but its not necessary that both sides can’t be aweful. But then there are always silver lining in the dark clouds.

Start ups on a rise Might be the the pinkslip effect or could be the effect of the entrepreneurship bug, 2009 saw some of the major tech

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startups coming into the picture. Not just the new ventures but the already existing startups started branching out or even expanding more. The majority of the startups last year were technology oriented or technology based. The reasons could be anything, it could be the no more more jobs available, educated but unemployed, have the experience but unemployed or even I have an idea syndrome. ; whatever it might be, it has surely given rise to a young set of entrepreneurs who dreams to change the face of trhe world with their innovation.

India saw some of the astonishing growth in the startup sector with the government taking initiatives to help campus bound companies and projects to be commercialised and eventually a known company in the their domain. This in not just to promote entrepreneurship or innovation but to create job creators rather than job seekers. There are institutes which are helping students tio venture into entrepreneurship on the campus and there are campaigns which promote entrepreneurship. With the B schools feeling the heat of recession, most of the campus’ have a entrepreneurship cell.

Year end Revival With the year coming to an end, we saw some of the major changes and that too in the positive. The NASSCOM assured that there were a lot of requirements and the hiring pattern would back to normal from 2010. The world market took a positive stride and Indian market reacted accordingly. The companies have started hiring or rehiring. The government as well as the economic wizards have assured the economy going for a positives.

“ I have seen the companies and individuals learn a lot from this economic crisis. the salary where like numbers that you couldn’t even think of, but now it is corrected. This was a hard lesson learnt but that was something that we all really needed”

Ayu Ratna, software engineer

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2010 The Career Prediction 010 job market trends will be far better than 2009 because the economic recession bubble is now melting down generating various jobs in diverse sectors. So which career in 2010 you will opt for if you are a fresher and what will the best jobs in the industry in 2010 or trends in 2010 careers are the questions that everyone want to know and explore.

There are many new fields that will be coming and enter into the category of best jobs in industry in 2010 apart from normal routine jobs leading to the change in 2010 job market trends.

Accountant jobs, green jobs, data base administrator jobs and many more will enter along with health care jobs and IT jobs in the 2010 careers would flourish.

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Best Jobs in Industry in 2010 Software Professionals The information technology line is a never fading field and can always be a nice option if you have taste towards it. Computer software engineers will be in much demand in the rising 2010 job market and is one of the best jobs in industry in 2010. You can go for the additional education and certifications that are related to your present job profile to move higher. The growth in this sector is expected to be much faster than the normal growth.

Faster than average growth. Along with growth in the computer and office equipment industry, consulting opportunities should increase as businesses upgrade and customize complex systems..

Mobile Gaming and Applications ith all the new smartphones coming in and all kind of operating systems to drive it from Maemo to Android to Symbian 1, there will be a lot of excitement and career opportunities in this area.new platforms like android, maemo, symbian -1 etc. These mean there will new applications required that work better the new hardware devices utilizing touch sensors, accelerometers and

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proximity sensors, not to talk of the fact that many will want ports of the existing applications to the new platforms and devices.

Data Base Administrator (DBA) 010 job market trends will see more DBA jobs than ever.

According to the 2009 CNN Report on jobs, DBA jobs are the best and among the top ten most happening and upcoming 2010 careers. There will be seen 29% growth in the DBA jobs in the coming 2010 job market. From the executive level to managerial level, these jobs will rule the career market across the world. So if you are an Oracle certified professional then be ready for the bright professional life.

Apart from the mentioned above there are other verticles like the ERP, Business intelligence, cloud computing, SOA and along with that areas like Information Security, Data Center Management, Unified Communication are a couple of areas we see a lot of action in.

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Being a student I have come across a lot off issues during the last one year. It not only made me realise the possible issues that I might come across but has prepared me to face it, I would surely thank the last year that went by Varun Desai student

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placement experience

Cordys Software India Name: Jophin Joseph Electronics and Communication Year of pass out: 2009 About the Company I’m working in Cordys Software India at Coimbatore. Cordys is provides software for business process innovation and Enterprise Cloud Orchestration. It provides SaaS (Softwares as a Service) Hurdles You Faced It was a tough time when I passed out – right in the middle of recession. Though I was placed in some companies from college itself, I didn’t receive a call letter from any of them. I was then placed in Cordys after I passed out through an off campus recruitment conducted by SHRED The recruitment procedures The recruitment process consisted of a written test followed by 2 interview sessions. There was a technical interview followed by a HR interview. Actually the interview process for Cordys was different for everyone. Some of us who passed the test even had 3 interview sessions.

Preparation for the Interview I had a technical interview for around 2 hours and a HR interview for around 1 hour. In my case actually there was not much difference between the 2 interviews.

More of tech was asked to me during my HR interview. Since I was an electronics passout, the technical interview were mostly puzzle questions. I was also asked some C programs and he also asked me about my project. The computer science students had a tough time with the tech

20 TF January 2010

interview. The company works mainly on Java, XML, AJAX etc. Computer students were asked a lot of Java, Data structures, DBMS, Algorithms etc.

During HR interview they began with the normal HR questions – introduce yourself, why Cordys, why a software company after electronics etc. Then I was asked about my main project. My project had GPS nd GSM in it. Rest of the interview was completely on these wireless technologies.

Kind of preparation did you put in I didn’t prepare much for this interview because it was a software company and we thought that they wanted CS students only.

I just looked through my mini and main projects and seminar. Actually I prepared only for the 1st interview of myr life. Rest all was a game of luck.

My Tips a)For Written Test : practice basic mathematics, logic etc. RS Agarwal is a good book for developing aptitude. For technical, practice on basic concepts of C b) For Group Discussion : I have never attended a GD in my life c) For Interview (Tech & HR) : For HR there are some predefined questions and answers. Lot of resources are available for that on the net. Before attending an interview check for that company’s recruitment process and questions on the net and prepare accordingly. Cordys was completely based on puzzles. Questions can be found for each company on the net. For tech atleast know the main, mini projects and the seminar well.

job track

3 BIG QUESTIONS In an interview quite often than not, there are some questions that decide your fate. Here are the three big questions that will decide whether you are in or not. It depends what you have as an answer for these questions.

1 Tell me about yourself TRAPS: Beware, about 80% of all interviews begin with this “innocent” question. Many candidates, unprepared for the question, skewer themselves by rambling, recapping their life story, delving into ancient work history or personal matters.

BEST ANSWER: Start with the present and tell why you are well qualified for the position. Remember that the key to all successful interviewing is to match your qualifications to what the interviewer is looking for. In other words you must sell what the buyer is buying. This is the single most important strategy in job hunting.

So, before you answer this or any question it’s imperative that you try to uncover your interviewer’s greatest need, want, problem or goal.

To do so, make sure you take these two steps: 1. Do all the homework you can before the interview to uncover this person’s wants and needs (not the generalized needs of the industry or company) 2. As early as you can in the interview, ask for a more complete description of what the position entails. You might say: “I have a number of accomplishments I’d like to tell you about, but I want to make the best use of our time together

22 TF January 2010

and talk directly to your needs. To help me do, that, could you tell me more about the most important priorities of this position? All I know is what I (heard from the recruiter, read in the classified ad, etc.)”

2 What are your greatest strengths?

TRAPS: This question seems like a softball lob, but be prepared. You don’t want to come across as egotistical or arrogant. Neither is this a time to be humble.

BEST ANSWER: You know that your key strategy is to first uncover your interviewer’s greatest wants and needs before you answer questions. And from Question 1, you know how to do this.

Prior to any interview, you should have a list mentally prepared of your greatest strengths. You should also have, a specific example or two, which illustrates each strength, an example chosen from your most recent and most impressive achievements.

You should, have this list of your greatest strengths and corresponding examples from your achievements so well committed to memory that you can recite them cold after being shaken awake at 2:30AM. As a general guideline, the 10 most desirable traits that all

k employers love to see in their employees are: 1.A proven track record as an achiever...especially if your achievements match up with the employer’s greatest wants and needs.

2.Intelligence...management “savvy”.

3.Honesty...integrity...a decent human being.

4.Good fit with corporate culture... someone to feel comfortable with...a team player who meshes well with interviewer’s team.

5.Likeability...positive attitude... sense of humor.

6.Good communication skills.

7.Dedication...willingness to walk the extra mile to achieve excellence.

8.Definiteness of purpose...clear goals.

9.Enthusiasm...high level of motivation.

10.Confident...healthy...a leader.

3What are your greatest weaknesses?

TRAPS: Beware - this is an eliminator question, designed to shorten the candidate list. Any admission of a weakness or fault will earn you an “A” for honesty, but an “F” for the interview.

PASSABLE ANSWER: Disguise a strength as a weakness.

Example: “I sometimes push my people too hard. I like to work with a sense of urgency and everyone is not always on the same wavelength.”

Alternate strategy :Instead of confessing a weakness, describe what you like most and like least, making sure that what you like most matches up with the most important qualification for success in the position, and what you like least is not essential.

CAT: off-the-line

An organisers worry

C

onflicer and W32 Nimda –these are the two names that you might know if you are a CAT aspirant or just went through the CAT storm. These aren’t the name of some subject but these are the two viruses that affected the server.

The cat went online this time around just to find itself in a mess. With the online CAT to the IIMs turning chaotic — admission tests were cancelled at nearly 14% centres across the country owing to technical glitches — cyber experts say pinning of the blame on a virus attack may have worsened things for applicants. Prometric, the American firm which has been entrusted with the task of conducting the tests, said, while a significant majority of the candidates successfully completed their exams on 5th December, various technical issues arose at selected computers in approximately 50 labs that prevented approximately 2,000 exams from being delivered.

If that wasn’t enough a lot more fingers were pointed out at the fact that some of the coaching classes have accused the CAT questionnaire to have been taken from their mock tests. And eventually it could be possible that one will no longer be able to say that IIMs have the cream. Bright students who are making silly mistakes will be the only ones who might not qualify CAT this year, while the average ones will. Experts say IIMs should now ideally calculate percentile of each student based on the number of test takers on that day as the difficulty level of the test has been varying each day. Finally to pull the last string Prometric, the company conducting the online Common Admission Test (CAT) to the IIMs have allegations against them that Prometric leaked the list of candidates registered for CAT to an online coaching portal. So this time around the CAT seems to have a gruesome year. Well belling the CAT might be easy for the students but belling the issues faced by the organisers of the CAT wont be an easy task.

