TechnoFIRST March 2010 Issue

24

job destination Kochi

track 34 career technical writing www.technofirstonline.com

The purpose of any enterprise is to create share holder value.

Vishal Gupta CEO,Seclore Technology

Technology Career & Entrepreneurship Magazine Vol. 6

Issue. 3

March 2010

Rs.25

fake jobs on sale Tf exclusive

Earlier finding a job was easier, but with each passing day finding a real job has become a harder way of life. TF Brings out an exclusive coverage of the fake jobs being sold to students through campus recruitment.

Rules for successful interview

HOW TO APPLY ABROAD DO YOUR BUSINESS ONLINE Network Partner

CLOUD COMPUTING how to get your first job?

CEO TALK

TechnoFIRST

www.technofirstonline.com

Technology Entrepreneurship & Career Magazine

Hon. Chief Editor Prof. Jyothy John 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 A 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 (+91) 9633277714 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

4 TF March 2010

editorial A

round us, there are few companies kept Shakespeare in mind and set the world a stage to start play as we all men and women are merely players of their peppy drama script. Just before the curtain-drop, they are being successfully managed their exist as we believe they are still on the stage. Once we have snatched the hope of the audience for the brilliant performance of the play, painfully realizing the cavity status of the co-stage artists. These companies wearing the camouflage of honesty, reliability and commitment on their toffee of promises in every campuses where they have visited by chanting the word of Niccolo Machiavelli that ‘If a Prince wishes to maintain himself, he must learn how not to be good’. What the maestro of political science meant was never we prepare ourselves made others cheat nor fooling by our commitments or promises to them but build up ourselves to face the positive and negative side of the happenings in our life. Here, our desperadoes twisting the quotes of ‘Greats’ to commit crimes. Crime is no longer limited to place, time, language or belief. By luring promises, and accepting money from the students, these fake companies tossing the coins at their pockets in a way of abusing the students’ ignorance of the crime phenomenon. Mistakes that many of us make with the people like these companies we trust, is a trend of our depressive mind. Yes, it is, we trust them because world itself is going in a cynical mood so as we pay heavily to get a job to tug with the yacht of tempestuous life. Dear students do stay connected with the energetic and thinking people around you .Share the things are go on with you and invite their opinion on it. Definitely, they could save you from the fake aliens of the World of Doom.

In a technological environment, we can compass the trend and tradition of things evolving us by leveraging the internet in a wide variety of existence and branding of a company or a person. Then why we are speeding up at these corporate demons to embrace the wound of miseries. I think there are many portals which connect students with potential recruiters and these knowledge banks will help them to be attentive of phony companies across the country.

Human nature helps to expand the offender the area wide and bouncy because our mind doesn’t like our mistake get publicized by intimating some one even if he or she is very close to our affairs every day. We doubt that let-slip will grade down our status of elegance before others and sensing it’d blot the motif of kudos as a professional-in-waiting to the planet of staffing or entrepreneur. This attitude of human being, letting loose the goose of guilty to cheat the students or aspirant community at a rift that never gummed. So, share the mistake that happened with your well-wishers through the ‘net-zone’ and spread about the toxic lizards, move slowly to the next locale of occupancy. While these bogus companies coming to your side, next time, don’t be fooled as they are waiting for people new to the place of recruiting to take the benefit of. Run away from a company who is dialoguing an overnight success by an unethical business barbeque. At least, you will try searching company reviews, assessments in a forum of business community before spooning up the currencies of your sweat.

Our cover story raising the rebellion against the counterfeit companies with this print and it will be an aide memoire to those who had fallen in the gimmick of modern corporate buccaneers.

AJAYLAL Editor@technofirstonline.com

letters Career in Embedded Technology I found the article on Embedded Technology really informative. As I am someoone with an IT background, I’ve always been an admirer of this technology and even wanted to do course on it just to know what its about.

This field also promises a very good career scope as you can get a job anywhere in the world and also with major companies as well. Your article has covered the career scope. It would be very much appreciated if you could feature an article covering all the aspects of the technology, the major companies in the field and what courses to do in order to take up this field. Expecting one soon in the upcoming issues of TechnoFIRST. Anitha .R

On Smart Techie

What shanu is saying is absolutely inspiring.

The journey of a mechincal engineer to an IT field is tough and Shanu has shown that it is possible. Being a project manager in Infosys, I will be proud to have people like Shanu in my team, who himself would be talented, workaholic and insipiring for the upcoming guys in the project.

Varun Nair

Job track The article on ‘Wanted help with resume’, was really a worth reading piece. It helped me in knowing my mistakes which I had been following without knowing the consequences.

Kindly include more such tips on how to make a better resume, since that is a major thing which we need, as we prepare to enter into the stage of being a professional.

Nimesh Sawant

Off the track I would really like to appreciate your initiative to find out on such an out of the box talent. The headline- A not so IIT story, rightly explains the wonderful story of a young team who took the path less traveled. The story really inspired me since all the time we see youngsters entering into entrepreneurship following the same steps and ideas of others. But here the mere thought of having a t-shirt business in itself makes the article very interesting. The journey on how the thought raised eyebrows in the audience; but still they stood to their vision with pure dedication. The article was really an apt ‘off the track’one; and I would love to see more such articles in your magazine Rony Thimothy

TF March 2010 5

Contents 32 startup story Enroute Inc

30 entrepreneurship

Being an entrepreneur online and making the best use of the web world.

22 job track

Some wonderful yet simple tips to get your first job.

44 technology

The facts and usage of a useful�save energy� technology called SPARA

52 tuc review

The complete review of the Entrepreneurs Abode, where innovators are sought after and supported to make a difference to their innovation and the world

Fake Jobs

On Sale

34 career track

Career in Technical Writing is a branch of IT which is often overlooked although it is an important segment. TF reviews the career that is in demand

page 14

Group Discussion 50 Beta Q 66 Career Guru 54 Company Review 20 Website Review 49 Book Review 49

I think the colleges should be more enlightened and have a background check done of the companies and in particularly the lesser known ones, before they let the students participate in a placement drive.

This will put a stop to such fake job offers.

KENNEY JACOB

Entrepreneur,Blogger

6 TF March 2010

job destination: kochi 24 56 innovator of the month 21 interview tips 38 cloud computing 8 corporate news 40 gadgets

26

OFF THE TRACK

with MILLIONS OF SOCIAL CAUSES WITH AN AIM TO HELP THE UNDERPRIVILAGED OR A WAY BIT DIFFERENT PEOPLE. AN ALTOGETHER DIFFERENT ASPECT OF SELF HELP INITIATIVE FOR THE SPECIALLY GIFTED. there goes a story of a successful but an altogether different entrepreneurship.

42 60 tbi news 22 job track 62 hot jobs

YO CAMPUS

With most of you staying in hostels, you must be on the lonely lanes of youth life enjoying the complete freedom. Doing everything right from washing your clothes to your plates by yourselves; Technofirst tells you few more funny tips for surviving the college days.

TF March 2010

corporate news Six More Techno Lodges In Kerala Keeping to its policy of broad basing the IT industry in the state, the Kerala government has sanctioned setting up six new techno lodges.

These will be located at Thirumarady in Ernakulam district, Veliyam, Anchal and Poothakulam in Kollam district, Kodakara in Thrissur district and Mayyil in Kannur district. New locations for establishing techno lodges have been identified with the help of government/local bodies of small towns and rural panchayats having good accessible roads, buildings, electricity, water and other basic infrastructure the IT sector. The techno lodges are expected to provide competent IT/ITES infrastructure in rural areas, and lead to rural employment opportunities.

India’s IT industry seeks extension for Tax Sop India’s export-driven IT sector has sought an extension of a key tax benefit scheme to beyond its 2011 deadline in next week’s federal budget, which industry players say will help small and medium technology companies.

The software industry wants units in software technology parks or STPIs to be treated at par with special economic zones or SEZs, which are duty-free economic enclaves where units can claim tax breaks for longer than 10 years, besides other perks. “One of our demands is that STPI units get the same benefits as SEZ units keeping in mind the small and medium enterprises,” said Som Mittal, president of National Association of Software and Services Cos (NASSCOM), a software lobby.

Earlier in the month, NASSCOM lowered its

8 TF March 2010

forecast by 7-8 percent for India’s software and services exports for 2010/11 to $56-57 billion.

It expects revenue in the sector, led by top outsourcers Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro, to hit $49.7 billion this fiscal.

India to go the ‘cloud’ way for e-governance India might soon become the first country in the world to deliver e-governance services to citizens using cloud-based IT services. The government is having a dialogue with the apex software industry body, Nasscom, on how to roll out e-governance services using this emerging technology, which is fast gaining acceptance among enterprises for its affordability and ability to address large numbers of transactions. “A collaboration on e-governance via cloud technologies may include 90% of the citizen services, which have not yet been rolled out. It will also make project execution faster,” R Chandrashekhar, secretary for IT. US-based TowerGroup’s senior research director, Rodney Nelsestuen, said India is in a unique situation to leverage cloud computing.

“US Federal CIO, Vivek Kundra, has been assigned the task of removing duplication of information and rationalising IT costs via a cloud. India is doing it at the right time as it does not have a problem of legacy systems,” he said. Globally many popular online applications have already gone on the cloud. For instance, Twitter.com, Skype.com, Facebook, Google and Yahoo Maps all use cloud computing. Now e-governance via the cloud may improve lives of citizens.

Google offers free advertising to small Indian businesses World’s leading search engine Google would

offer free advertising coupons for small and medium businesses (SMBs) across the country, the global firm’s Indian subsidiary said.

“All SMBs with online presence will be able to avail our advertising coupons worth Rs 2,500 by calling toll free number 1860 266 6622 and registering their websites with our AdWords platform,” Google India online sales head Sridhar Seshadri said.

The SMBs can register at http://adwords.google.co.in. As part of this novel initiative, Google India also launched a new service JumpStart to offer free expert support to help SMBs build an online advertising campaign for attracting new customers.

The initiative received a good response when it was launched as a pilot project in Chandigarh recently.The SMBs sector, which constitutes 80 per cent of the country’s industrial enterprises faces an uphill task for advertising due to prohibitive costs involved.”Recognising this roadblock and the huge potential for SMBs to grow, the company launched offline and online initiatives to partner with them and educate these businesses about the power of internet

Best chapter award – 2008 / 2009 National Institute of Personnel Management (NIPM) Trivandrum Chapter has been awarded the “Best Chapter“ in

advertising,” Seshadri noted.

Google AdWords enables SMBs to target precisely, pay only for results, and stay firmly in charge of costs.

Outsourcers labeled tax evaders by Obama American president Barack Obama has once again targeted American companies having their operations in India to save taxes back home and called such businesses tax evaders.”If you are

a business here, entirely located in the US, and investing in the

the country for the period 2008 / 2010. This award has been given based on the evaluation of the Chapter activities for the period. Since the last so many years, the Chapter has been receiving such a meritorious award.

US, and hiring workers in the US, you are paying a 35 per cent rate,” Obama said in an interview to the business magazine Bloomberg Business Week.

“The same is true where you have companies that have 90 per cent of their sales in the US, but are posting 90 per cent of their profits overseas. You get a sense there that the accountants have been busy,” Obama said.