TF January 2010 23

company review

Infosys Infosys Technologies Limited is a multinational information technology services company headquartered in Bangalore, India. Infosys is the among largest IT company in India. It has offices in 22 countries and development centers in India, China, Australia, UK, Canada and Japan.

Work Culture Till now I am honoured to work with two different teams and one thing is common with both and that is team mates will never let you lag behind. Everybody understands what is team work here. With all this Infosys is also paying freshers with one of the best pay and perks comparing to all of its competitors.

Work Pressure and Work Life Balance Regular activities like dance, singing, treasure hunt, birthday celebration, outings, parties , DJ’s are arranged for us.

You will find such activities atleast once in a fortnight. Gifts like T-Shirts, Shirts, Bags, Wrist Watches are also distributed to employees and sometimes even cash to promote the momentum in employees.

There is only one

pressure and that is to perform but then that is a self maintained pressure.

Salary and Quality of Work As mentioned earlier the salary for fresher is one of the best that you can get. Starting from the projects Infosys wins to the way they execute them step by step in such a defined mannered way is just a first chapter for beginners to learn with all the colored Quality feathers. I would say work satisfaction is too good to be compared.

Job Security In one word wonderful and if you are a performer you will see growth.

Type of work they do Mostly IT services and they are also into a lot of IT based initiatives.

Your Recommendation If you are a fresher and are waiting to join Infosys then you are just about make the right decision.

Disclaimer:This is an individuals point of view about the company that he/she is employed in and as per the request the identity of that individual shall not be disclosed under any circumstances.

24 TF January 2010

presents

Sharp minds together to start up your dreams Start your company in Technopark - TBI

The sharpest mind in India are coming together to lend support for the flagship campaign to change the face of the Indian Technology industry. From statesmen, to successful young entrepreneurs to pioneer I.T. giants, the “I am an Entrepreneur” Campaign is aimed at making change at the grass root level to the future of the country, namely the youth.

The innovative ideas in young minds shall be crafted and applied from the shoulders of these people who have shown the world the value of independent thinking. The campaign focuses on evaluating the viable ideas in future entrepreneurs and providing help in making their campus dreams come true.

Log on to www.iamanentrepreneur.in Mail us: info@iamanentrepreneur.in

A Campaign To Make Your Campus Dreams Come True

Get ready

to change your lives !

Help Line: Sreejith (Technopark)

+91- 98 959 51 435

Nileena (TechnoFIRST) +91- 93 888 33 888

October

2009

job destination

mumbai T

he city of dreams or Mumbai over the time as gathered a lot of names and all ways stood true to them. The city is a true example of “opprtunities everywhere”.

Bombay, still to many, was rechristened as Mumbai and so the vernacular phrase “Aamchi Mumbai” even to the non-mumbaikars. This career opportunities are wide and large.

Whether its Banking, Media, BPO’s and even Technology oriented career you will find it in the city. Known as the economical capital of the nation,Mumbai has a wide plethora career opportunities growing in with each passing day.

Job Destination Mumbai although known more for its entertainment and glamour industry, there is a corporate sector which is better off then the most. The Outsourcing Industry is another sector which has become a major employer for the young. There is a great opportunity ahead for those looking out for a career in IT based industry because of the growing number software industries in Mumbai. “ Earlier it was either entertainment, food and hospitality or the BPO jobs that were getting you the jobs. But things have changed over the last 5 years with a lot of industries starting off every other day; career opportunities

26 TF January 2010

seems wider” says Varun Desai, a management student from Mumbai.

IT Projects In Mumbai Mumbai occupies a leadership position in the Indian Economic, Industrial and Commercial scenario. Over the years it has also emerged as the leading city for Information Technology in the country. It is home to the oldest and most successful IT park in the country, namely SEEPZ.

Several new and successful facilities have been developed in the city for the promotion of IT. The ‘Technopolis Knowledge Park’, ‘Millennium Business Park’ and some more are the major IT parks or the business parks where in a lot of IT industry giants have found a space. Apart from the ones mentioned above MindSpace Malad is one place wherein you will find a lot of BPO’s and Tech industry developing.

Major IT Players A lot of major IT players have moved into the Mumbai IT scenario. Major palyers like Wipro, Infosys, HCL and Patni are some of the major players here. Some blue chip companies like APTECH, CMC, CMS Computers, Datamatics, Mastek, MEDILINE and few more are soem of those who have strong presence in Mumbai. Apart from these mentioned above there are a lot of small scale industries and startups making their way to the top thus giving a lot of job opportunities. “ I came to Mumbai in the year 2005, and since then I have moved through a lot of companies and finally am working with one of the IT majors and the best thing about the city is the availability of oppotunities. All you need to do is to grab the opportunities.” Said Mahesh Sharma, a

software engineering.

Life in the city As mentioned earlier anybody and everybody can survive in Mumbai. The best part about the city is the “sugar in the milk” attitude.

Everyone is welcome(except for the recent political spat against the outsider but then who cares) to find their future in this city of dreams. No doubt, being the economical capital, that the city is expensive but then you can always find the easy on pocket facilities. Transportation is above par taking into consideration the population of the city and the people flogging to the city everyday.

The BEST and the local trains are the best modes of transport. If you are one of those who is claustrophobic then you might choose for the Rickshaws, though a bit expensive but all of them have meters, Beyond Bandra till the Churchgate you might not find rickshaw so you will have to opt for a taxi. The real estate is expensive with the rental starting off from 7000 and if you are filthy rich then you can shell out upto a lac per or even more a month. The food in Mumbai is the best with an unmatched availability of all sorts of food and at a easy on pocket budget. If you are someone who loves shopping then you are in a city that gives you everything that you need. Malls, supermarkets, street shops and even chorbazaar (which is the best place to get what you really want and that too at a rate that’s unmatched). So all in all this city is all about life and when we say life we mean the “LIFE”.

The Weekend Planner Drive your way to Lonavala or Matheran for a weekend and get closer to the nature.

If you are someone who loves window shopping make your way to Malad Inorbit Mall, wherein you can spend a day looking at the brands or read your favourite book at Crossword or the landmark at Infinity Mall.

WaterKingdom and Essel world are the amusement parks that you can look forward to on a weekend.

Beaches are like an everyday destination for the Mumbaikars. The most visited being the chowpatty, Juhu and Marine lines. But the best ones are the Gorai beach, The Silver Beach and some unknown ones near versova.

TF January 2010 27

smart techie

the grey cell ashish banerjee Technologist Sun Microsystems Pvt. Ltd Initial Job I joined a small company DDM (Dedicated Digital Machines P. Ltd) as Design Engineer.

Best aspect of your job Freedom to work, anytime anyplace.

Also, I got to meet my hero Dr. James Gosling, the father of Java.

Current designation I am designated a Technologist (Telecom vertical) with Software Line of Business at Sun Microsystems P. Ltd.

Work environment/timing At Sun, we have Open Work environment. We don’t consider our roles as jobs, but as responsibilities. We are free and empowered to work from anyplace anytime. There are no timings, sometimes when I have to travel the day starts at 4 AM and get back home past mid-night. I work a lot from home.

Explain about your work My role is to help partners to architect large complex solutions.

I was involved in OICL (Oriental Insurance) Core Insurance modernization using Sun Portal and Glassfish ESB, using SOA principles, the project was successfully launched.

I was also involed in other large projects like ESIC Panchdeep project win team. I have helped partners create Java CoE (Center of Excellences).

I engaged with TCOE.in and also presented End-toEnd Open Source Telecom at Sun Tech Days 09 at Hyderabad.

salary or job satisfaction Both are equally important. You can lure a talent with salary but you can only retain them with job satisfaction. best way a fresh-out-of-college employee can impress you I thinks you must see Rocket Singh, he impressed me a lot. thing you know now that you wish you could have known in your campus days?

I wish the book “stay hungry and stay foolish” (by IIM Ahmedabad) was written then.

What’s the worst career advice you’ve ever received?

Stop programing and become a manager.

Your Tips to current Job seekers?

My advice will be STOP seeking job and START doing what excites you in the technology domain and contribute to the community through open source projects and blogs. Tweet a lot. The right job will eventually find you!

ashish banerjee with Richard Stallman

of the track

the band

M

eet ‘Ek’, a Bangalore based Band – Where music transcends boundaries & languages and has united these five individuals in their passionate pursuit of God’s greatest creation ‘Music’. All bred on different genres of music, nevertheless have set out together on this journey to spread their ideas to the masses through their music.

The genre of ‘Ek’ is primarily Indi-Rock/fusion, backed by an eclectic mix of Hindi lyrics and songs sung with a tinge of Indian classical music, a blend of energetic riffs ,deep lyrics, and a soothing aura. TF meets up with EK : an almost techie band to share the lighter moments of life and about their serious aspiration and that would be Music.

Your Entry into the Music World Different people in the band went into the Music Frame at different points in time. But basically it was from the college days that we started thinking about the whole band concept and about making music. There was a desire in each one of us to make music and that brought us all together to form this band.

The story and the band members so far The Band was formed in the year 2006.

Shashank and Aveer used to play in the college band together and once out of college and after 2 years of profession in software, they felt the creative urge to continue with music. That is when the band basically came into existence. Initially we were a 4 member band and did not have a keyboardist. But eventually a need for this was felt and Bharat joined in. Because of differences in interests , Avik ( bassy ) and Prabal ( Drummer ) left and Mahesh and Victor joined in. This is how the current line up of Ek came into existence Things not in your Stride Lot of them. The most alarming one is, how difficult it is for a band to really survive on the basis of their original compositions. As soon as people see that you are a Hindi band, they expect you to play all the latest Bollywood numbers. It is a little sad how the Indian Audience has not yet been receptive to bands playing new music through their original compositions.

Was is it a style statement We started a band because we wanted to create good music. It was purely the urge to do music and create something new, within each one of us that brought us together.

The fame and recognition All credit to our songs ( and also the internet).

They are being circulated through the internet and a lot of people have appreciated and liked them. We are being put into the category of musicians to be “taken seriously” with regards to the music and also the performances and this gives us immense satisfaction.

An all techie crew! interesting Only Bharat, our keyboardist has a background in fine arts. Rest of us have a technical background. Shashank and Aveer are from NITK Surathkal and Mahesh and Bharat are from BITS Pilani.

It’s a combination of out techie background as well as the music that gels us together. We

do talk a lot on the “software jargon” when we communicate with one another and also as all of us are in software, we understand it perfectly when one of us is not able to come for practice due to a release. So sharing a common background has definitely made us more mature and helped us gel well.

Time management and Career front As I mentioned, 4 of us are software professionals. We meet over the weekends for our practices and sometimes on a weekday when its needed, e.g when we have a show or we are recording a new song. Managing all this is not easy but I guess everything works out when you really want something “Satwaan Taar” a song that has touched a million hearts Yes of course. In fact it is the favorite song of the band. That song in fact represents a part of the thought process of each and every person, who is not doing what he should be.

The best performance so far We have a many performances we like , and like to talk about them, to cite a few RC Live 2008, MyBand Nite 2009, etc, but the best is yet to come.

Achievements and future plans Greatest achievement would be to have carved a place in people’s minds and to have gained the appreciation of people who like our music.

Going forward, we plan to record more and better songs and put up some good shows and not only in Bangalore, but going beyond and performing in other places throughout the country. We are also planning on shooting Videos of some of our songs.

Many a talents being wasted due to academic pressure? your thoughts Its simple. If you have a dream, go get it.

Period. There will always be factors pulling you back, but in the end all these emerge and end in your mind.

Each one of your opinions about your music Shashank : Honest , Pure and heart felt Mahesh : Exciting!

Victor : Grows on you Aveer : Satisfying Bharat : The genre that we have touched is something which is timeless which in turn gives us the confidence to stick to it.

Word of wisdom to the aspiring Bands Be honest and be original. Don’t follow trends but set your own trends.

TF January 2010 31

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship A Challenge

A lot of things have to be looked into when you plan your journey into entrepreneurship but then there are some that you cannot ignore.

T

oday, with the internet boom, entrepreneurs have become one of the most dynamic forces in the economy.

Entrepreneurs are now driving the technology boom, which is itself driving much of the world’s economic growth. This makes entrepreneurs very important from a macroeconomic perspective.

They have become a broader economic phenomenon that has a major impact on the economy.

As the globalism of business becomes even more widespread, this impact will be felt even more deeply.

Entrepreneurs are already becoming a major force in developing nations and in the economy worldwide.

The scope of what entrepreneurship involves will continue to change and evolve as the world continues to change and evolve, and yet there are some common issues of how to start a business,

32 TF January 2010

how to finance the business, how to run the business that within this community we can share and learn from each other. While we still have many heroes and stories, entrepreneurism(only if such a word exist) is an established field with a wide range of issues at all stages of the enterprise.

The Beginning common denominator for all entrepreneurs is the challenge of starting a business, be it through inventing something, looking for a new idea within a business, finding the right opportunity to break into a business or buying into a franchise.

And all of these take planning organizing all the aspects so that you reach your goals. All entrepreneurs are also faced with financing their entrepreneurial venture. Even intrapreneurs usually are faced with financial hurdles within corporate rules. So unless the venture comes from your own pocket getting money is a challenge that requires preparing funding proposals or applications to be written and/or presented for loans, venture capital, angel investors or even IPO’s. There is so much information written about these stages of an entrepreneurial venture that sorting the good from the bad is an overwhelming challenge in and of itself.

Once past those challenges, however, one would think there would be smooth sailing. Given the business has a good plan,

A

everything should proceed with minor glitches. However, the implementation stage seems to be the real make-or-break point of an entrepreneurial venture. There are hypotheses that part of the problem is that idea people and implementation people are very different breeds of people, but there are enough exceptions to that rule that is a difficult position to defend.

More realistic, perhaps, is that there are such a wide variety of skills needed at the implementation stage, that no one person can have the skills to manage all the functions well. The real talent is for entrepreneurs to recognize what they do well and then find employees or subcontractors who can fill the gaps.

Implementing Entrepreneurship ne way to look at this implementation stage is to look at how many different skills are involved in operating a business. Operating a business involves employees, marketing, advertising, sales, communications, public relations, legal needs, government regulations, equipping the office, risk management, disaster planning, crisis management, insurance, technology, hardware, software, the internet, and the financial aspects of the company - bookkeeping, managing debt, taxes, and barter.

Without a strong technical basis, there is no business. Above and beyond this, however, is the conceptual aspect of management: ethics, leadership, growth philosophy, and even the exit strategy of the company. These are much less tangible, yet set the overall theme and direction that the business will take.

O

Get What You Want ow is an entrepreneur to deal with all this overload of challenges? The good news is that there are plentiful resources: discussion groups, educational resources, professional associations, and publications to turn to for support and counsel. One could also say that having so many available resources is also bad news because one other element that entrepreneurs have in common is lack of time -- sorting through those resources to find the ones that work for you can be an arduous and painful process. That is what this site is really about -- a place that helps people running small businesses find the valuable information they need to find solutions for their particular needs and interests.

H

The Cow Business The COW business as it seems to us techies

SONYism –> You have a cow. You spend $50 mn to develop the world’s thinnest milk.

APPLEism –> You have a cow.

You sell iMilk.

SAPism –> You don’t have a cow You sell milking solutions for cows implemented by milking consultants.

ORACLEism –> You have a cow. You don’t know which side to milk, so you sell tools tohelp milk cows.

SUNism –> You have a bull. It doesn’t give milk. You hate Microsoft.

MICROSOFTism –> You have a cow.

Force the world to buy milk from you.

Spend a million dollars to feed poorer cows.

IBMism –> You have old stubborn cows. You sell them as pet dogs to innocent small businessmen.

DELLism –> Intel has a Goat.

Samsung has a Camel. Buy milk from both & sell it as Cow’s milk.

WIPROism –> GE has a cow. You take 49% of the milk.

PATNIism –> You have 10 cows. You make them work so that they give milk of 100 cows.

INFOSYSism –> You have a 1000 poor cows. You put them on a nice campus, & send themone at a time to the US for milking.

HPism –> You don’t know if what you have is a cow. You sell complete milking solutions through authorised resellers only.

GEism –> You have a donkey. People think you have a 100-year old cow.

If someone finds out, that’s his imagination at work.

TF January 2010 33

startup story

an offshore start up “Endure the failures that are the steps to Success” with this magical mantra of the success comes a startup to India. The team lead by Sid Prasanna is the Entrepreneurial story of the month. TF brings you Akros TechLabs as the startup story of the month. In an interview with Sid Prasanna we find their journey from the US to the Indian Shores to make it big in the world of Entrepreneurship.

What was your primary motivation for starting a company?

The primary motivation for the team, to start a company, was to build a successful business entity that will provide the independence and opportunity to develop and market cutting-edge solutions.

What were the major steps you went through to start your company?

The team met in India to discuss the mission for the company and identify short and long-term goals.

- Applied for patent-pending for the solution -Contracted an Attorney to help with the company agreement - Incorporated the company in March 2008.

Where did you find the seed capital for your company?

We are self-funded and do not have any outside investment in the company. The team contributed the initial seed capital from personal resources.

What was your most valuable asset in the process?

Our most valuable asset has been the unique authentication product – which will revolutionize the authentication market.

Did you get supports from any incubator’s or professional bodies? How helped it during your scale up?

Since incorporation, we have stayed as a self-funded, independent entity.

We are glad to have been accepted for the Pre-incubation membership at the TechnoPark TBI in Trivandrum and look forward to starting operations at the incubator in January 2010.

What makes you different fro others in the Business?

We have a diverse team that has

34 TF January 2010

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Have the determination and faith in your abilities to endure the failures that are the steps to Success!! significant technology, global business, marketing and sales experience. And , is focused on developing cutting-edge, futuristic, mobile technology solutions What has been the biggest challenge for you so far, and how did you overcome it?

Our biggest challenge so far has been the funding of operations. Fortunately, we have team of understanding professionals providing services and agreeing to deferred payment plans for their remuneration, till the company starts generating sustainable revenue streams.

What is your vision for your organization and what would be your Future plans?

We envision Akros TechLabs to be a large and successful mobile technologies company, in a couple of years. Our unique

authentication solution can add significant value to organizations across various industries, by providing secured access to confidential data sources.

We will initially cater to the Banking and Financial Services industry. In the first half of 2010, the plan is to provide customized solutions to Hospitals, Corporate Entities and other organizations across industry segments.

Your advices to budding entrepreneurs?

Dream big and work hard to achieve your goals. Have the determination and faith in your abilities to endure the failures that are the steps to Success!!

The Company

Strengths:

Akros TechLabs, LLC

The Akros founders, collectively, have over 75 years of experience in various business functional areas.

Founded in: 2008 Head Quartered in: Austin, TX, USA Industry: Mobile Technology solutions Business Description: Akros TechLabs is a technology solutions and services company, with headquarters in Austin, Texas, USA. The mission of Akros is to be the global leader in developing and marketing cutting edge solutions for the emerging mobile technologies industry.

Akros plans to grow its portfolio of products and will strive to provide cost-effective solutions, efficient customer service and ongoing innovation.

The Team: Sid Prasanna Sunil Belani CP Singh

36 TF January 2010

C C

Sid Prasanna, Managing Director, has over 14 years of experience in the sales and marketing of technology solutions, including hardware, software and services. In addition, the team has significant technical expertise and International business development experience.

C

Patent-pending (US and International), cost-effective 2 factor authentication solution Company Address & Contact: 16238, Hwy 620, Suite F-370 Austin, TX 78717 Linked in: Profile - Sid Prasanna

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The entrepreneur Speak

Entrepreneurs on Entrepreneurship When we started off we had the spark to do something different and we were sold to the idea. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all about the belief in yourself and the passion that you have in your idea.

And I believe that an entrepreneur is an optimist who has a vision that what he or she does is going to change the world.