Wipro for a new IT park in Banglore Global software major Wipro has applied for 50 acres of land near the Bangalore international airport for setting up an IT park.

“Wipro has applied for 50 acres of land in the new industrial belt coming up near the new airport.

The state high-level committee will consider it soon. When allotted, the proposed park will be the third location of the IT bellwether in India’s tech hub.

The company’s main software development centre is located in the Electronics City on Hosur road, about 35 km from Bangalore and another on Sarjapur road in the southern suburb, which is its corporate headquarters.

The Trivandrum Chapter, started in 1975, conducting various workshops, seminars, training programmes and evening lectures in different topics, was very useful to the Government Organizations, MNC’s and Private Organizations.

The award was presented by Dr. A.K. Balyan, the National President at the 28th Annual National Conference held on the 18th February 2010 at Kolkatta, which was received by the Chapter Chairman Sri. G.L. Muraleedharan, Hon. Secretary Sri. K.C. Chandrasekharan Nair & the Southern Regional Vice President Sri. P. Sudeep.

TF march 2010 9

trend

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obile phones are no more unwanted people, just a simple devic complete privacy e to call and se curity for you. Tr your friends. It’s anz only lets your PC, you share with pe camera, mp3 play ople you actually er an d a lot more. It actuall care! y brings the entir e world to your po Shout this file cket.

With all the new social networks Some files alway available, one’s m s are the talking obile contact book po int among your fri is still the most ac ends.This tive and relevant feature helps you network .To rein to let your friends force this belief kn ow which file is dr Innoz launched TR iving you ANZ-a mobile crazy by adding yo application that ur thoughts and lets you share mus ic, shouting about the file. pictures, videos & docs with your Compose messa phone book cont ge acts.

Think about an ex As the name sugges perience where ts this feature you take pictures lets you send dire of your vacation ct messages to yo and share with yo ur fri ends. Built in such ur family a way that it is and friends insta sim pl e to write and send ntly. No more to one or transferring files more friends like to your PC and th an email and very en easy to share them with view and reply lik others. e an sms.

TRANZ is a free Other features: download application. Friend Sugges tions View the friend su ggestions for Live Feeds Tranz users who are not on your Share your though phonebook. ts; get to know what’s latest with Sync Friends your friends and what’s latest on yo ur friends’ phones . Lets you update your Tranz Private Send friends by syncing your ph onebook.

Private Send is a Set download feature that allow location s you to privately sh are any file with Set download loca your friend thus tion of your choi making Tranz a ve ce ry for the files that you rece personal tool. ive via Tr an z.

Your wish for a Bl uetooth with an WIFI Support amazing range ha s finally come tru e.

Time to go Tranzin Tranz support W g!

IFI,so if you have a WIFI phone,TRA Closed networ NZ can be used fo k r a be tte r sp eed.

The best thing ab out Tranz is Point onto http://w ww.gotranz.com fro that it lets you sh your mobile/PC. All m are files with a yo very closed netw enabled mobile and u need is a JAVA ork -- friends on a your phonebook.

Mobile has turned int GPRS/3G connection.

No spam from o a PC – well Tranz just comple has ted the definition.

CEO TALK

the far-sighted ceo Every ceo has a future plan and if not a far sightedness. Tf in conversation with Vishal Gupta, about his future plans, his goals and his motivation. Truely a farsighted CEO.

S

eclore is a high growth software product company. Seclore’s products, FileSecure and InfoSource help mitigate the risks arising out of information breaches while enhancing collaboration.

The company was started with a very specific problem in mind i.e. Intellectual Property protection for offshore equity research operations. Over a period of time the technology built for a specific problem was generalized and Seclore is today an information security company.

Achievements The Company has grown revenues by 200% for the last year and we see that trend continuing for the next few years. Some of the major milestones that we have achieved in the last few years are:  Building a largely format and application agnostic rights management technology which works with open source systems also  Building and deploying the only secure outsourcing solution which allows enterprises to share data freely with outsourcing vendors and still maintain control over it  Reducing the time and effort required to deploy an otherwise complex enterprise system to a minimum  Creating an environment for innovation to be productized rapidly

Vishal Gupta CEO, Seclore Technology Mumbai

12 TF March 2010

What was your primary motivation for starting a company?

The purpose of any enterprise is to create share holder value.

The dream of Seclore is to create non linear stake holder value i.e.

Value which goes far beyond the expectations of monetary and social returns that stakeholders in Seclore expect.

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

Starting the company was quite a whirlwind journey and there was little process and “steps”…we took things along the way. The only thing we made sure was that we were making more and more good people as stake holders in the company.

Where did you find the seed capital for your company?

IIT Bombay, Friend, family and the TFG group at ICICI Bank

Your most meaningful asset would be.

Passion and perseverance were and continue to be the most valuable assets for us.

What has been the biggest challenge for you as a CEO, and how did you overcome it?

1.Recruiting and retaining high caliber talent 2.Getting high caliber work done out of people 3.Creating business models which are self adjusting to evolving needs of customers and partners

What is your vision for your organization/ Future plans?

Grow … grow … grow

The toughest part of being a CEO? Balancing the varied interests of different stakeholders i.e. customers, employees, investors.

The interests of multiple stakeholders are all important and sometimes conflicting and the balancing act is the most difficult aspect.

The most important aspects of being a CEO Staying cool in the midst of uncertainty and also abstracting uncertainty from the rest of the team. The team looks at the CEO as someone who knows what is the company and he himself is up to .. Sometimes it is not the case and thats the place you have to make sure that the uncertainties of the external world do not start affecting the performance of the

Contact Seclore Technology, B wing, Suite 1084, Oberoi Garden Estate, Chandivli, Andheri (E), Mumbai- 400072, India.

Phone: 91-(22)-4015 5252 Fax: 91-(22)-6677 7404 Blog: http://blog.seclore.com/

Quick bytes Advice to the future entrepreneurs?

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

(Reference to Steve Jobs speech) Rapid Fire Entrepreneurship according to you Creating value from nothing The only way to be successful passion and perseverance The best thing about your team Quality The most memorable moment as a team When the customer thanked us for creating this technology company.

If you wouldn’t have been a CEO, you would have been ?

A farmer or a paraglider .. or a squash champion !! I am an outdoors person so it would definitely have been something outdoors

Things you like about being a CEO?

Starting the company was quite a whirlwind journey and there was little process and “steps”…we took things along the way.

The only thing we made sure was that we were making more and more good people as stake holders in the company.

Little luxuries like not taking sign offs for vacations !!

TF March 2010 13

cover story

jobs on sale earlier finding a job was easier, but with each passing day findingareal job has becomeaharder way of life. tf Brings out an exclusive coverage of the fake jobs being sold to students through campus recruitment. jAYAKRISHNAN PILLAI

P

icture this, you are enjoying your college and expecting a great future because you have slogged innumerable hours to score good marks and prepared yourself enough to go through the worst interview grilling. Now a company visits your campus and you go through the routine interview things, you are waiting for the results, your lady luck seems to be by your side and you get the job. Now the company wants you to send across a lot of forms and application form and also to send across some money, say 5000 INR, as a training fee for you. Well, with a package offered worth 3 Lacs and a bright future, most of us would ask our parents to shell out the paltry four digit sum and after all its for your training and your future.

So far the story seems routine until you realize that the company that walked into your college campus under the nose of your placement

14 TF March 2010

officer, the interviews that went through, the group discussions that you battled with your friends to get a life, the thoughtful questions to which you had your thoughtful answers and even the innumerable forms that you filled to get that wonderful job was nothing but fake.

That is not the end of the story, TF contacted a couple of such companies through email but they didn’t respond, but they had courtesy to interact with us over the phone. The issue started with a couple of students informing about the campus placement gone wrong and about being duped to shell out some money to join a fake companies and all these and more under the nose of the placement committee. This is not something new that has crept into the academic world, this is an old wine served in a new bottle but just that this time around the wine is a bit bitter and served a bit better.

The Fake Jobs When this whole thing came into the limelight, the initial understanding was the non existing companies handing out job offers. It even seemed like a possibility wherein the colleges were involved in the scam.

But the things are more clean and spotless. The students are recruited from various colleges and asked to pay DD of some amount to join as bond amount and promise them to return them back once you have completed an year in the company, which surely doesn’t happen.

They recruit students as Trainee Programmers with a pay of around 12k or 14k. Their business is simple, they hire students and get money from the students, which is their profit, a month or two down the lane they are forced quit the job without a valid and fake reason, the reason being underperformance, non acceptable organizational behaviour or some damp meaningless reason.

There are other companies that are just an idea. The websites would have the best testimonials from clients, for sure even they are fake. They would have their quarters in some south east Asian country. When we tried contacting one such company, we

were surprised to realize only after making the call that the number belong to another company based in Mali. These companies don’t even visit your campus they have a telephonic interview and followed by an aptitude test, with the help of websites like dim dim, things are surely easy for such fake profile builders.

Recently a group of students contacted us, regarding the fake placement they got in some company in Chennai. These students surprisingly had an out of campus recruitment and they got the recruitment through a recruitment firm. Well surprisingly neither the company nor the recruitment firm exists and the money they shelled out has vanished. So fake companies are just around the corner, make sure you have a background check before you fall in the pit of ideas and that too fake ones.

We have Jobs, If You Have Money When called in to enquire regarding job openings to one of these fake or fraudulent companies based in Coimbatore, the first question they asked was about the college that the students were

studying in. They mentioned that although the recession is on( well they surely need to word their stories with some research) they are hiring due to the client requirement.

They were planning to hire about 200 students in the next couple of

I think the colleges should be more enlightened and have a background check done of the companies and in particularly the lesser known ones, before they let the students participate in a placement drive. This will put a stop to such fake job offers.

KENNEY JACOB

Entrepreneur,Blogger

TF March 2010 15

months.

The interesting part about this whole racket is the professionalism that these companies have. They have a documented list of colleges they have visited and the number of students they have hired. This information was brought out only when asked about the company profile and other things that would let them loose. They were persistent in knowing the

I am just about to be done with my academics and have been hearing stories about the fake recruitment drives. Just a bit worried about joining an unknown name though I wish I could join one.

Kaksha Desai Management Student

16 TF March 2010

number of students and other data.

Recently heard that a Technology Services company shifted their office from Gandhipuram to Othakalamandapam, where it is known as something that sound similar rather very much the same to that of a leading software developer. They cheated students who joined in Gandhipuram batch and started with another company name in order to hide their true fraud identity. They are still recruiting students from various colleges and demanding them to pay certain amount by taking DD. Another case of fraudulent activity came to the lime light when students from Adi Sankara College, Cochin, Rajiv Gandhi College, Sree Budha College, Pattor complained about fake recruitment.

“They were asking for a sum of 25, 000. We send them the money while joining at coimbatore. During recruitment they promised to pay 3000 and then they pay 12000 p.m but during training period they didn’t provide any salary for us. We have approached them many a times for the salary but were often asked to resign due to underperformance.” Said Avinash Arvind* who is working for one of the above mentioned companies in Coimbatore.

Some Biggies Too Now the fake jobs might be for the small players but then there are companies and that too major players who couldn’t keep their promises. A major player infact one of the top IT companies in the country went to engineering colleges in Kerala for campus recruitment in 2009. They selected fresh engineering graduates, but asked them to undergo a 6 month training program conducted by a training center paying Rs 40,000, on completion of which these graduates will be placed by this company at a monthly salary of Rs. 8, 000.

The same training center in Bangalore has now the 6th batch finishing the training, but even the students form batch 4 haven’t been given placement. Now they are conducting interviews and whoever makes it are offered a job at Rs 5, 000 a month. We believe this might have been the case during the recession, things might have changed but there are still students who have paid the money and have moved on to some lesser paid job and that too after undergoing a training.

So are these biggies involved in the fraudulent activities too, exploiting the students? If they don’t have a job to offer, they shouldn’t be going to the engineering colleges for campus interviews. If they want to find students to join their CDC courses and to add to their revenue, advertise in the media about the courses and based on how good their courses are, they would find students to join the courses.

I have had a first hand experience of joining a company which sounded similar to a well known IT leader but eventually I realized I been working one totally messed up company. A lesson learnt and lost some good days of my career Jayesh Shende Employee,RBS

The Institutional Scam So far we talked about the companies fooling around in the name of campus recruitment but the

story doesn’t end there. There are some institutions that have promised campus recruitments to some of the major companies and they still fail to get even mediocre companies to their placement list. Earlier these scams were brought out by a leading media house but then they were hushed away. What we understood is that these institutions once had a list of A grade companies visiting their campus in the past and using that as a benchmark on the advertisements and during their joining, they tend to woo students into joining their institution.

Everyone that we spoke to was of the unanimous opinion - while a systemic overhaul is essential to improve the quality of many bad institutions in the country, the least we could do is to protect students and parents from being misguided and misled by willful wrong-doers.

There are institutes where students walk in with their eyes open and know what to expect. And there are those where they walk in, blinded misled, misguided and misinformed, by a campaign where media, regulatory agencies and academia become willing accomplices. While we can’t do much about the informed decisions, we have to take up the cause of those who were cheated, an act that robs students of their career and in a way, their life.

The victim says This is the excerpt from the mail we got from a student working in Coimbatore.

T

he information about xxxxxx company and xxxxxxxx Tech is true.

Both are run by same management group. They are two fraud companies, recruiting students from various colleges and demand them to pay DD of some amount to join as bond amount and promise them to return them back once they complete one year in that company, but its a lie. They recruit students as Trainee Programmers and promise them a pay of around 11K, but they don’t pay a single amount because they don’t have any project with them or any clients with them. They are making money out of bond amounts which the students pay and make the students to quit the job by giving reports like they are not performing well or some lame reasons etc. So students don’t join such companies, I’m a victim of this fraud.

Things You Should Know Before Joining a Company

B

efore you join a company there are a couple of things you should know about the company. Quite often it happens that you tend to end up with a company you are not willing to work anymore.

And that would mean a disaster after you have shelled out a lot of money for the training that they provide. Apart from looking forward to the offer letter and the pay scale assurance there are few things you should look forward to.

The company You need to feel comfortable about working at the company before accepting a job offer from them.

What are the company values? Are they compatible with your values and beliefs? Do you respect the type of work the company does?

Job security This is something that should be considered before accepting a job offer - you need to know that the position is a long-term one. Look at the number of years the company has been in business. Look at its profitability, is it growing, what is happening with its competitors.

Check news articles for company updates. Go to the information given on company background research to help you with this. Consider the job itself- is it a new position? How successful is the department etc?

Career development What professional development opportunities do the job offer? Is there provision for training, tuition reimbursement? What is the frequency of performance reviews, promotional opportunities? Will this job take you down the road to your career goals?

TF March 2010 17

placement experience Name: Puneet Manuja NIT Calicut, Computer Science and Engineering 2009 The D. E. Shaw Group

A small description about your placed company The D. E. Shaw group is a global investment and technology development firm with approximately $27 billion in investment and committed capital.

What are the various hurdles that you had to face before getting placed with this company?

-Recession was at the peak. So, most companies had refused to show up - Before D.E. Shaw & Co had visited our campus, I had already appeared for 3 companies and due to my lack of knowledge in UNIX I was not able to clear their written test so my morale was down

What was the type of questions that were asked in the Written Test?

- Aptitude: This part had around 20 questions.

The pattern of the questions was similar to those asked in MBA entrance examinations.

-Technical: This part also consisted of 20 + 2 (programming) questions. The questions were more inclined towards programming language like C++,JAVA. I still remember that it had two really daunting programming questions -Essay Type: This part was mainly to test the creativity of the candidate. Here a picture was given and we were asked to write about it.

What was the type of questions that were asked in the interview?

The interviewers already had our college curriculum and had touched upon all the subjects—Programming languages, Networking, Database, Algorithms etc.

Interview was more inclined towards checking my in-depth technical knowledge. There was

18 TF March 2010

hardly any HR interview

Were you nervous at all during the entire process? How were you able to manage all these pressures?

Before the written test I was little nervous, but after the seeing the paper I felt happy.

I was very fascinated by the essay writing thing. It pumped a new zeal in me and with full confidence I solved whatever I could in the paper.

During the interview, 4-5 people were interviewed before me and I had got all negative feedback from them like ’Interview is very tough! They are asking very hi-fi questions’. I was fully prepared that I would not be able to answer any question. So, my nervousness was gone and I entered the interview room with a smile. Also, I was already placed in a company, so at that time I had somehow convinced myself that I have a decent job, so I need not worry about this interview. These techniques had helped me stay calm during my interview and perform well

Advice to next job seekers?

Try to get the basics right rather than learning everything. Always read your curriculum subjects meticulously and keep revising them whenever you get time. Don’t wait for the last day to revise everything.

About yourself I have been honored with a gold medal by Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam for securing highest GPA in my branch. I was nominated as the Sun campus ambassador for the year 2008 and Google campus ambassador in 2009. I like participating in sports like cricket, table tennis, football etc. I do write some Hindi poems in my free time and was chosen as the editor for the college magazine committee.

Motto of my life is to be myself.

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company review

adobe india What type of work they do: Product development, Services etc?

Adobe Systems Incorporated offers business, creative, and mobile software solutions that revolutionize how the world engages with ideas and information. Adobe customers include enterprises, knowledge workers, creatives and designers, OEM partners, and developers worldwide

Job security Brand Value Adobe is very famous brand that is known, used and respected world over.

Fresher Salary The pay package is pretty decent and pretty much above the industry standards

Career growth and onsite opportunities The opportunities are wide and at Adobe its more about promoting innovation but I feel its more cost centric rather than innovation centric.

Work environment and the communication between teams Here I should say that, with the kind of people they have hired, this is surely one of the best places to work with and the people around you makes the working experience great.

Work pressure/Work life balance Not much of work pressure. At Adobe its more about enjoying your work but quite often you will find thinking about work even after you have called it a day, but I do enjoy that.

You just have to maintain the monthly time average. And they do have regular outings.

Satisfaction with salary and quality of work.

I believe they have the best pay package and as mentioned the work quality is good but sometime your ideas are ignored because of the cost involved.

20 TF March 2010

That is something you don’t have to be worried about if you know what you are doing and if you are doing it good.

Co-workers competence It depends on how “people compatible” you are.

Facilities at office They have the best Infrastructure rather I should say it is awesome.

Some positives and negatives of the company.

So far I have spoken of the good things but just that here Innovation is promoted only if you can prove that the idea is financially viable .

God damn it, engineers are not supposed to do financial analysis of projects. They should learn from google.

Do you recommend your company to others? Yes or No and Why? Yes to all those who enjoy working for good money and to all those who enjoy working for a brand that Adobe is.

Company Website www.adobe.com Disclaimer:This is an individuals point of view about the company that he/she is employed in and we, at TechnoFIRST, won’t be held responsible for the same.

As per the request the identity of that individual shall not be disclosed under any circumstances.

Interview tips

Rules for a Successful

Job Interview The job interview that you have planned in your head may not work out as you wished it should. There might be complications and unexpected questions, even worse a brain boggling interviewer. So there are a few things that you have to keep intact and some points that cannot be ignored. make sure you don’t over express and not just with your facial expression, you can also avoid extreme movement of hands.

A back ground study Relate your answers to the specific company or interviewer. This will show that you’ve done your research. Make sure you know enough about the company that is more than what your competition would know and enough so that you could answer the generic questions that the interviewer would have about the company.

On Time Show up for the job interview a little early. Being late is a bad first impression and can blow the job. Managers may think if you’re late to the interview, you’ll be an unreliable employee. The fact is that every one loves an employee who is punctual or more than punctual, so if you walk in a bit early and it’s surely going to help you score better than your competition.

Mind Your Language Speak professionally. Don’t ramble or use slang in your answers. Every word you speak would be a point of identifying your personality and could be marked against you. The whole idea is to talk and talk well.

Keep it simple and make sure you know what you are talking, just in case you are cross examined. Avoid your personal slang’s and also avoid using fillers and complicated jargons.

Express It

Optimism a Virtue

Use your body language to convey your confidence. Make eye contact and maintain good posture during the interview. Make sure that your expressions don’t make you look arrogant, be comfortable with your thoughts but at the same time

Stay positive during the interview.

Avoid complaining or bad mouthing previous employers or companies. And also be clear that you know what you are expecting from the company.

Join a company only if you see

growth opportunities and make sure you are verbal about it when asked about your expectations.

Be optimistic but just don’t be unrealistic.

Be inquisitive Ask the interviewer some questions about the position and the company. This is your chance to show off the fact that you’ve done some research and at the same time show them that you are looking forward to a future in the company. It is quite often considered to be unnecessary to bother the interviewer with your qualms and queries. The fact is that the moment you ask questions they would understand your interest in their company.

Thank Them Send a thank you note afterward.

This will show the manager that you really want to make a good impression. Thank them for taking the time to meet with you. Also make sure you do thank them as you leave the venue. Have a word of gratefulness to all those involved in the interview.

Cracking an interview is easy but leaving behind an impression which would later help you score while you try climbing up the career ladder is the true success.

The whole idea is to crack and spark an interest in the interviewer and make sure you have the job.

TF March 2010

21

job track

Get Your First Job

Getting your first job is easy yet sometimes it acts like a thorn in your throat, the more you try the more you fail. Some quickies to land up with a better first job

E

very one needs a bit of masala to be entertained, and that’s what your first job hunt should be like. A lot of facts about yourself, a bit of imaginary things, a lot of efforts to publicize yourself and that’s what that will get you a job. Getting your first job is easy yet sometimes it acts like a thorn in your throat, the more you try the more you fail. Some quickies to land your first job

Make Your Score Card a big deal When you don’t have an experience to put forward and strengthen your resume, what

comes handy is our scorecard and your hard earned grades. When you are approaching your potential employer give emphasis on your marksheet. Quite often it is seen that you will come across an employer who is academically inclined. This is where you make a big deal of the whole grades that you have got. You could also have been someone in the league of the one, who wrote this, what I meant is the bad scores that could be hidden behind the cupboard and that is when you seriously need some real reality check and some great talent.

A real world experience They ask you “ so what have you done” and this doesn’t count the number of classes you have bunked, the innumerable projects you have googled or even the number of dates you have been to. They are more or less interested in knowing the real world experience you have gained and that would be the internships, the part time jobs or the real innovative projects that you have handled. An internship or part-time co-op job tells employers that you have already experienced a real-world work environment and know what to expect. So take some time out of your busy college fun schedule and get a job rather get a life.