Kris Gopalakrisnan CEO, Infosys

Learning that I could not take form B-school because I went straight to business after university. I picked up on the streets. I learnt my lessons on the streets and at every opportunity, tried to assimilate, gather, absorb some of the practices that were required to create an enterprise Sunil Mittal, CEO, Bharati Group

Entrepreneurs are those who live by their dreams. They build their dreams around ideas and realization. Here are some Entrepreneurs, to share their opinion about entrepreneurship. They have fought their way to be where they are today.

The entrepreneurs who have made it to the who is who and those who are in the making talk about entrepreneurship

If you are ready to go forward no matter what, if you are prepared to take the pain and still believe in your company then you are not making a mistake by not listening to your elders. Coz no elder who has started an enterprise himself would ever advice you against it. There would be a lot of predicaments that you would face during your journey of entrepreneurship but then the end results are satisfying.

Nelvin Joseph CEO, ARTINDYNAMIcs

38 TF January 2010

When I started it was hard. Every dollar that was spent had to be accounted for. We were willing to go the next five or six years to make that successful.

We were very fortunate that within a span of two years we saw personal reward from that experience and I believe an entrepreneur never gives up.

Sabeer Bhatia Hotmail Founder I started my company when I was still in college. Very unlikely for an engineering student to venture into media but I did , because that was my dream then. I feel its more about, how passionate you are about your dreams.

Pursue your dreams with a sense of responsibility and an attitude of success. Everything will flow in your stride if you know what you are vying for.

Arun Balachandran, CEO, Innovation Lab

As an entreprenuer, one can be his own boss,can taste the experience of both success and failure of his own establishment,gets an opportunity to network with lots of people and overall a different world. But all these comes at a cost of Risk, Comfort, Dedication.

Mahesh Malla Founder, Startup Buzz

10

Commandments

To crack an interview, if you are a fresher and don’t know how to handle an interview.

1 Whenever the interviewer asks any questions, listen carefully. Do not interrupt him midway. Ask for a clarification if the question is not clear.

Wait a second or two before you answer.

And don’t dive into the answer!

2 Speak clearly. Don’t speak very slowly.

Be loud enough so that the interviewers don’t have to strain their ears.

3 Brevity is the hallmark of a good communicator. An over-talkative or verbose person is disliked and misjudged instantly, so keep it short.

4 If you don’t know an answer, be honest. The interviewer will respect your integrity and honesty. Never exaggerate.

5 Never boast about your achievements.

Don’t be overconfident -- it is often misinterpreted by interviewers for arrogance.

6 Don’t get into an argument with the interviewer on any topic. Restrain yourself, please!

7 Remember your manners. Project an air of humility and be polite.

8 Project enthusiasm. The interviewer usually pays more attention if you display enthusiasm in whatever you say.

9 Maintain a cheerful disposition throughout the interview, because a pleasant countenance holds the interviewers’ interest.

10 Maintain perfect eye contact with all panel members; make sure you address them all. This shows your selfconfidence and honesty.

TF January 2010 39

gadgets Corby Pro 135 gram

2.8-inch touchscreen, TFT, 240×320 pixels, displaying more than 16 million colors 3 megapixel camera, CMOS H.263, MPEG4, WMV, WAV, DivX video option FM-radio with RDS; 64-tone polyphonic, SP-Midi, i-melody, MP3, AAC, AAC +, WMA Animated interface, One finger zoom, Smart Unlock Wi-Fi, USB 2.0 (microUSB), Bluetooth v2.1, 3.5 mm audio jack 100MB, expandable microSD memory card up to 16 GB qwerty keypad Approx: INR 13,900

Acer Aspire Touch Notebook Intel Pentium mobile CPU T4300 Fujifilm Finepix S200EXR Fujinon 14.3x Optical zoom lens

1/1.6” 12 megapixel Super CCD EXR sensor EXR Priority modes and EXR Auto Pro Focus Mode and Pro Lowlight Mode 5 Film Simulation Modes (Black & White mode and Sepia mode is added) A new 2.7” high contrast 230k dot LCD New ‘Super Intelligent Flash’ Approx:INR 29.999

40 TF January 2010

With integrated Multi-Touch Screen supporting Finger Touch - 15.6 inch HD LEDBACKLIT 1366x768 2 GB DDR2 RAM upgradable to 4GB Windows 7 Home Premium 320 GB - Serial ATA 5400 rpm 8X DVD Super Multi double-layer drive Integrated Acer Crystal Eye high-def webcam Acer Bio-Protection fingerprint solution, 5-in-1 card reader 2.80 (in kg) Approx: INR 42,846

ABROAD

yo campus Campus days are all about fun and memories. An individuals understanding of the campus life, that he has been through. An individuals change in perception about the campus which has made him what he is .

Jaykay

Just Not What I Thought It Would Be

J

ust into college and I saw life changing forever. My perception about college was different and far from what I am going through. I thought college would be all about bunking classes, a few days of ragging, bullying seniors and a lot of female friends. Initially I felt I was right about it because the very first day we bunked the lectures, the seniors called us under the pretext of introduction but we found them taking our cases royally. Thanks to the initial rush there were a lot of girls too. But very soon I realised college was more fun and it all together had different definition for fun. realised that college was more fun when you are within it rather than being away from it. The professors are not always shrewd; you will surely find someone in th college who is as friendly one could be. There would be one of them who will support you in whatever trash you jump into. The seniors weren’t rude they were just getting a feel of what their seniors enjoyed when these people were new. There wouldn’t be one senior who wouldn’t care to help you if you ask for it. My perception has changed so has

I

42 TF January 2010

my experience. Now I have redefined the word college just to learn that college is the place where you know what you really want to do out of life. I know the years are counted within this place but the memories will be cherished for a life time. The friends will last forever, the professors will always be the guide, the ideas that I have now will be my future, the day will be the most cherished one and I know I am never going to get out of the loop that I have created and never would I wish to. All in all this is one place where I started living my life and also started knowing what life is like.

W

ith the most awaited Christmas and New year eve near the corner, all are geared up to rock the floor. Parties lined up on the list, most of you must have already made up the plans. Here are few extra tips to make the fun more rocking and interesting. ake the theme of the party as the most exciting one as it anchors the entire fun of the day. It is really important to base your bash on a particular exciting theme. With the theme parties being the latest craze, the youngsters are sure to buzz on with it. The most popular new year themes of this season are Casino night, Dress as a celebrity, Garden party, Indoor party, Go as

M

you like, Cruise theme, Retro theme, 70s Disco Theme, Hollywood theme or make up your own theme. Award a prize to the best dressed person thus heating things up. ell, dressing up for the eve depending on the theme is the most difficult yet the most vital part which stimulates interest and fun. For a Rock â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;n Roll theme, go for the typical glitter belt-white boot-white jacket Elvis look. Or you can try the cardboard-nose Pinocchio look if you are planning a Dress as a cartoon character theme, something kids will love very much. If getting a theme of your own is not of your type, then fix on no dress code and make it As you like it theme. othing can be more fun than having party games on the eve, which is like an icing on top. But do make sure that you involve all your guests in the games. Games have the wonderful ability to add more fun to a party. Some exciting and amusing games can keep boredom at bay and make the party atmosphere as more lively. It will also fill the entire atmosphere with bubbling energy and hilarity. Make the entire New Year bash with all exciting elements embedded, to make it an affair to remember and enjoy the most.

W

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TF January 2010 43

career track

Career in Business Intelligence Career opportunities in BI are just as exciting as the growing executive-level interest and technology outlook. As with most professions that require knowledge of various subjects, areas of specialty exist.

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ever has there been a better time to have a career in business intelligence (BI) than the present. The discipline of making decisions based on relevant, timely and accurate information is now a standard business practice.

The technology that we enjoy today supports this discipline while competitive, economic and regulatory factors are forcing individuals to embrace it. As the amount of data continues to accumulate at a rapid pace, organizing it in a meaningful manner is critical to realizing and sustaining any value.

BI is the mechanism that enables information to be organized and easily accessible for monitoring, reporting, analysis and decisionmaking purposes. BI, in combination with data warehousing (DW), has evolved from its early beginnings as a technical solution for integrating data from disparate systems to an enabler of business and an integral part of any organization. This evolution and recognition of BI is a continuing trend that has created a wealth of opportunities.

ď&#x192;¨BI Roles Career opportunities in BI are just as exciting as the growing executive-level interest and technology outlook. As with most professions that require knowledge of various subjects, areas of specialty exist. Within BI, an individual can participate in numerous areas, including planning, 44 TF January 2010

design, development, deployment, maintenance and support. The roles range from a business analyst to a technical architect to the project manager. Each of these roles requires a blend of business knowledge, technical expertise and people skills.

The various roles can be grouped into three areas of focus: business, technical and a blend of both.

ď&#x192;¨Business Focus. Individuals who possess business function or process knowledge, such as finance or supply chain, would be well suited for a business analyst role. In addition, industry-specific knowledge may be required, given the subject matter that is being addressed.

For example, in health care the terminology and business processes surrounding patient care are unique to that industry. Having command of the appropriate terminology and an understanding of the business processes enables the business analyst to gather requirements and help create the BI strategy. In addition to subject matter knowledge, business analysts must excel in verbal and written communications, possess strong organizational skills and understand data modeling and business process design. ď&#x192;¨Technical Focus. There are several roles for technologists in BI, ranging from architects to software specialists. Architects are knowledgeable about DW, BI or data

k information needs. To stay current and enhance your BI knowledge and skills, embracing a mind-set of continuous learning is required. For individuals seeking specific training on a software product, most software companies provide specialized training on their technology. Training ranges from oneday specialty topics to weeklong sessions that teach individuals about features and functionality of the software.

Whichever learning option or combination of options is chosen, it is best to make the most of the investment by applying the new knowledge or skills as soon as possible.

Practical application reinforces the learning experience and creates a lasting impression.

integration frameworks and corresponding software technology. They work with the business analysts to design the approach and configuration of the technology to support the organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s information needs. Software specialists have a commanding knowledge of a particular software application, such as reporting or data integration software.

They understand the capabilities, features, functionalities and limitations of the software.

They collaborate with architects and business analysts to implement the software in a manner that supports the objectives of the BI solution.

ď&#x192;¨Blended Business and Technical Focus. With BI initiatives, the project manager and the data modeler must have an understanding of the subject area and BI/ DW principles. The project manager must also demonstrate outstanding organizational and communications skills to lead the team.