Network or no work Dropped out of college I often used to search for internet jobs and even paper search the classified section. I realized that your first job has to be through the people you know.

Being a fresh graduate you would often be tagged as “ oh the one with no know how”. The more you try the more you fail, the best thing to do is seek help from your friend, family, professors and even your far of relatives who has got some real ‘contacts’. So if you have a

22 TF March 2010

Dropped out of college I often used to search for internet jobs and even paper search the classified section. I realized that your first job has to be through the people you know. Being a fresh graduate you would often be tagged as “ oh the one with no know how”

strong network you would land in a job but if you don’t have one start building one. Make sure when you ask for help, you do tell them the kind of job you are looking for yourself otherwise your network might find you a job which is not suitable for you.

Paint Your Resume Bright When sitting across the table for an interview, the interviewer would often stare into your resume than on your face. There would be times he/she would ask you a question and then look back into the resume. He wouldn’t even care to listen to what you are talking but he would surely read what you have written on that piece of paper. So make sure the resume that you have put forward has all that you want to convey but make sure you don’t end up overdoing it. You can surely add some fancy hobbies in your resume but avoiding things in your like “ catching man eating tigers”, learning bird languages” would surely help you get a job. One of my friends told me, that a bit of lie in your resume is good because once you join you will looked upon rather than just being another face in the crowd.

These are just some ways to land up at your first job but you may think of and come up with better ways to tackle the interview and land your first job. Just be yourself and enjoy what you are going to do. The rules are simple, you just need to know how to play it right.

Innoz wins the Star Entrepreneurship Award

Technopark TBI incubatee Innoz Technologies one of the leading companies working in rich mobile and web applications has won the ‘Star Entrepreneurship Award’ in the third International India Innovation Summit held in Mumbai on February 11, 2010. Deepak Ravindran, CEO of Innoz received the award from Dr. Saurabh Srivastava-Founder NASSCOM & Indian Angel Network .

Our Star Entrepreneurs were chosen after great research and due diligence for their inspiring achievements. As an appreciation for his good work and contribution to Innovation we are delighted in conferring Deepak Ravindran-Co-founder & CEO,Innoz Technologies Pvt.Ltd with the Star Entrepreneur Award at our reputed summit,” said Mr Tony Blanchard, Global Chairman. We are very grateful to Indira Group who organised this function – and put us in the league of past awardees like Suzlon, Tata Motors, MindTree, Toyota Kirloskar, Jubiliant Organosys and the like. Over the past few engagements, we have delivered actionable insights to our customers’’, Innoz CEO- Deepak Ravindran said. Stared by a group of engineering students from LBS College of Engineering,Kerala-Innoz was one among the 16 Companies to participate in the finals of DFJ-CISCO Global Business Plan Competition along side Stanford and Georgia Tech teams and is also won the DELL IDEA LEAGUE CHALLENGE ‘09

TF March 2010 23

IT destination

Kochi

The Queen of Opportunities jAYKay

A

cluster of islands and narrow peninsulas, Cochin or Kochi is perhaps the second best poet on the Western Ghats. Known as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Queen of the Arabian Seaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, it reflects the best of all that Kerala has to offer. A rich past and a vibrant present, Kochi gained the status of the business hub of the region long back.

Comprising of mainland of Ernakulam, the islands of Willington, Bolgatty and Gundu in the harbor, Fort Cochin and Mattancherry on the southern peninsula, and Vypeen Island north of Fort Cochin, all the parts of Kochi are well-linked by ferries. Being a sea port and above all, known as the queen of the Arabian sea, Cochin or Kochi, as it is known now, has always welcomed people from all walks of life and from parts of the world. Over the last decade kochi has developed into major city of

24 TF March 2010

trade and infrastructural development.

Life in the city Being a tourist destination and being close to the sea, life in Kochi is pretty easy and with a lot of development and lot more cultural mixing, the acceptance level of new cultures and ideas are always welcome. If you are new to the city, you will surely find yourself in a lot of mess due to the language issues and this too only if you are a non keralaite. Apart from the linguistic issue and tongue twisting names for the places across the city, you can be assured of being within the comfort zone. With the best of the food available, though a bit harsh on the pocket if you are looking for anything other than the Kerala delicacies, you will no opportunity to complain about the food. City is well connected with a lot of road and to

If you are looking for accommodation and if you are working for in the IT industry, you can be assured of finding a friend to share a pad. You can always find a good place to stay at an easy on pocket rent, well atleast compared to what you woud be shelling out in a metro like Mumbai or Banglore.

IT

compliment that hundreds of private and government run transport buses.

With two railway stations within the city limits and a 45 minutes drive to the airport you can be at peace about being connected to other parts of the country and the world.

A large number of startups have found their way in this city have made it big in their terms. You will also find a lot of facilities like the Techpark, Infopark, technopolis which are some of the major hub for the IT companies grooming up. With the large number of IT grads passing out every year in Kerala, Government has put in a lot of efforts to bring out the best in the IT industry. Initiatives like I am an Entrepreneur, which is a state wide entrepreneurship campaign for the engineering grads. If it is IT that you are looking forward to then this city surely has got a lot for you. Today it might seem a bit dull but tomorrow seems bright and surely one of the most prominent city to be listed on the IT destination.

Entertainment Not sure if we should call this as entertainment but if it fun and life that you are looking out for than am sure this is just the right place. With the splendid sea to

west and the Nilgiris somewhere around the corner and with a lot of malls and theatres around, this is surely a place to rejuvenate yourself. Just after a hard days work, you can surely make your way to marine drive or can walk by the silence of the Chinese nets. But if you are one of those who wants to have people around you and have the real crowd moving around then you can shell out some moolah then be sure to move into some of the best pubs in the city at dreams or loungevity. And if you are one of those ardent fans of the Malayalam movies, you will surely catch up with a lot of fun quotient with the dozens of theatres around. The lately developed malls and in particular the upcoming malls will surely be a blessing to those who shopping and even window shopping.

So if you are looking forward working in the city the all I could say is welcome with an open mind to be close to the nature yet living with a sense of infrastructural and metropolitan sophistication.

The best thing about Kochi is, that you tend to get adapted to city, the people, the food and even the way of life. Its beauty lies in the comfort of accepting it as it is.

Arun Chithran

TF March 2010 25

off the track

hear The courier Delivering Possibilities

Millions of social causes with an aim to help the underprivileged or a way bit different people but very few of them with an aspect of self help initiative. Mirakle Courier is one such initiative that works for the hearing impaired.

Not a typical social Initiative or a dream company?

We realized there was a severe failure of the social and economic inclusion of people who are cast out of the mainstream society, a problem neither being addressed by the government nor private sector. We felt that more than a charity, people with disabilities should be given the chance, with careful support, to be in a position to become economically independent. By creating a for profit professional courier service run mainly by the deaf would facilitate just that.

The point was to encourage them to earn a respectable income and help them rise above inescapable levels of poverty. Helping them help themselves rather than making them rely on charitable aid. This is not to say that businesses are better than NGOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s but that there is room and a need for both to address social issues.

What was the idea behind such a noble cause business?

Particularly in India we saw there was a significant misconception of people with disabilities and how they are useless to society.

Of all the disabilities deafness was the one

28 TF March 2010

that stood out because it is in fact an invisible disability which is, quite literally, politically unvoiced. Why donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t as many people wear hearing aids as do spectacles? The larger point is about empowerment of individuals who are often cast aside from society and refused jobs because they are seen as less human.

Our objective at Mirakle Couriers is to prove them wrong and show them that people with disabilities, particularly the deaf, are as capable as they are completely human.

What were the major hurdles that you came across as an Entrepreneur?

The hurdles that we have faced have been overcoming cultural barriers on both sides of the fence. In the hearing world the deaf are not accepted, people will shout loudly at them if they think they canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hear. People will see deaf as a handicap, a dis-ability when in reality it is merely understanding things from a different perspective. Deaf people are as capable as anyone else except they rely on a visual language rather than a sonic one. Getting our clients and the wider business world to understand this, was one of our hardest obstacles. On the other hand we face cultural issues within the deaf community which is

extremely strong. Their education levels are not up to those in the hearing community and because of a sense of social marginalization they are very unwilling to trust people who are hearing. Gaining this trust is a hurdle that we have to constantly overcome as we try and expand our business and take on new employees. Undereducated families who live by the old codes of tradition often have a hard time accepting new social change. On top of these cultural issues that come with standing up against the social norm, the usual business start up hurdles in a well established technology driven industry have also been a great challenge to Mirakle Couriers.

Company Address & Contact Mirakle Couriers Private Ltd. Registered Address 101 B Prime Avenue, Ville Parle (West) – Mumbai 400056 sales@miraklecouriers.com Blog http://miraklecouriers. wordpress.com Twitter http://twitter.com/dhruv_lakra Face book http://www.facebook. com/pages/MirakleCouriers/288812990942

What are your Future plans?

The vision for Mirakle Couriers is to expand into other cities. From a social perspective it is to widen our approach to not only employ deaf individuals but also blind and deaf blind to work in the company. Our vision is: If a courier company run by the deaf can become profitable it will have great systematic social change to include people with disabilities into the workforce.

In other words, once we can prove to be successful, other companies in other industries will take note and include more fully capably individuals with physical disabilities. We hope to grow Mirakle Couriers can be a leader and a game changer in the employment of people with disabilities.

Wasn’t it a tough decision to start something that was out of the box?

It was extremely tough as the issues were a lot more difficult than those of a normal linear for profit business venture. As mentioned before dealing with the cultural issues and the problems they have, particularly in India where a lot of culture is stuck in dogmatic traditions, perspectives and rituals. There have been many moments when things can get overwhelming, however in those moments we have to remember

28 TF March 2010

eyebrows? Why this name?

We wanted to ensure that people would have no doubts that a courier company powered by the deaf is just as effective as those powered by the hearing – something so unbelievable is so possible. We chose miracle because for a lot of our employees it really is a miracle to be employed by us. Before working with us they were working informal jobs with horrible hours and terrifying labour conditions.

Being part of the Mirakle Team ensures a minimum wage income, humane working conditions and above all a sense of pride to be part of something important. We hope that Mirakle Couriers will continue to raise more eyebrows and gasps of impression.

What are the skill sets required to head an organization like yours?

we are a business first and a social agent change second.

What is your team like?

The team is really great. They are hard working and proud to be wearing their bright orange uniforms. We have a leader board of the boys with the best deliveries each month which they compete for. The female staff is extremely responsible and also enjoy the work they do. The whole team has created a sense of family and of ownership of the company brand itself. They work well together to keep each other in check and make sure everyone does what they are meant to do.

The name “Mirakle Couriers” would surely raise a few

A lot of skills are required.

First and foremost are the usual and extremely important understanding of business sense to make quick important decisions about financial, marketing and operational strategy. Following that understanding deaf culture, dealing with the social stigmas in both communities and finding ways to bridge that well divided gap between the hearing and deaf communities is a challenging but essential. Other skills are the ability to think creatively and solve problems that constantly come up, but those are certain to come up in any entrepreneurial endeavor.

Your point of view about youth venturing into Entrepreneurship?

Just do it

What is one thing that you learnt during your college days that did help during your journey of Mirakle Courier Have fun, travel and read in college broaden your horizons.

Your suggestion to all those who wants to do something different Don’t wait

Study in LONDON Bigger . Brighter . Better Today s complex business environment and advancements in technology are demanding more and more qualified, skilled professionals for the business world.

The EThames Business Department offers courses from Certificate to Master levels, which will prepare students for successful careers within any business environment.

School of Business

MBA awarded by University of Sunderland MBA Final Stage awarded by University of Sunderland Edexcel BTEC Postgraduate Level Professional Advanced Diploma in Management

Studies (PGADMS)

BA(Hons) Business Management awarded by University of Sunderland BA(Hons) Business Management Top-up degree awarded by University of Sunderland HNC/D Business Management awarded by Edexcel BTEC HNC Business Management awarded by Edexcel BTEC

Other Departments

School of Finance School of Computing School of English School of Health & Social Care Tourism & Hospitality

The

Biggest

Private

College

in

London

EThames Graduate School, Thames Quay, 197 Marsh Wall, Docklands, London, E14 9S Edex Address: EDEX InternationalOxford House, Chittoor Road,Kacherippady, Kochi -18 TF March 2010

entrepreneurship

‘Mind Your Business’ Online Entrepreneurship is never easy, but then there are ways to bring in the best use of technology to add on to your money minting ideas, Online business is now a way of business and an important one at that. make their way to your screen every time you log on to a website. Now, if you are a new born entrepreneur and, if you want to make a mark in the newly popularity gained medium of promotion for your company without hurting your pocket a lot, we have some tips and tricks for you in place.

You URL should be Your USP If you have a presence on the world wide web then make sure your URL is good enough for people to remember it. If they don’t remember it they don’t buy it. The design should be attractive and there should be something for those, to whom you are catering your product to. Sufficient information, surplus access points to you and above all user friendly navigation. Sometimes a simple website is more attractive than a complicated one. If on web “Your website should be the Unique Selling Point for your company”

Over the Networking Sites

T

oday the marketing and PR managers have shifted their vision a bit and they may look a bit cock eyed because of that. They still strongly believe in the orthodox marketing techniques of the print, poster, audio and video medium but now they have eyed the web medium to a great extent. PPC or pay per click and banner ads are pretty famous on the major web players and along with them the pop up teasers that

30 TF March 2010

The fourth most populated place on the earth is Facebook and if you can access even a minute percentile of these large numbers then you are selling yourself to the right people, atleast the right number of people. One of the major reasons why the sites like orkut or facebook became famous is based on a simple theory that this sites are open and gives you an access to new people and new things. So if you have something innovative and something that’s new then this is surely a perfect platform.

Create groups, pages, communities and even accounts for your business and join other groups and spread the word. I am sure if not all of them but even if one out of every thousand coming across this clicks then its

surely business for you.

Meet the tweet If people can sell their dead cats broken nail on the web, I am sure you can sell a strong business that you are working on. The only requirement is that you do it the right way. Twitter over the last couple of years became a rage so much so that, we almost know what everyone is eating, drinking, reading, buying selling and even thinking. If you have a thing to sell then this where you let people know about it.

Follow some people, they will follow you back( if they feel socially responsible… pun intended) and then you can start posting interesting tweets and in between a couple of them about your business. If you have noticed even the biggest names in the business’ have a profile on the major networking sites including

If people can sell their dead cats broken nail on the web, I am sure you can sell a strong business that you are working on. The only requirement is that you do it the right way. linkedIn, FB, Orkut, Twitter and they have regular updates of what is going on. All that takes is a bit of thoughtful marketing and a lot of tweets and posts, you are sure game for the big league then.

The Blogospere Business

sometime, though not a great blogger but I often get a few visitors once in a while and when I don’t I post my link on chat rooms and discussion forums.

So the only thing that we can conclude from this is, that I am a bad blogger and two that if you know where to get your business from, make sure you drop the link to your blog. The blog should be about your personal opinion of your business, the individuals approach towards the company and if it’s a company blog then it should be about the internal success stories and interesting facts about the business.

This is surely not a money making method but blogging helps you to be in the loop of the same kind of business or even amongst your present and potential client.

I have been blogging for

TF March 2010 31

startup story

A true Startup Story En route, a couple pf young minds, brilliant ideas, a lot of self motivation and what you get is a perfect startup. A perfect story of self motivated youth with a great startup.

What was your primary motivation for starting a company?

Both Paul and I have been really good friends since college and wanted to start a business together since those University days. The fact that we are driven by common motivating factors made acting on this college talk a natural step.

The two motivations for starting the company were curiosity and the pathetic state of work culture everywhere.

Both of us have always had a strong interest in business and all the aspects of

running a company. So, one reason for our decision to leave well-paid jobs was our sheer curiosity to know and to learn. What better way to learn about this than to jump into the driver’s seat and start a company from the ground up.

Beyond this slightly selfish motivation to satisfy our own curiosity, we also both feel strongly about how most established corporations treat their employees, purely as a resource, and almost like a commodity.

They are not given the freedom to choose their way of working. This often results in unsatisfied people or suboptimal work. Also, the top level management at many companies takes the arrogant and incorrect stand that

32 TF March 2010

their intelligence is greater than the collective intelligence of their employees. We want to setup a culture at En Route that breaks these traditional methods of working.

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

Varun - The steps I took to startup the company were to quit a well-paying job, pack my bags and move to India and decide what business to start up. All the decisions (besides moving to India) were very difficult.

Also, I took those steps in exactly that order. Many people advise that while deciding what to do, one should hold on to their day jobs. However, for me that just didn’t work out. I couldn’t manage the responsibilities of a very hectic job and plan out a business on the side. So, I decided to quit and take the plunge.

Paul – For me there were three major boxes (the if?, the how? and the when?) I had to tick before jumping into this adventurous ride. First was the decision to start a company one day. Whatever your motivations are, at some point you might tell yourself: this is why I want to go off the beaten path. I did this around 3 years before starting this, my first venture.

Second was finding out what conditions I needed to convert talk into walk. More specifically, I realized that I am the kind of person who can not do without a partner on my side, with whom I can share the fun.

Consequently, I looked through my friends circle and luckily there was someone at the same wavelength as me yet different enough to complement my skill set.

Once I had taken these two steps, it was only a question of time until I would make the jump. The last step, however, is extremely crucial and where many people with good

Name of your Company En Route Media Pvt Ltd Founded in 2008 Head Quartered in Mumbai, India Industry Media & Advertising, Embedded Technology Business Description En Route is in the business of using the latest technologies in the Digital Out Of Home industry to increase interactivity and hence impact. It is in a pre-launch phase and will handle a majority of the chain, including media ownership, network management, and advertising sales.

Your USP intentions falter – recognizing when the time is right. This is obviously influenced by many factors, depending on your background. I answered the following questions for myself and went for it: is this the right opportunity, Am I ready financially? What do I have to loose?

Why should I wait any longer?, etc.

Where did you find the seed capital for your company?

Paul and I have committed everything we have to the company, and we have also got some support from our families (monetary and in kind) to get this thing of the ground. We have consciously decided not to raise any equity finance before launch. At this stage of our business even we are not 100% sure of our business model; it would be difficult to convince any external party of it. Also, due to the high risk of a pre-launch startup we would end up diluting too much of the company. However, we are confident enough of our business to take the risk on us for the launch and initial post-launch period.

What was your most valuable asset in the process?

I believe the most valuable asset we had during the process was the partnership. There have been several advantages to having a

Strong understanding and background of technology The Team Paul Schwarz, Varun Jain, Rajesh Jain No. of employees 5 Memorable moment as a team first meeting with the CEO of a large organization Company Address & Contact 157, A-Z Industrial Estate, G. K. Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai 400013 Linked in http://www.linkedin.com/ companies/en-route-media Website www.enrouteinc.com

partnership such as division of work (of which there is a lot), getting a second opinion on matters and having somebody to bounce ideas off. However, one of the main benefits has been in keeping the energy up.

What has been the biggest challenge for you so far, and how did you overcome it?

The biggest challenge so far has been overcoming the frustration due to delays and counterparties not maintaining commitments.

This was further amplified for me, because I believe that the work ethic in India is not as developed as it was in the UK (which is where I worked previously).

However, I think this is just a learning experience, and the only way of overcoming it is by being persistent, always keeping an eye on the finish line and of course by trying to have as much fun while you’re on the way there. In breaks we try to play sports and games with the team. Even the little things help, like all of us sending each other our personal “Happy Song” of the week.

What is your vision for your organization/ Future plans?

Well, the obvious step is the launch; all our efforts will

be concentrated towards this.

However, in our quest to take the Indian DOOH industry to new levels and stir up the competition we are already planning out the next 3-4 phases of our roll out.

Another focus effort of ours will be to actually establish the culture we envisioned, which was one of the main motivators to starting the business. We’d like to replace the ’workplace’ with a ‘second home’ (as corny as that may sound).

Your advice to budding entrepreneurs?

If you ever want to start something of your own, do it now. There is never a better time to do it then now. Now is when you can go out there and risk it all. Most of us start of with no money. What’s the worst case scenario - you’ll end up with no money, but a whole lot of invaluable experience.

Paul’s dad, realizing the sheer amount of things that his son is learning during this startup process, summed it up nicely: “No MBA program can teach you so much in so little time!!” However, once you get started don’t expect it to be a smooth ride. You will spend more money than you expected and take more time than you planned for.

TF March 2010 33

career track

career in technical writing writing is an art and technical writing is definitely an art of terms and jargons made simple for the layman. A look into the art of what goes into the making of manuals and instruction. TF brings you technical writing.

E

ver thought about what goes into creating the user manuals or instruction brochures of your music system, mobile phones or even the car maintenance guides? Most of us just manage to glance through the item, leave alone going into the technical details.

Since such information is meant for the layman, simplifying the jargons associated with any particular product or process is the key function of technical writers. A bridge between technology and its users, technical writing is also the ‘science’ of designing, validating, and packaging the information created to meet a certain objective. The irony of the situation is that in spite of playing such a crucial role, not much work has been done to assess the number of technical writers in the country. The IT industry, which absorbs a major chunk of technical writers has also shied away from giving due credit to this work In today’s customer-centric business model , the very process of acquiring and losing deals depends on the effectiveness of the technical writers. According to Priyadarshi Tripathi, consultant, HCL Infosystems, “Any organisation that is conscious about the information/messages catering to its customers, employees or business partners employs technical writers who are specialists. ” Pradeep Henry of Cognizant Technology Solutions adds, “ For a software services organisation, its user manuals and technical write-ups act as its public face and reflects its level of professionalism.”

Technical writing as a niche profession At a rough estimate, there should be at least one technical writer, for 30 programmers.

But in spite of their growing need, not much

34 TF March 2010

has been done to popularise this profession.

Although, technical communication has been in existence for a long time, its emergence as a niche profession is only a recent development.

According to the figures furnished by the Society for Technical Communication (STC) there are roughly 1200/1500 technical writers in India, while US has over a lakh of technical communicators. Many experts cite the lack of awareness as a key reason (both among the corporates and the individuals) to make it a potential career prospect. Technical writing as a field has various segments, like documentation specialist, instructional designer, proposal writer, resume writer, copywriter, marcom specialist, or even a technology journalist. But not many people are willing to make it a full-fledged profession.