The data modeler is typically well versed in data modeling principles and has the ability to understand and translate business requirements into a data model.

These areas of focus represent specialty skills and knowledge that individuals must possess to contribute effectively to a BI initiative. However, having a focus is just the beginning. ď&#x192;¨Continuous Learning BI is an ever-evolving field due to the changes in technology and business

Employment Options The demand for experienced BI professionals has grown tremendously in the past two years.

Although the need is currently highest for people with hands-on experience with specific software technologies, BI is a mainstream IT discipline, allowing most technologists to transition into this area with some training.

After all, BI is the foundation for many innovative technologies.

The opportunities in BI span many industries, large and small companies and consulting firms. A professional who follows a path in BI will have many opportunities to deploy his or her skills and knowledge.

Compensation Ranges Overall, compensation in the BI field is very lucrative and pays on the higher end in comparison to pure IT roles in a variety of industries. Practitioners receive attractive compensation packages in return for direct participation in the success of the company.

BI professionals who choose consulting typically reap the highest benefits, with industry positions paying very well, particularly in vertical markets with the highest growth, such as pharmaceuticals.

Individuals working in the lowest paying industry, government experienced the highest increase in compensation from 2006 to 2007.

Characteristics of Successful BI Professionals Successful BI professionals possess many characteristics resulting from their academic background, continuous professional education and work experience. These individuals have substantial knowledge of BI technology coupled with significant industry and business process understanding.

They have very good verbal and written communication skills and are typically

TF January 2010 45

good listeners. They understand that a BI solution only has value if individuals ultimately use it. Therefore, beyond demonstrating BI technical expertise, they strive to help organizations or clients utilize the solution to create value and enhance decision-making. By actively working with business analysts or information consumers, they comprehend the information needs to design and create BI solutions that meet or exceed the capabilities that were originally requested.

They also know that the deployment of a BI solution is not the end, but just the beginning. As individuals interact with and adopt the BI solution, requests for changes and new data sets evolve the BI solution to meet the ever-changing needs of the organization.

Credentials to Distinguish Your Skills and Expertise in BI â&#x20AC;&#x153;The experience obtained from designing, developing and deploying BI initiatives provides firsthand knowledge. This knowledge, along with continuous learning, can build sufficient expertise resulting in a successful and rewarding career in BIâ&#x20AC;? says Jasna George. However, for those individuals who wish to distinguish their expertise and set themselves apart from others, various credentials are available:it does distinguish you from your peers and colleagues as an individual who has earned recognition for your knowledge in this field.

More and more C-suite executives are recognizing BI as a means to enable operational efficiencies and identifying growth opportunities by monitoring and aligning strategic goals with tactical initiatives.

The future of BI is strong. This growth yields opportunity for those considering a career in the BI market - whether as a consultant, an independent practitioner or industry expert.

46 TF January 2010

The dubai crisis

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very third person in this nation is an indian. Around the 12 percent of the foreign remmitance to india comes from this country. We are talking about the UAE, often known as the Dubai Nation. The world was awakened to a tragic enlightenment that the “The Dubai World” is facing a melt down. Things have changed, the trouble broke in when the request by investment corporation ‘Dubai World’, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Gulf state of Dubai, for a six month moratorium on the repayment of $3.5 billion of loans. Not blessed with oil wealth like its sister emirate Abu Dhabi, Dubai has relied on the expansion of the property, finance and service industries to repay the debts. But the world recession has severely hit income from these sources, making repayment of the loans much more difficult. Well it may not have a direct impact on the nation or its economic status as of now. So if Dubai has taken a stumble we are for sure to be affected, even the newcomers to the desert city don’t need to be told about who is building the numerous high-rise edifices that dot the city. They just have to look around.

Indians simply outnumber all other races. They form nearly half the population of Dubai while locals number only 18 per cent.

Construction companies who had gone to Dubai to carry on contract jobs would also be affected, since payments would get delayed and project sizes will be curtailed, thereby affecting their bottom-line. any projects will get delayed or trapped, meaning a decrease in business. Commitments from Dubai-based companies into India will also reduce. The crisis however underscores the need for high remittance-dependent economies such as Kerala that it is essential to create conditions to utilise human capital, a result-oriented mindset and entrepreneurship that returnees from overseas bring to the local economies. So when Dubai suffers a jolt, its repercussions are bound to affect India and Indians.

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website review

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ith IIT’s Mood Indigo coming up, quiz-lovers are getting ready to face a barrage of questions on diverse subjects. The stakes are high so those who are serious about it are always up for some preparations before the quiz. So if you are looking for ways to help you remember a ton of data, you might want to give Memorize a try.

The site is basically a virtual aid for memory tools. If you have ever studied for a GMAT, CAT, CET or GRE, you would know that flash cards and ‘match the columns’ are the two best ways to test your memory.

Memorize automates this process for you.

Taking the most prominent example on the site, suppose you wanted to remember the capitals of all the major countries in the world.

All you have to do is click ‘Create a page’ and choose a title for your customised Memorize link. In the next page, you will have to key in the data for the things you want to memorize,

with the first column being your flash card questions, and the second column being the answers.

Once you are done, Memorize will arrange the data you have given in a random order and allow you to test your memory with the help of flash cards, match the columns, or multiple choice Q&As. The ease of the entire process is what makes Memorize so great, as it unburdens you of the pressure of creating quizzes for yourself and lets you concentrate just on remembering facts. Even if you have no use for this site right now, we suggest you bookmark it as it will come in handy the next time you want to study something.

tbi news Technopreneur 2009-2nd Edition

echnopark TBI in association with T Technopark TePP Outreach Centre (T-TUC) ,Innovation Lab, ITIH-TBI

and TechnoFIRST organized a one-day workshop “Technopreneur 2009”on December 15, 2009 at Kochi. The theme of Technopreneur was Promoting Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship. The spirit behind this initiative has been to utilize and effectively convert the skills and expertise of students and rural innovators to start entrepreneurial ventures. This workshop served to promote the spirit of Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship among the Innovators/prospective entrepreneurs from every segmentand the campuses of academic Institutions across Kerala. Dr. Rao, Mr.Yathish, Mr.Mervin Alexander took sessions on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Support offered by NASSCOM to Start up companies and Experience in Promoting Technopark. TBI repectively.

The workshop winded up with the experience sharing session by Mr. Sanjay Vijayakumar, CEO, MobME, a succesfully graduated incubatee of T-TBI. One to One discussions with Dr.A.S Rao , Former Advisor, TePP-DSIR was conducted as parallel session. 21 Innovative proposals from different parts of kerala where scouted out of which 3 can be are readily incubated in Innovation Lab. Technopark TUC will guide the Innovators for applying to the TePP Grant of DSIR, Govt of India.

50 TF January 2010

Rural Innovators Meet

Rural Innovators Meet (RIMA 2009) organised by Kerala State Council for Science,Technology and

Environment(KSCSTE) was inaugurated

by Shri S. Sharma, Hon’ble Minister for Fisheries and Registration, Government of Kerala on November 24, 2009, in a function presided over by Dr. E.P. Yesodharan, Executive Vice President, KSCSTE. Technical sessions and Exhibition were arranged and about 30 rural inventions/ technologies were exhibited in RIM 2009. Tender Coconut peeling machine, Areca nut dehusker, Kitchen Gym, Mango Harvester, Rubber Sheet Processing Machine, Solar Mosquito Destroyer, Value added products from Jack fruit, Aranmula Mirror, etc. developed by the rural innovators were some of the interesting exhibits.Dr.Ajith Prabhu, Principal Scientific Officer, KSCSTE was the co-ordinator for RIM 2009.During the programme Shri. K. C. Chandrasekharan Nair, CFO-Technopark & TUC Coordinator took a technical session on ‘Marketing issues of Grass root Innovations’. He detailed on the problems faced by grass root level innovators through case studies and also mentioned the support offered by Technopark TUC for the Innovators by assisting them through TePP Funding of DSIR.

Faculty Development Programme in Entrepreneurship conducted at Technopark

Faculty Development Programme A (FDP) designed to train and develop professionals in the area of

Entrepreneurship Development was conducted in Technopark from Dec 8-19, 2009. The FDP was inaugurated by Technopark CEO Mr.Mervin Alexander on December 8, 2009. The programme was jointly organised by National Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (NCIIE), the training arm of Technopark TBI and Entrerpreneurship Development Institute of India ( E D I I ) ,Ahmedabad with the support of Department of Science & Technology (DST) Govt of India. Mr. V.S Sukumaran, Associate Senior faculty, EDII welcomed the participants, Mr. RC Dutt, Expert Consultant,TTBI delivered the key note address and Mr.KCC Nair, Registrar, T-TBI delivered the vote of thanks during the inauguration. So many eminent personalities from both industry as well as academic community handled the FDP Sessions. The FDP will equip the participants to act as ‘Resource Persons’ and facilitators of the IEDC activities in the colleges and guide and motivate young students to take up entrepreneurship as their career. The participants were from Kerala and Tamilnadu

3 Entrepreneurship Awareness Camps

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ntrepreneurship Awareness Camps were conducted at Vidya Academy for Science and Technology, Thrissur , Nirmala College, Muvattupuzha and Govt Womens Polytechnic College, Thrissur on December 4/5/ 18, 2009 respectively.

Mr. Sreejith.

S & Ms. Surya Thankam.S,Technical Officers of Technopark TBI detailed on the support offered

by Technopark TBI/TUC to the student innovators and prospective entrepreneurs. The EAC was organized in association with Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII),

Kerala Chapter.

BarCampKerala 7 held

arCampKerala 7, the event which sees B the community of entrepreneurs, IT professionals, students and business

mentors come together in a platform and share their views on their favorite topics was conducted at Kristu Jyothi College, Changanaserry on December 20, 2009.