According to Tripathi, in spite of having an abundance of talent, the problem is the lack of a proper organised system or infrastructure to groom them into potential writers. “Unlike the West, here the emphasis is on ‘on-thejob training. We hardly have any institution offering certified courses on this subject. And this hampers the growth of the profession,” he says. Anissha Aggarwal, assistant managerTechnical Communication, TCS (Delhi), agrees. According to her, the lack of certified courses increase the initial training period of the individual considerably. The veterans in this field generally have a background in English literature with a technical background, because of the popularity of on-the-job training; technically qualified people are preferred over people from other fields.

On the education front Lack of an institutional set-up, in order to train prospective students, is the prime reason for

the area remaining unexplored.

According to Aggarwal, even though the demand for technical writing in India are growing faster than ever before, there is hardly any institution which conducts a formal degree course in technical writing. Though there are some university courses that include a paper in technical writing (like the certificate course offered by Chennai-based S. A. International in association with Simon Fraser University, Canada or the optional paper in Technical Writing by the Calicut University in their Mass Communication course), their scope is very limited.

However, things are quite different abroad. There are universities that impart training just on technical writing.

According to Frederick Menezes, senior technical writer, Veritas India, “There are a host of foreign universities offering a variety of technical communication programmes, including Masters degree courses. Many of the universities also offer courses over the Internet.

The IT industry, which absorbs a major chunk of technical writers has also shied away from giving due credit to this work However, would-be technical writers are not able to avail of the benefits of such courses due to the exorbitant fees charged by them.

“The costs, by our standards, are pretty high. A course is broken into several units, and just a single unit could cost about Rs 25,000,” he adds.

The only help that most technical writers get, is from mailing lists like TECHWR-L, TechComm, TWIN and STC (associations/organisations

formed by technical writers) which have an India-specific focus. Some of the organisations formed by Indian technical writers (holding daily online seminars) serve as a good guide. These sessions enable beginners to get an insight into the profession as well as to interact with the senior members.

The Industry hurdles Another concern area for the growth of technical writing is the kind of work culture that exists in organisations. As Menezes puts it, “I think it’s got to do with the attitude of the upper management in respective organisations. As long as they consider documentation as a secondary activity, there would be some disparity between software developers and technical writers.”

Debashish Ghosh, a technical writer on the other hand feels that the disparity is more due to miscommunication.

The increasing use of IT in other segments like engineering, automotives, aeronautics,

TF March 2010 35

Who can be a Technical Writer  Better scope for a science graduate with a one-year computer diploma course.  A postgraduate degree/ diploma in English literature, journalism, science or Electronics/Computers with a background in creative writing.  Knowledge of DTP tools (Page maker), development tools (RoboHelp) and web tools (HTML and XML coding is a definite advantage for an online environment.  Basic knowledge of computer hardware, operating systems, software applications and programming languages is an added advantage. Familiarity with Windows and applications running in the Windows environment is a must.  Knowledge of software applications is definitely a plus.

military, bioinformatics, medicine, mechanics and even rocket sciences paint an encouraging picture. Besides this, there is an equal demand coming from newspapers, tech magazines, e-zines, dotcoms, advertising agencies and technology-based companies like computer software and hardware firms. According to Gopal Tharoor of Polaris, “Technical writing can be looked at as a separate revenue generating department, considering the explosive growth in the number of software companies venturing into BPO segment and ITES segment.

These two segments call for a lot of outsourcing work in terms of manuals.”

The pay package A technical writer today can start

36 TF March 2010

Growth potential depends on the individual. Technical writing is a very creative field. If you are dedicated and if you get the right opportunities, it can push you beyond your limits.

with an average salary of about Rs 10,000-14,000 and earn up to Rs 35,000 in 2-3 years. There have also been indications in terms of vertical growth of an individual in the organisation.

Today an individual can start at the entry level as a technical

communicator, to become a senior technical communicator (2-3 years experience), a writers’ team leader (with 5 years of experience) and move on to become the director of technical communications (10 plus years of experience).

Besides this, he can also aspire to become a quality analyst or a chief knowledge officer. Says Debashish Ghosh, “Growth potential depends on the individual. Technical writing is a very creative field. If you are dedicated and if you get the right opportunities, it can push you beyond your limits.

With so much in offering, the future surely looks bright for the technical writers. Now the time is ripe to take positive steps, in order to work towards give due status to this unrecognised sector.

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an it graduates diary

cloud computing An inquisitive mind tries to find the term cloud computing and tries to bring it to the layman’s understanding. This series on cloud computing will bring you the basics about the latest technology and also a better understanding of the changing technology around us.

Shreyans Desai

A

fter learning about the jargon of ‘cloud computing’ during my visit to IIT-B in January; I sat to demystify it for myself. Though there is no clear definition of Cloud computing, as what ‘open source’ or other technologies have; it can expressed as a generalised term for anything involving delivery of hosted services over the Internet; an emerging technology that uses the internet and remote servers to maintain data and applications. Cloud computing allows consumers to use applications without installation and access their personal files at any remote computer having internet access. This facilitates efficient and economic computing by centralizing storage, memory, processing and bandwidth. The term “cloud” is derived from the cloud drawing used to depict the Internet in computer network diagrams.

The concept of cloud computing has been around since long; but only recently has it started getting more pronounced.

Cloud computing comes into focus when one thinks about IT needs to increase capacity and add capabilities in real-time without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscriptionbased service that extends IT’s existing capabilities in real time over the Internet.

Till now, the IT industry had three types of companies - hardware firms, software product companies and IT services companies. If an organisation wanted to computerize some part

38 TF March 2010

of their functionality; it first had to buy the hardware, then the purchase licences for the software, and finally hire the services of a third company to customise and implement the application according to specifications. This was expensive and time-consuming; and those mainly affected were smaller organisations, which couldn’t spare budgets for expensive hardware, high support costs and expensive software licences.

Cloud computing describes a new supplementary consumption and delivery model for Internet based IT services, and involves provision of dynamically scalable and virtualized resources as a service over the Internet. Most of us have had experiences (though unknowingly) of using the cloud; the best examples being e-mails and social networking through sites such as GMail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and Facebook which lets us maintain, collaborate and distribute user generated content such as photos, videos and notes, which are accessible from any computer having access to the net.

By deploying IT infrastructure and services over the network, an organization can purchase on rent these resources on an as-needed basis and avoid the initial high capital expenditure on software and hardware.

With cloud computing, IT capacity can be quickly adjusted to ac¬commodate changes in demand. Some firms presently providing cloud services are Amazon.com, Google, Salesforce. com, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Cloud computing

services are broadly classified into three major categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

Clouds are also classified according to their visibilities – private, hybrid and public.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is the delivery of computer infrastructure – typically a platform virtualization environment as a service. Rather than purchasing servers, software, data centre space or network equipment, clients buy those resources as a fully outsourced service. The service is typically billed on a utility computing basis and amount of resources consumed; and therefore the cost typically reflects the level of activity.

Platform as a service (PaaS) ensures delivery of a computing platform and solution stack as a service. It goes beyond with provision of a software development platform designed for Cloud Computing. It facilitates deployment of applications without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the hardware and software layers in concern; providing all facilities required to support the complete life cycle of building and delivering web applications and services entirely available from the Internet. PaaS offers facilities for application design, development, testing, deployment and hosting as well as application services such as team collaboration, web service integration, database integration, security, scalability, storage, persistence, state management, application versioning, application instrumentation and developer community facilitation. These services are provisioned as integrated solutions over the web.

Software as a service (SaaS) is a model of software deployment whereby a provider licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand.

SaaS software vendors host the application on their own web servers or upload the application

to the consumer device, disabling it after use or after the on-demand contract expires. The on-demand function may be handled internally to share licenses within a firm or on a third-party application service provider (ASP) sharing licenses between firms. The sharing of end-user licenses and on-demand use would reduce investment in server hardware; thus, making it economically viable for smaller firms.

When processes run on physical servers at organisations, a lot of resources usually go unused; and thus, there’s a lot of wastage of power, energy and manpower. So, with features such as scalability of available resources

in cloud computing; such losses can be taken care of efficiently; where the user pays by the time or by the services and resources used. So, in the cloud, the servers which are remotely located can be accessed from almost anywhere provided the computer has an internet connection. The cloud servers can be fooled by running multiple virtual processes on it; and thus using the maximum available resources optimally. The cloud is virtualization of resources that maintains and manages itself. People are needed to keep hardware, operation systems and networking running; but from the perspective of a user or application developer; only the cloud is referenced. That is, even if there is a hardware failure or a security breach in the cloud, the service provider takes care of the same; and the individual or the organisation which are using the leased services don’t have to worry about.

The main concerns in cloud computing remain in the area of security and privacy of the data uploaded on the cloud. Once the threats to Cloud Computing are taken care of, there is no way one can stop it from becoming an industry standard, and a platform for the future technologies to evolve.

TF March 2010 39

gadgets Intex IN 6622 2.8 inches wide screen 65K colours at a QVGA resolution 2 - mega pixel camera, Memory on microSD card expandable upto 2GB in size.

Weight 85gm phone multimedia player, FM radio, Bluetooth and GPRS. 3 hours of talk-time and 460 hours of standby time. dual-SIM GSM cards SIM Lock option INR 4,800.

Apple iPod Touch 16GB

The Samsung Giorgio Armani B7620 3.5-inch AMOLED resistive touchscreen 65K colours, 800x480 pixels resolution QWERTY keypad.

5-megapixel camera with auto focus, LED flash, geo-tagging, face and smile detection.

Windows Mobile 6.1 Powered by an 800MHz processor 256MB RAM, 512MB ROM 8GB of onboard storage expandable upto 32GB microSD card. 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, stereo FM radio with RDS, GPS with A-GPS and Pocket Office Samsung DNSe audioenhancement engine.

11 hours of talktime and up to 500 hours of standby time Approximately INR 35,000

40 TF March 2010

Storage Upto 3,500 songs, upto 20,000 photos, upto 20 hours of video With Cover Flow on iPod touch 3.5-inch display using multi-touch technology Built in Apple’s Safari browser Built in YouTube player iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store Ambient Light Sensor Accelerometer One Year Manufacturer Warranty.

Approximately INR 16,000.

crack it Engineering Grad’s Laws of Life

The day you join the college and till the day you retire you are an engineer, No matter what you are pursuing in terms of your field of engineering you have to live with it and may be die by it. The laws are a way of life for us. Lets look into the laws of life for an engineer.

SU DO KU

Law #1: In any calculation, any error which can creep in will do so.

Law #8: All delivery promises must be multiplied by a factor of 2.0.

Law #2: Any error in any calculation will be in the direction of most harm.

Law #9: Major changes in construction will always be requested after fabrication is nearly complete.

Law #3: In any formula, constants (especially those obtained from engineering handbooks) are to be treated as variables.

Law #4: The best approximation of service conditions in the laboratory will not begin to meet those conditions encountered in actual service.

Law #5: The most vital dimension on any plan drawing stands the most chance of being omitted.

Law #6: If only one bid can be secured on any project, the price will be unreasonable.

Law #7: If a test installation functions perfectly, all subsequent production units will malfunction.

Law #10: The rule for engineers: “Change the data to fit the curve.”