Kerala has grabbed the title for conducting the most number of barcamps in India in a year in the last 2 years. There were around 100 odd attendees from various parts of the state with entrepreneurs sharing their troubles, their reason for “startingup” and about funding and investment. The Principal of the MACFAST college Rev. Fr. Abraham Mulamoottil gave a mind-blowing talk on startups and his personal appreciation to all entrepreneurs and his open invitation to mentor new business ideas. Other attractive sessions were handled by Mr. Kenney Jacob on the existing conditions for a new startup to bloom in Kerala and by Mr. Binny V A on Multi Monitor Machines. BarCamp Kerala 7 was supported by Technopark TBI and the next Barcamp will be held at MACFAST, Thiruvalla.

Delegates from NITTTR visits Technopark TBI

3 member expert delegation from A National Institute of Technical Teachers Training & Research (NITTTR) visited

Technopark TBI. The team was lead by Dr. Parijat De, Director, NITTTR and included Dr. S.K. D h a m e j a , Prof in Charge of Entrepreneurship Development & Industrial Co-ordination Department. The visit was aimed at exploring first information regarding the establishment and functioning of TBI in the Institute at Chandigarh.

TF January 2010 51

tuc review

TePP Outreach Centre – CMERI Being the only national level research institute in this field, CMERI’s mandate is to serve industry and develop mechanical engineering technology so that India’s dependence on foreign collaboration is substantially reduced in strategic and economy sectors.

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he Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) is the apex R&D institute for mechanical engineering under the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR ). Being the only national level research institute in this field, CMERI’s mandate is to serve industry and develop mechanical engineering technology so that India’s dependence on foreign collaboration is substantially reduced in strategic and economy sectors. Besides, the institute is facilitating innovations and inventions for establishing the claims of Indian talent in international fields where Indian products shall ultimately compete.

An interview with the head of the Tepp Center here.

What is innovation according to you?

Innovation is the process and outcome of creating something new out of something which is already in use, which goes on to create further value.

How do you spot the innovators and how could an innovator approach you for the support?

We advertise in the local leading newspapers outlining the scheme and seeking proposals. In addition,

52 TF January 2010

we conduct sensitization camps in education and technical institutions.

An Innovator’s Meet was organized last year and this turned out to be a huge success and would be repeated each year. In addition, we have intimate linkage with the National Innovation Foundation, and often we use similar and other informal networks for scouting innovation.

Further, we have started receiving a reasonably good response from wordof-mouth avenues.

The innovator is free to call us up at any time. We have deliberately not specified a particular date or time to facilitate the access of innovators.

Normally an innovator is asked to interact directly with the TUC team through mutually agreed upon appointments. We try to inculcate an atmosphere which aids the comfort level of an innovator.

Other than funding, what support do you provide to the innovators?

Other than funding, we provide technical mentoring, fabrication assistance, assistance for research and development, drawing and model development, obtaining proof of concept, etc. Normally, an individual Scientist is assigned as Mentor for a particular project, which moves forward through the joint guidance of the Scientist and the innovator him/

herself.

Do you have any kind of associations/ tie ups to incubate the innovations that you have funded?

CMERI is considering the formation of an Incubation Centre for quite some time, and once this is in place, the specific innovations are expected to find incubation space. As of now, no such tie-ups exist, but are bound to materialize once the TUC, only about a year

old, starts functioning vigourously.

For snippet TUC Team Soumya Sen Sharma: Coordinator, Scientist F Asit Kumar Sau: Principal Functionary, TAB Sukumar Roy: Creative Modeler N.K. Sadhu: Office Assistant & Accountant Subhas Hari: Helper

sl

category

Proposals

Nomenclatures

status

A

Micro TePP Funding

3

Alternate Growth medium for Rice Straw Mushroom for increasing production per unit space

Being submitted

Electricity from Tidal Waves

Being submitted

Development of Six Jaw Universal Wrench

Being submitted

Portable Microscope Slide Projector

Approved

Solar Powered DC/BLDC Motor Operated Kerosene Dispensing Unit with Biometric / Bar-Code Access Control

Approved

Self Propelled 3 Row Potato Seeding Device

Approved

Low Specific Cost Solar Parabolic Dish Concentrator System

Being submitted

B

Phase 1 Funding

3

TF January 2010 53

innovator of the month With the philosophy that innovation is looking beyond the obvious. This months Innovator is Abdul Aziz. An agro based innovation and a lot of ideas in his head Aziz looks forward to implement his innovation to save the labour. TF in conversation with the Innovator of the Month

Look beyond the obvious Your Innovation he Self Propelled Three Row Potato Seeding Device for Restricted Land Holdings performs the tasks of digging furrows at proper depths for planting potatoes, planting the seed potatoes at the proper depth and providing soil cover for the protection and eventual germination of the seeds. The device comprises a Seed Hopper for accommodating seed potatoes, three Seed Cups that distribute the seed potatoes along three rows, a diesel engine as the prime mover for self propulsion, a set of traction wheels at the front, a set of Balance Wheels

T

54 TF January 2010

at the rear, three sets of metallic Wings for providing soil cover after the plantation of the seeds and three Digging Blades for providing the proper depth. Propulsion is provided by the diesel engine (5HP-12.5HP) via a reduction gear box to the traction wheels. A part of the power provided to the traction wheels is fed back to rotate a shaft on which are mounted the seed cups. As the shaft rotates, the individual cups pick up the seed potatoes and distributes them along the three furrows.

The row to row distance is adjustable between 18â&#x20AC;? and 26â&#x20AC;? for accommodating different varieties of

potatoes. The device provides a depth of cut that varies between 6” and 9” for different potato varieties. With proper design retrofit, the device can be made to dig furrows up to 12” in depth for the production of certain varieties of potatoes such as Atlanta, etc.

Figures 1 and 2 provide the schematic layout of the device.

Your Innovation to the World primary attraction of the device is that it helps in drastically reducing the time required for planting of potatoes, as it appropriately mechanizes the three main functions required for sowing. The device simultaneously creates irrigation furrows for subsequent irrigation. It has been estimated that use of this device can afford savings up to 80% in the labour cost and up to 75% in the time required for sowing potatoes.

The Beggining The idea for the product owes its genesis in the course of the long experience I have in potato farming practices prevalent in the small land holdings of West Bengal, which is the second largest producer of potato in India. I had noted that all seeding devices available in the country are actually tractor driven, which makes its use restricted in smaller land holdings of West Bengal due to the lack of manoeuvrability. There was this inner compulsion to develop a device for reducing labour and time for seeding and increasing yield. I may modestly claim that I have a track record of innovating similar devices, which I fabricates in my own small workshop and put these on trial through different farmers. I have innovated a Rotavator of unique design and characteristics, which is in the process of being patented. The idea was tried out in practice through the development of a rudimentary model through retrofit and salvage utilization, and the initial results are encouraging.

Your Journey So Far Hailing from a farmer family, I had obtained a degree in Science, but had decided not to opt for service after graduation, but to dedicate myself to the introduction of modern farming practices. This led to the eventual opening of my firm – the New Bengal Agro Implements – where I spent more than two decades innovating new and appropriate farming devices. I may modestly state that I have a strong

Innovation is 15% inspiration and the rest perspiration. Have faith in your innovation, and eventually you are bound to succeed innovative bent of mind and with the help of the rudimentary workshop, I try to innovate on product designs and fabricate prototypes for innovative agricultural implements and farming devices. I am exposed to the trends in modern mechanized agricultural practices and I keep myself updated with regular internet searches, etc.

Support From The TePP My association with the Farm Machinery development Group of the Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur dates back has been for more than five years and I have worked with this Group for development of different agricultural devices. It was through this Group that I received the invitation to take part in the Innovator’s Meet organized by TUC-CMERI, Durgapur in March 2009. The device I had innovated impressed many Scientists of the Institute with whom I interacted furing the Meet. Eventually, TUC-CMERI came forward then and it was through them that I submitted my project for Phase I of TePP Funding, which finally received the DSIR approval and funding.

My association with TePP has helped me in two ways. First I had funding for trying out my ideas. The second is the opportunity of being mentored and helped by the Scientists of CMERI, Durgapur. My exposure to the high level of expertise available at this national Institute has helped me in innovating on product design, mechanism design, etc. Now I also have the chance to analyse the performance of the device even before it hits the prototype stage.

Advice to aspiring innovators Innovation is 15% inspiration and the rest perspiration. Have faith in your innovation, and eventually you are bound to succeed.

Contact: Sk. Abdul Aziz, Krishna Bazar, G.T. Road, Post – Memari, Dist: Burdwan, West Bengal,

TF January 2010 55

group discussion China has been often considered to be a competitor to India. Now its seems China has taken steps to match India in terms of IT developement. Masses opinion about the same

China: a Threat to the Indian IT sector The Indian software industry has been afflicted with “Chinaphobia” for over a year, the fear being that its neighbor could supplant India as the digital software giant of Asia.

Indian industry is substantially ahead of the Chinese software industry, not only in terms of revenues but also quality, skilled manpower, project management capabilities and execution skills. So it is totally impossible for china to be even close to what you call the great Indian IT hub.

Shamsheer Yousaf

China wants to emulate India’s success in the software sector and become a major global force. China has initiated a series of measures, which include plans to set up specialist IT training institutions on the lines of our IITs and Chinese firms are following the same strategy India’s IT majors did (bagging projects based on price) before going on to become software majors.

There is a bigger opportunity for Indian IT players in China. One of them is that Chinese firms cannot meet the full demand from the Chinese domestic IT industry, resulting in the government allowing foreign firms like Microsoft, Oracle and IBM to operate through joint ventures.

Arun Chithran

Competition is good for any business growth, it will also raise the standard too. It may take around 10 years for china to come at par with India.... and they are good at duplicating unfortunately software can be duplicated but not the development process....who knows then may do just that...!!!

Kaksha Desai

56 TF January 2010

I can tell you that this talk about China not being a threat only helps in guarding Indian software companies at the stock market. No Indian company in its right mind should fall for this false sense of security. Figures lie. One fine day India may wake up to the fact that China has beaten it to the finish line. About a couple of years ago top Indian service firms were charging American companies $75 to $90 an hour, today the figures are merely $6 to $9. I believe that China will very soon do the same job at about $3 an hour -- and that will bleed Indian firms to death.

Muralee Krishnan

There’s no doubt about China’s competitiveness in the IT sector, considering its hardware and telecom markets are much bigger than India’s.