Law #11: Interchangeable parts won’t.

Law #12: Manufacturer’s specifications of performance should be multiplied by a factor of 0.5.

Law #13: Salespeople’s claims for performance should be multiplied by a factor of 0.25.

Law #14: Installation and Operating Instructions shipped with the device will be promptly discarded by the Receiving Department.

Law #15: Any device requiring service or adjustment will be the least accessible.

medium

sOLUTION

TF March 2010 41

yo campus

Surviving with fun

U

ltimate fun, bunking classes, forever friendships, the best time in ones life are those spent in the huge campuses of our colleges.

The masti, fun, sleep driving lecturers, the wooden benches that come to our rescue during exams to scribble on the answers on them, the college canteens where we find ultimate peace after bunking lectures; one can never forget those memorable moments.

With most of you staying in hostels, you must be on the lonely lanes of youth life enjoying the complete freedom. Doing everything right from washing your clothes to your plates by yourselves; Technofirst tells you few more funny tips for surviving the college days.

Since getting up in the morning for the classes is such a strenuous task, the first solution should be found for that. If you have an 8:00 am class, which is required for your major, well change your major.

Having your breakfast cereal can be made fun too provided you are ready to face its consequences. In a pinch, beer can be used as a milk substitute in your breakfast cereal. But donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t create a situation like Raju Rastogi of 3 idiots, where you land up drunk for the professorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s class and at last with a rustication letter in your hand thinking on how to suicide.

42 TF March 2010

Minimize food budget by scheduling classes around happy time. Having classes all the time will make you hungrier and thereby making you spend more money on your food routine. So, have plentiful of food and then attend your classes so that if the classes are boring you can also have a beautiful nap as well.

Enjoy being a Sophomore â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it is the best time during the three years of college. Its always best to be in the middle stage so enjoy the time to the maximum.

Washing your own clothes must be the worst thing you might be experiencing in your college life. Getting a tip in it would be always a food for thought. Lemon juice and baking soda make an excellent bong water stain remover for you With exam time around the corner, manipulation methods are the need of the hour. Newer methods are always discovered by young geniuses all the time.

But the most traditional and authentic method remains the margin method. Clever margin manipulation can turn even a four page outline into a 100-page big essay.

Have a blast in college and chill out the maximum. Try to make them the most memorable days of your life.

Technology

Save the Energy, Go SPARA SPARA is the first of its kind device which is capable of eliminating up to 95% of unwanted power losses. How much is it? well its a lot. Lets look into the power and consumption and the saving part of it with the product from ArtinDynamics.

S

ave power, Go Green, Save the earth, lets save the mother earth, all this and lot more are the mantra for the day but then how far are we going good about it.

We all hear about power conservation and are constant audiences to lectures on importance of switching off unwanted electronic devices when not in use. We are living in this web and pc centric world But how many of us knew that the power wastage due to computers alone accounts for around 57% of the total losses?

And to make things worse, that nearly 26% of this is due to the computers that are already OFF. Well this might come in as a surprise but then that’s a fact so what do we do about it. Recently visited a corporate office and saw the many a non occupied systems switched on and consuming a lot of our “so bothered” about energy. That’s when I thought of enquiring about the availability of system that would save this energy. And finally I did find something.

SPARA is the first of its kind device which is capable of eliminating up to 95% of these losses. How much is it? Around 60,000 KWh per 1000 computers per year, the carbon footprint equivalent of NOT driving nearly 50,000 cars for a day the monetary equivalent in thousands of US Dollars, estimated to be around 1-3% of the operational cost of an IT/ ITES company . And this wasted energy is roughly the amount of energy required to light up a small town!!! These figures are just for the hardware module. We cannot even predict what the software is capable of doing as it operates according to the wastage patterns of the individual users. The product uses highly efficient AI based algorithms and our patented ETL technology to keep up its promises. The

44 TF March 2010

product is endorsed and supported by ExNoRa International.

SPARA aims at eliminating this redundant power called phantom power (which is defined as the power consumed by any electrical/ electronic device which is connected to the power but not in use) in computers and computer driven peripherals. In addition to the phantom power, there is also another major loss especially in the corporate segment due to the negligence of the employees of the company. An independent study conducted by the Lawrence and Berkeley National labs; US found that nearly 70% of the employees in a company do not turn off their computers when they leave after office hours. Though around 60% of them do turn off their monitors, it does not fully eliminate the power losses as the power consumed by the monitor is only around 30-35% of the total power consumed by a system. The proposed product achieves in eliminating a particularly high amount of wastage from this by combining various different methods. The achieved power savings by using the product is found to be much

greater that 85%.

Now, the most thoughtful question about this so called SPARA. Do we really need it? and to answer that question we might need to answer the below mentioned questions.

 Does your company use computers in the course of your daily work?  Are you tired of nagging your employees to turn off their systems?  Are you helpless in understanding where all this energy goes to?  Are you under constant fire from the top for the outrageous power bills?  Are you willing to do your part for a global emergency?  Is your company cutting costs?  Interested in converting your loss into profit?  Are you worried about overheads due to IT Power management?  Are you looking to improve that Green Branding of your company?  Are you truly GREEN? If you have answered ‘YES’ to any one of the above questions then join the club.

You are sure to be interested in knowing about what I bothered to find about.

What is SPARA all about?

SPARA would consist of a small box, which on the first look might get you confused with a double out Extension box. There would be a place in it where the mains supply must be provided, a USB slot, a switch slot and a couple of Plug points. Oh, don’t worry we’ll give you all the connectors and wires too. We’ll also provide you with a new cute little switch to go along. Along with this small box would be a CD which contains the required software. Obviously we

will give you the license keys for the same too. Look more deeply and you find in it a small paper which gives you a 2 Year complete 100% replacement warranty for the product inside!!! Rest assured that everything inside that box is strictly made as per the RoHS compliance standards, so even when you buy that box you are helping out the environment.

Now once you have the box, you can install it yourself. Well the software is designed to smile and say an hi to its neighbors and to the central console. So it would be great if we humans keep ourselves out and not interfere in their chitchat.

Once up and running, the smart little client Pluggy would set out at understanding it’s new master (user) in terms of his schedules, his working hours, his break timings etc. all but without collecting not one piece of private data (NO keystrokes, NO names, NO passwords, just dates and time straight out of the clock). Once Pluggy gets enough data to predict the nature of the user, it’ll will crunch the numbers and devise an elaborate power management plan just for his master. This will be true for each and everyone in your company. This juggling of times and analysis would allow us to ensure that there exists a separate Pluggy for everyone in the company and acts as a personal assistant to them. Pluggy will ensure that these plans are executed to perfection and will also keep a log of everything he does.

The Pluggy can also do things that the system administrator wants it to do including work according to a strict schedule, or obey policies

In addition to the phantom power, there is also another major loss especially in the corporate segment due to the negligence of the employees set for the pluggy. And Pluggy is a seriously friendly thing, it can also force and keep the machine ON if its master does not want it to for some reason.One of the difference that you would find is that the actual power button of your system would not work once you’ve shutdown your computer.

Don’t Panic, remember that cute switch I was talking about? Well say Hi to your new power switch.

Hated that awkwardly positioned power switch on the CPU?? Here’s your chance to move it to where ever you want it to be!!! This is required as one of the goals is to eliminate the phantom power losses from the system.

This also let you check out what was happening in the past in terms of how much you saved or how much would you have wasted in the form of beautiful charts or raw verbose. So if you have plans to reduce global warming, carbon footprints, save the mother or even generate power then I believe SPARA is what you need.

study abroad

Applying Abroad: Things to think About Planning to study abroad is an easy task, because all you have to do is plan but applying for some university can be a painful job, but if done efficiently and on time then it surely will save you a lot of trouble

I

f you are enjoying your final days of college life and planning to study abroad, its time you start preparing for your trip. Since you wish to join some university in another country, it is important that you understand the importance of the application formalities.

Jaykay points out a few musts before you defy gravity to pursue your future.

Planning to study abroad is an easy task, because all you have to do is plan but applying for some university can be a painful job, but if done efficiently and on time then it surely will save you a lot f trouble. These are the few things that you need to be thoughtful about when you are thinking of applying to a foreign university.

46 TF March 2010

Application form Most universities now prefer online applications. Even if you file the application form online, you still have to send the supporting documents by regular mail. If you are applying to the US as student, you can use a common application form, which can be sent to over 240 universities. Keep in mind that some universities will additionally require a supplement to the common application form.

Students applying to the UK can apply for the UCAS (Universities & Colleges Admissions Service) and apply to different courses by using just one form. And when your applying online make sure that you have the right details taken into account.

TF March 2010

Application fee -Applying to US universities would be hard on your pocket as most of these universities ask you to pay along with the application submission. The application fee would surely look big when converted into our comparatively cheaper Indian rupee. Make sure you know the exact amount for the application fee, because sometimes students tend to overpay or sometimes pay less. It is best to check the individual university website for the most accurate and up-todate information on the application fee.

Statement of Purpose (SOP) - As the name

would suggest, the SOP is your opinion about yourself, about who are and what you think about your future, what has influenced your career path

so far and also about the factors that influenced your career decision. The SOP usually ranges from 500 to 750 words. If you want to stand out from other applicants, you need to realize that this is your only point of contact with the selection committee.

You can use the SOP to convince the admission committee that you have interests and experiences that puts you in a better league than the other applicants. Keep in mind that your language would also be judged with this, so you can always seek some professional help rather than being honest and kill your chances of being selected.

Resume â&#x20AC;&#x201C; I believe most of the foreign Universities wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ask for your resume but then sending across your resume would be a good idea, and a better one of you have some work or project experience.

A resume outlines all your achievements, activities, skills etc. Please remember that a resume is not curriculum vitae, but is a one-page document highlighting your strengths and skills.

Recommendation letters - Recommendation

letters can be obtained from school/college teachers. Try to get recommendation letters from people who know you well and who have had ample opportunity to interact with you. Avoid letters of recommendation from people in high positions who have not taught you. For instance a letter from the principal of your school/college who has not taught you has less importance than a letter from a teacher who has taught you for two years.

Bank letter and Affidavit of Financial Support

Universities in the US require international students to prove that they have enough funding available to cover their educational costs.

Universities in the UK may not need a bank letter along with your application. The bank letter should state that your sponsor has sufficient funds in his or her account.

Transcripts and Mark sheets - Make sure that you send official sealed copies of your mark sheets and transcripts to the universities you are applying to. If you have graduated, you must also send your degree to the universities.

Once you have all your documents ready, make sure that you have checked the application deadline of the schools you are applying to. Many universities require the official standardized test scores to be in your file by the application deadline date, so make sure that you do not delay your official score reporting.

If you are through this you can be assured that you have half a battle won. Along with this application forms make sure you do have an interesting cover letter. All said and done, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s indeed a matter of luck and opportunity.

48 TF March 2010

review this book by Subramanian is going to be very different from the first.