And even in software, China has a huge captive domestic market, as compared to India’s relatively tiny domestic market. There are some other alarming figures for India: the ratio of China’s IT spend to its GDP is nearly 5 times that of India’s.

If India’s current growth rate in IT doubles, it would still take us 25 years to catch up with China, and that only if China’s growth rate remains stagnant.

Neethu

Not really. Why should they be a threat. India has proved it’s capabilities against International competition. China has a long way to catch up with India in terms of software. Their success in the manufacturing sector is due to other factors - the formula cannot be duplicated to achieve success in the knowledge sector too.

As far as software is concerned China is not a threat to India, but as far as Software piracy is concerned. It is as it is the topper with 2/3 piracy taking place in china.

Neha Gupta

In the near run Indian software industry has no major threat from China. India has long since concentrated on software services and is aiming to move up the value chain which can’t be competed from china. India has a majority working population and the number of professionals being added to the pool each year is unmatched.

Agreed attrition and cost is increasing but this is common all over the world.

Sumukh Purohit

Indian software companies have an exponential opportunity to be tapped in the field of telecom software. Currently, major telecom players in China like Zhongxing and Huawei export their telecommunications equipment to India, while Indian IT firms develop the requisite software for them. So I am not sure if at all China would be a competition but yes it would be a helping hand to our IT growth Harsh Patel

TF January 2010 57

tech news

artificial

Mankind has always been obsessed with Artificial Intelligence and someone has rightfully said artificial intelligence without art is meaningless. So does AI aim to put the human mind into the computer?

Niketh Sharma

W

hat we could possibly think of could be about the movies that we have bred on wherein the Terminator saves a kid or the Transformers drop into the save the world. It is all about tin cans thinking like human being but it is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence, but AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable and to understand that we need to understand what intelligence is. Varying kinds and degrees of intelligence occur in people, many animals and some machines but the problem is that we cannot yet characterize in general what kinds of computational procedures we want to call intelligent. AI (artificial intelligence) is not always or even usually about simulating human intelligence. On the one hand, we can learn something about how to make

58 TF January 2010

machines solve problems by observing other people or just by observing our own methods. On the other hand, most work in AI involves studying the problems the world presents to intelligence rather than studying people or animals. AI researchers are free to use methods that are not observed in people or that involve much more computing than people can do.

AI as it began

A

fter WWII, a number of people independently started to work on intelligent machines. The English mathematician Alan Turing may have been the first. He gave a lecture on it in 1947. He also may have been the first to decide that AI was best researched by programming computers rather than by building machines. By the late 1950s, there were many researchers on AI, and most of them were basing their work on programming computers. Alan Turingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1950 article Computing Machinery and Intelligence discussed conditions for considering a machine to be intelligent. He argued that if the machine could successfully pretend to be human to a knowledgeable observer then you certainly should consider it intelligent. This test would satisfy most people but not all philosophers. The observer could interact with the machine and a human by teletype, and the human would try to persuade the observer that it was human and the machine would try to fool the observer. Over the time many ideas have evolved

intelligence and the most exciting ones were on the silver screen such as television series small wonders had a character named Vicky.

simply put AI is not the capability to think but it is the capability to make the things around you think

AI and the Human Intelligence

C

omputer programs have plenty of speed and memory but their abilities correspond to the intellectual mechanisms that program designers understand well enough to put in programs.

The matter is further complicated by the fact that the cognitive sciences still have not succeeded in determining exactly what the human abilities are. Very likely the organization of the intellectual mechanisms for AI can usefully be different from that in people. Some researchers say they have that objective, but maybe they are Branches of AI using the phrase metaphorically. logical AI The human search mind has a lot of pattern recognition peculiarities, and representation we are not sure anyone is serious inference about imitating common sense knowledge all of them. The and reasoning ultimate effort is learning from experience to make computer planning programs that can solve problems epistemology and achieve goals ontology in the world as heuristics well as humans. genetic programming However, many people involved in particular AI application research areas are much less game playing ambitious. speech recognition Because many understanding natural billions of dollars language that have been computer vision spent in making expert systems computers faster and faster, heuristic classification another kind Auto automation Robotics

Sanjay Menon, CMO, Artindynamics of machine would have to be very fast to perform better than a program on a computer simulating the machine.

AI in India

W

ork in Artificial Intelligence began in India in the early 1980â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. The Management Information Systems (MIS) Group at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta has been actively involved in Artificial Intelligence (AI) research since the early 1980s. But over the period in time things have changed. Artificial Intelligence in India is soon going to be a known thing and known to the most in the world of technology.

Companies like Artindynamics have been working over various concepts to develop the higher end of the complicated AI. With an aim to To produce high quality goods that are useful, powerful and fresh, to provide a professional, excellent and rapid service for all of our customers and to drive the industry and market forward with competitive pricing, top services and innovation Artindynamics are amongst the fw in the country who are really working it out to make a difference in the perception and understanding. All said and done Human beings will always be excited of getting the intelligence into the tin cans.

TF January 2010 59

book review A Romance with Chaos Nishant Kaushik Rupa & co INR 95

B

lame it on Chetan Bhagat. The Five Point Someone author kick-started a mini-revolution with his extremely popular novels, thereby inspiring a generation of engineers/MBA metoos to go ahead and write their own novels. It may be a presumption to state that twenty-six-year-old Nishant Kaushik – by day, a business consultant working with a large MNC – falls into the same category, but a few pages into his second novel A Romance with Chaos, you’re already looking at characters and situations which are very similar to those found in Bhagat’s novels.

The plot involves Nakul Kapoor, a corporate drone who works in a large IT firm in Mumbai. Typically, Nakul is frustrated by the fact that, even after working his way through school, engineering college and business school, he is still dissatisfied in a job that seems to be getting him nowhere. Add to that a pigheaded boss, a materialistic bimbette of a girlfriend and a naïve roommate, hailing from a small town in Rajasthan, who speaks as though he consumes entire GRE word lists for breakfast regularly.

Nothing new about the premise, nothing new about the story and the path it takes. Predictably, after taking a good one-third of the novel to outline poor Nakul’s situation, the novel takes him from conflict to conflict, eventually hurtling him down a chasm of despair to a nadir. From there his character stumbles upon a resolution to all his problems – a few random sketches depicting a character in chaos – which eventually leads to an Ashutosh Gowariker-like climax involving social change, and an abrupt end.

I understand that spoken Indian English is not technically grammatically correct, but these sentences don’t just appear as character quotes. At the end of the day, this is an English novel, so one assumes that at least the narrative should be in correct grammar – which it isn’t. Such slipshod editing can ruin the best of books, and I think this is something that the author as well as the publisher should look into.

The author would do well to understand that merely giving details about how the IT industry functions (which are, admittedly, informative) and throwing in dashes of office politics, mild sexuality and good old fashioned suicide bids do not a good novel make.

career guru Q:Hi,I am in Software support in Software company from past 1 year.Now I want to Switch my job in other technical field.I have done my B.E in 2006 with First class.What job profile should I Apply?What options are available to me other than software support?

Rahul.Raj A: Rahul, You do not mention the specialisation of your B.E degree, however, assuming it is in computers and given your experience, it should not be difficult for you to seek a move out of software support into software development or with companies using IT processes in their working (user firms). It would help in your job search for you to do a short term IT skill enhancement course from a computer training institute or a certification in a relevant technology.

Q: I have Completed GNIIT From NIIT and I want to do MBA-IT from ICFAI(Correspondance) Would it be Help me for my Career and also can it be help me for incriment of my salray?

Niraj Shukla A : Niraj, MBA-IT is certainly going to help in having an excellent career growth. It is very much in demand these days. It will be good if you can pursue it as a regular student otherwise doing it from ICFAI will also add weightage to your resume. Just ensure that syllabus meets the industry standards. It will improve your overall skills as an IT professional thus helping you in career and salary growth. careerQ@technofirstonline.com

60 TF January 2010

The Dreaming Spires of Oxford Magna Carta is a private College with high standards of student support and pastoral care. Not only will we provide you with a first-class education, you will also receive personal support from world-class academics, while enjoying the full Oxford life.

Magna Carta College, Oxford offers • MBA in International Management

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Study a validated MBA in Oxford • Degrees are fully validated by University of Wales and accredited by British Accreditation Council • Lectures are held in the lecture theatres of Oxford University colleges • The Oxford Union has very kindly allowed Magna Carta College students to become Associate Members of the Union. This gives access not only to the libraries, but also to the world-renowned debates scheduled each term, and to all other social events as organised by the Union.

• A state of the art Virtual Learning Environment is available to students Magna Carta College Linton Road, Oxford OX2 6UD, ENGLAND Ph: +44 (0)1865 274 234, Fax: +44 (0)208 840 9911 enquiry@magnacartacollege.com

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hot jobs Kerala State Science & Technology Museum Thiruvananthapuram

Production/ Manufacturing/ Industrial engineering) Metallurgical Engineering

Name of post: Scientific Officer

Educational Qualification: Candidates should have passed qualifying degree examinations and awarded bachelor’s degree in engineering/ technology in the above mentioned disciplines (full time regular courses only) from recognized Indian Universities / Institutes.

Candidates currently in final year of their engineering studies may also apply. However, if selected, they must be in a position to submit their final mark sheet by 31st July 2010.

Age Limit: Maximum 26 years as on 30th June, 2010 The last date for receiving application OnLine is 13th February 2010 For further details http://www.iocl.com/PeopleCareers/ IndianOilCorporationLimited.pdf

Qualification: (1)M.Sc in Maths, Physics , Chemistry. Electronics , CS OR B.Tech in Mechanical Electrical or ECE (2) Proficiency in English and communication skill Age: 35yrs as on 01/10/2010 Scale of pay Rs9560-16650 How to apply: Cost of application form is Rs 350/ . Prescribed application form can be had from The Director Kerala State Science & Technology Museum Vikas bhavan (p.o)Thiruvananthapuram -33 from 15/12/2009 to05/10/2010 on payment of cash .If the forms are required by post , apply with self addressed stamped (Rs 35) envelope along with DD in favour of The Director Kerala State Science & Technology Museum payable at State Bank of Travancore Trivandrum (Main) Thiruvananthapuram -33 on or before 15/01/2010. Envelope containing application should be superscribed the post applied for . Filled application with attested copies of certificates should reach The Director Kerala State Science & Technology Museum Vikas bhavan (p.o)Thiruvananthapuram -33 on or before 15/01/2010

Indian Oil Corporation Limited Applications are invited for the position of Engineers/ Graduate Apprentice Engineers (GAEs) in the following engineering disciplines: Chemical Engineering (Including Petrochemicals engineering) Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering Instrumentation Engineering (Including Electronics & Instrumentation engineering but excluding Electronics & Communication engineering/ Telecommunication engineering) Mechanical Engineering (excluding

62 TF January 2010

Integrated Test Range (Chandipur)

Recruitment of Junior Research Fellows ITR invites applications for the post of Junior Research Fellows Name of post: Junior Research Fellows Qualification: First class degree in BE/B.Tech / M.Sc. in Electronics Engineering or Computer Science Engineering or Information Technology No of post: 02 Post (Number of vacancy is likely to be increased) Age limit: 28 years of age as on 09.01.2010 Stipend: Rs.12000.00 (also HRA, and Medical Facilities shall be admissible, as per rules) Duration: Two years (extendable as per rules) Area of work: RF Communication/Computer Networking/Real Time Software/ MIS/ VLSI etc.

The Indian Navy

Applications are invited for the post of Commissioned Officer Name of post: Commissioned Officer Qualification: A Master’s Degree in Physics (with Maths in B Sc)/ Maths (with Physics in B Sc)/ Computer Science (with Maths/ Phy in B.Sc)/ IT with at least 50% marks / B.E/ B.Tech (Mech/ EEE/ ECE/ Electrical/ Electronics/ IT/

Computer Science/ Tele communication) with 60% marks/ MCA. Age: 21-25 Yrs born between 02 July 1985 and 01 July 1989; both dates inclusive Physical Standards: 1) Minimum height 157 cms. Weight and Chest should be proportionate.

2) Eye Sight : 6/60,with glasses: 6/6, 6/12 and should not be color/night blind.

Selection Process: Selection of recruits is based on the order of merit on their performance in Intelligence test, Group Discussion, psychological Test, and fitness in the Medical Examinations.

How to apply Applications in the prescribed format should be sent to Post Bag No.04, Nirman Bhawan PO, New Delhi-110001 along with the attested copies of certificates showing date of birth, qualification etc. Last date for the submission of application form is on 18th January 2010.

Experience: 0-2 years Contact : joseph@visionics.a.se

Speridian Technologies

Immediate requirement for Dot Net and Java Programmers. The details are given below: 1. Dot Net programmers 3-4 yrs experience in Microsoft technologies Expertise in ASP.Net ADO.Net Webservices SQL Server Must be a good communicator 2. Java Programmers 2-3 yrs experience in Java Expertise in Struts, Spring, Hibernate, MySql, Jboss XML, AJAX JSP Eclipse IDE, SVN, Ant Must be a good communicator Contact: hr@speridian.com

Device Driven

Name of post: Content Writer Role: Blogging, drafting innovative product concepts, designing compelling presentations, web content and PR material Skills: Flawless creative and writing skills; Excellent grammar and comprehension skills; Usage of word processing, presentation and document layout tools; Attention to detail; Online market research experience would be an advantage; High sense of responsibility and pro-active attitude; Team player Experience: 0- 1yrs ( Graduate in any domain) Contact: hr@devicedriven.com

Visionics

Technical Writer Required Role: Creating Technical Documentation for our ECAD Software product.

Skills: Knowledge of Technical writing tools like RoboHelp, Microsoft office, HTML with excellent English writing skills preferred.

Qualification: Degree in Electronics(B-Tech, BSc\BSc Electronics )

For more jobs log on to www.technofirstonline.com Gemini Software solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Job openings for the following post 1.Technical writer : Bachelors in Engineering/ Masters in journalism/Mass communication/ English Literature At least 2 years of experience as a technical writer 2.Software engineer: Bachelors in Engineering/ MCA/M Sc. computer science with min. one year of experience in software development in any technology. contact : Harisankar KL Manager - HR Technopark,Trivandrum, 0471 - 2527555 www.gemini-india.com

TF January 2010 63

Abhishek Dhawan www.askganesha.com Aries (March 21-April 19)

This month shall bring general gains and progress for you. Some of you will actively participate in development programme. Positive attitude with hard work will bring results far beyond expectations. Though your financial position shall remain average but you will be able to keep sight of future gains. Training in modern technology would enable changing mindset at work.

Lucky Color: Brown. Lucky Number: 1

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

The start of this month will require extra efforts and you may have to work really hard to gain an edge over your competitors. You shall get cooperation and support from your seniors and close friends. During the mid of month you will enjoy position and authority, thus increasing your confidence level. Try to bring improvement in your way of working and be positive in your outlook towards life.

Lucky Color: Lemon. Lucky Number: 8 Gemini (May 21-June 21) A cautious approach will be good for you this month.

Every decision at work has to be taken carefully considering both the short term and long term effects.

Your hard work shall definitely yield positive results later on. A large number of strategic moves depend solely on your decision-making process. Knowing your real skills would enable you to improve them.

Lucky Color: Grey. Lucky Number: 11 Cancer (June 22-July 22) The month would bring some good opportunities as well as good news in your professional life. There shall be substantial progress in your area of work by doing consistent efforts. You could consider yourself for a bigger role or bigger responsibility at work. The above professional success would also strengthen your financial situation.

Lucky Color: Green. Lucky Number: 10

Leo ( July 23-Aug. 22) There are indications that you are likely to be entrusted with an important responsibility at the beginning of the month. You may have to put efforts in your area of work to attain success. Unexpected things going in your favour will immensely boost your confidence at professional front. Financially there shall be improvement. There are chances that overconfidence might come in the way of professional success.

Lucky Color: Red. Lucky Number: 5 Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) This is an excellent month for you on financial front.

It is up to you to utilize the funds. Professional life promises success on putting-in sincere & hard working efforts. Take well thought decisions according to the situation. There are indications that past efforts would bring expected success. Seniors would also be supportive to your ideas & plans. Use your creativity to excel at work place.

Lucky Color: Pink. Lucky Number: 3 64 TF January 2010

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Financial gains through projects in hand are seen.

Your foreign connections would bring in new works and source of income. Someone is likely to become you pillar of strength of work. Keeping cordial relations and a helpful attitude with everyone will win you many friends and admirers. Calculated risks at professional front will be rewarded with success. New sources of work/financial gains could crop up during the month.

Lucky Color: White. Lucky Number: 9 Scorpio

(Oct. 23-Nov. 21) Your energy in this month would be forceful and courageous and you could be very demanding. You would like to play for the challenge and enjoyment, doing things for yourself and you will get earning day by day. There are indications that you will enjoy success with timely & swift actions. Calculated professional moves would show positive results. Lucky Color: Yellow. Lucky Number: 12

Sagittarius

(Nov. 22-Dec. 21) There are indications that you are likely to be entrusted with an important responsibility at the beginning of the month. Making the full use of aspirations, supportive nature and an open mindedness would enable enjoying work besides giving solid performance. Taking calculated risk would enable you to achieve desired goals. Lucky Color: Blue. Lucky Number: 2

Capricorn

(Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Your communication skills coupled with positive attitude would brighten chances of betterment at work. The good news for you is that your inexhaustible energy coupled with hard work would come to your aid. There are indications that your competitors will try to mislead you but they will not be able to execute their plans. You will be able to keep an edge over others. Lucky Color: Violet. Lucky Number: 6

Aquarius

( Jan. 20-Feb. 18) The indications for this month are much positive for you. On career front, some of you will get a promotion or transfer of their choice. Those thinking to go abroad could widen their dreams.

You will win over your enemies. It is time for you to turn the tide in your favour by exhibiting your real talent.

Lucky Color: Purple. Lucky Number: 4

Pisces

(Feb. 19-March 20) The first half of the month is slightly beneficial to the natives. On professional front, you may witness some mixed trends. During the mid you have to maintain low profile and are advised not to not use harsh words at any point of time. Try to maintain cordial relations with everyone both inside and outside.

Lucky Color: Saffron. Lucky Number: 7

I

am an entrepreneur campaign is now on the air. Now the high spirited campaign which was going about slow due to the exam time and the student projects is getting back on track and it is back with bang by going on air through Club FM. One of the leading FM’s and a brand that will take the campaign places. The “I am an Entrepreneur” has now associated with Club FM as its media partner and his all set to be heard, come January.

Also comes a great news that we have completed the loop of entrepreneurship with the inauguration of Innovation Lab. So if you indeed have an idea just send it across to us. So far we have received some fantastic innovations, some from telecom , some from biotech and a lot more from the various fields of technology. The idea is to find the true talents and make them the part of the entrepreneurial enlightenment we have created in the state.

Come 2010, and we will be all through the state and identifying more talents and with the campaign going on air it really shows how acceptable this initiative is. We are sure to reach more young minds with our presence on the air. So as they say get ready entrepreneurs its time to say “ I am an Entrepreneur”.

for more detail contact ads@technofirstonline.com

TECHNOFIRST

CLASSIFIEDS 66 TF January 2010

1.What was the former, popular name of the Internet advertising company Overture Services Inc? 2.Of which global corporate is Christopher Galvin the Chairman and CEO? 3.With which Indian newspaper has Sify.com entered into an alliance for mutual promotion?

4.Xybernaut is a leader in which field of computing?

5.Name the President and COO of Microsoft who is to step down.

6. What is the concept of the `paid listings’ advertising business model?

7. Expand VoIP. 8. In e-mail lingo, if one said that he/she would respond FTASB, what does it mean?

9. Why will cyber-historians regard All Fool’s Day of 1976 as important?

10. In computer folklore, when was the `Stone Age’?

Answers

1. goto.com 2. Motorola 3. Hindustan Times 4. Wearable computing 5. Rick Belluzzo 6. A concept in which companies buy certain search terms to assure their name will appear when a consumer enters that term in a search engine.

7. Voice over Internet Protocol 8. Faster Than A Speeding Bullet 9. The first Apple computer was `born’ on that day.

10.An ill-defined period from ENIAC (1943) to the mid-1950s

“ I am an Entrepreneur” Campaign Update

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