Book Review I Bought the Monk’s Ferrari Ravi Subramanian Rupa & Co Price: Rs 195

A

fter his first novel on the supercompetitive sector, banker Ravi Subramanian tells you how to get a Ferrari in his second book, I Bought the Monk’s Ferrari. The obvious reference to Robin Sharma’s bestseller, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, gives you a hint that

However, it’s not the luxury car the author’s talking about. It’s about the Fortune for Every Right Rigorous and Resourceful Individual (FERRARI). Taking off from the young management trainee, the author delves into the lives of corporate leaders who have crossed several hurdles to own their own Ferrari (in some cases, even the car). He writes about how a 16-year-old girl aspired to be a successful businesswoman when her father refused to give her the swivel chair in his office. It was her grit and determination that made the young girl HSBC CEO Naina Lal Kidwai. Subramanian gives examples of Laxmi Mittal, Sourav Ganguly, Bill Gates to drive home the point that you need to aspire high to grow big.

The author enlists Ten

Commandments that can help you pave your way to success and even get a Ferrari.By the time you finish the Ten Commandments, you wonder what this book is about. The management fresher dwells on your mind and you hope this book will take off like If God was a Banker did but it doesn’t. Though the author has done well to keep the chapters short, and his language lucid, the stories don’t make much of an impact. Probably because the stories of the achievers are well-known. In his bid to cater to the society’s elites, the book doesn’t draw in experiences from the broader crosssection of the society.

However, in spite of its shortcomings, the book is worth a read. Subramanian’s interactions with his daughter are delightful to read about.

Only in these parts does he evoke an emotional response from the reader. You wish for more, but he doesn’t offer any.

www.toggl.com Website Review

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his site lets users manage freelance jobs.

Helping them calculate how much they need to be earning per hour or project.

The site uses your existing Google login to register. There are both free and paid plans.

Toggl is an online time tracking

software. It provides users with a secure and convenient way to track their individual and team work hours.

With Toggl, there is no limit to the number of projects or users; this basic functionality is free. Users can invite as many people to Toggl as they wish with no charge.”

The application is well

designed and free. An especially cool function is even if the browser window is closed, Toggl continues to keep track of time. The author of the website is eager to answer user inquiries and has compiled a decent online tutorial of basic functions.

TF March 2010

group discussion “Education in India compared to Foreign nations” We discussed about braindrain and opportunities and alot more. The beggining of all these , education and the quality of that, is something that makes a lot of difference. This group discussion amongst people who have seen education abroad and had been through it, expresses their opinion about the quality of education in India as compared to other nations of the world. So the discussion...

I

ndia is a world leader in the spirit of globalization.

Today’s youngsters need to be very competitive to face a challenging future.

Both the parents work hard to give their children the best possible education.

There is a wrong notion everywhere that only studying aboard will give good recognition and respect.

Gone are the days when studying aboard was need-based, on the quality of education they received. Today people are coming from aboard to study in India. India has the best universities and faculties compared to other countries.

Receiving an education in India gives you a global perspective that will allow you to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of the marketplace. Be proud to Be, Buy and For an Indian.

RAVISANKAR BALASUBRAMANIAM

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he system of education followed in India is seen as the most strenuous system for a kid. But it’s the most proven system of education and it is certainly looked up to in the international arena. While the basic focus of our system in the initial years is more on knowledge without much logical reasoning, it gives us an edge over others to know a lot more and keep the analysis for the future. Kumon mathematics and English courses that are now internationally acclaimed and proven to be creating geniuses, is very similar to the Indian system, emphasizing on repetitive practice. We just need to fine tune our approach of testing the knowledge and ascertaining the levels by making it more comprehensive.

Lavanya

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his land of Aryabhatta has given many an intelligent minds to the world. India, with its rich heritage of educational wealth, always laid emphasis on learning to imbibe. Where then in this race of gaining the best grades are we losing this wonderful notion about education-“Learning “?

Some countries around the world, though not as ancient as us nor possessing a rich educational heritage as ours, have managed to

tow a guiding line between education and learning, wherein both complement each other or both, if not in synchronization are devoid of value. Many educational systems abroad lay stress on individual ability development and encourage children to express themselves and their opinions from an early age. Our education and social systems are very hard on children and completely ignore their feelings, opinions and ambitions.

Krupa Raguram

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ndian education system has a strong foundation, it has the best faculty but then what is missing link? When it comes to Bachelor’s or Master level program Indian Education system is not up to the mark with foreign education system.

Foreign education system purely deals with real life practices, problems and its solutions on there respective fields. It doesn’t depend on mere book based knowledge but more practical based approach. They also tend to follow the current trend and change there subject according to it. The multi-Cultural approach also helps to achieve this purpose which helps them not see it in a he Literacy rate of a single dimensional way. Further there is enough few foreign countries funding in research by industrial firms in foreign will throw light on the education system in which Indian Education adequacy or otherwise system lacks. If we improvise our approach by of the system of education following the current trend and have our future in India. In my opinion, the prospects cut out, we would be among the top main reason for the abysmally educational systems in the world at no time. We low rate of literacy is the fact have the right that, according to current minds, right ideas estimates, 80% of all schools just little change are government schools, in approach will making the government the do wonders. major provider of education.

The children studying in Antony Rex government run schools suffer from poor quality of education M.S Robotics, due to weak infrastructure Sweden and inadequate pedagogic attention. A study of 188 government-run primary schools found that 59% of the schools had no drinking water and 89% had no toilets. Thus, the rate of school dropouts

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ducation should be like a rain that unconditionally satisfies everyone in the country. It should reach people behind the social and economic barriers. Unfortunately in India I don’t find the fact that the above happens, where as the good quality education reaches only rich, poor are devoid of quality education. There are only slight degrees of variation in the standard of education in rural and urban areas in Sweden, where as we could find a high shade of differences in the rural and urban education in India. In Swedish

increases proportionately.

The Government currently spends only 3% of its GDP on education which is insufficient.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), India has the lowest public expenditure on higher education per student in the world. To improve the quality of education, the government needs to spend more money from its coffers on education. There is much scope for improvement for India to be able to match up their education system with the wider/higher standards of education set by other countries. And much, to look ahead to, in the future.

Selva palaniappan

system the students are given group activities and more project work where they get a great chance to apply whatever they have learned, where as we write a long theoretical exams and we hardly update our syllabus that too after a high interference of politics. The Indian system of education evaluates a student based on his memory capacity where as in Swedish system marks are awarded based on their thinking capacity.

Deepak Chandrasekaran

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tuc review

Entrepreneurs Abode

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TREC - STEP

REC - STEP is the part of the national initiative to grow knowledge based ventures in our society. TREC - STEP, established in 1986 in the sprawling environs of Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirappalli is the first STEP in the country.

Awards and achievements

Started

Best Innovation Award in the year 2002 from Indian Railway Board

TUC Team:

Best Entrepreneurs Award in the year 2004 from Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Ahmedabad

1986

R.M.P. Jawahar, Executive Director, TRECSTEP and President ISBA Mr. V. Subbiah, Program Coordinator Mr. A.Sivakumar, Project Coordinator

Strengths TREC-STEP, the first Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Park and Business Incubator promoted in the country in the year 1986, has now emerged as a reputed model development interface institution, with remarkable performance, achievements, global recognition and acclaim. Promoted by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Government of Tamilnadu, National Institute of Technology, Trichy along with Central State Financial Institutions, it is now a recognized Model for new Indian Incubation industry, with awards and recognitions, such as TREC-STEP is also the first DSIR TePP Outreach Centre in the country. With the TePP objective of unearthing the latent innovation potential of individuals, exactly aligning with TREC-STEP’s objective of promoting innovative start-up ventures, the TUC at TREC-STEP has energized and leveraged the innovation delivery system of the region manifolds.TREC-STEP has also been able to dovetail this TePP innovators with seed funding and other innovation delivery

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Best STEP Award in the year 2001 from Ministry of Science and Technology

“International Champion of Business Incubation Award 2006” instituted for the first time by United Kingdom Business Incubation and awarded to Mr. R. M. P. Jawahar, Executive Director, TREC-STEP, at UK The World Bank Development

MarketPlace Award in 2008 for the ‘Mini Cold Storage Ventures for Farmers Markets

In the European Commission supported ‘Euroffice Services (EOS) Project TREC-STEP has been Awarded ‘the best success story resulting from the usage of EOS Soft Landing and Business boosting services’ in 2008’ programmes. TePP Programme has become the most important innovation initiation programme for incubating high growth innovative ventures in the region. In addition to this, it has also successfully deployed the Technology Angels Network bringing to the front, the latent expertise of NIT Trichy and other institutions in supporting, nurturing

and delivering innovation continuously thus creating an innovation enabled region.

TREC-STEP has also worked with a number of international developmental organizations in innovation development projects, such as UNDP, UNIDO, European Commission, the World Bank infoDev, British Council Division, IDRC etc.

Funding support Our TUC has funded many companies under the TePP funding. They can be classified as: a. MicroTEPP Funding b. Phase 1 Funding c. Phase 2 Funding

3 20 4

The Projects that have been completed so far TREC-STEP has supported the following innovators to successfully develop the prototypes of their innovations. Following major start-up companies have already been promoted with TREC-STEP Incubation Support:

    

M/S Glo Tech.Organics M/S Pure Tech India M/S Adhithya Medicals Birmaha Machine Tools Bharat Agro Products

What are the other supports provided to the Innovator

TREC-STEP provides a rich mix of software and hardware development package for creating successful innovative ventures.

In the soft side, synergizing the Innovation Support TePP Scheme of DSIR helps in attracting innovative individuals and realize their dream products in to prototypes and working models. A Technology Angel Network of nearly 25 academicians from various engineering departments of NIT Trichy provide the guidance, evaluation and innovation development support for innovators. TREC-STEP has not only planned and implemented special events for popularizing Tepp Programme, but also put in focused efforts to integrate and

disseminate the DSIR supported TePP Programme to a wider section of the Community by integrating it into all its interaction programmes apart from several Innovation camps organized. It has also built partnerships with several reputed institutions in the region to attract more innovators into the TePP fold and help them to overcome their Innovation challenges successfully by facilitating them to access and fruitfully utilize the vital Funding support provided by DSIR. All innovations are expected to flower into start-up ventures through TREC-STEP mentoring and incubation process and support.

In addition to this a plethora of business incubation hardware support is also provided to these budding ventures. TREC-STEP has a built up space of 40,000 sq.ft. of 25 Nursery Incubation modules.

These incubation modules with Central common product development and production facilities established provide invaluable assistance for startup companies and reduce their risk initially. Facilities such as internet, power, water and library etc are provided for budding entrepreneurs on chargeable basis.

These focused facilities have been instrumental in promoting nearly 186 new ventures, the highest number of ventures promoted by

any incubator in India.

How do you spot the Innovators TREC-STEP regularly organizes various programs to publicize the TEPP scheme and attract the innovators to benefit by this novel initiative. Regular advertisements are placed in leading news papers/ magazines both in English and Tamil for wide reach(5 Times a year). Seminars are conducted in industrial associations and technical institution to attract entrepreneurs and students to avail the schemes of DSIR through the TUC. New innovators approach TUC through the referral of successful innovators who were benefited from the DSIR schemes.

TREC-STEP has also held a series of meetings with E-Cell of National Institute of Technology in order to take-up an Innovation Mining Project to unearth latent innovation potential of students for creating commercially viable products and processes. This would not only be the first stage towards strengthening venture incubation among NIT students but also motivate students to think more innovatively in the future even if they do not take up entrepreneurship as a career. This project is also seen as the one-stepforward-on-the-ground initiative compared to standard business

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plan contest now mushrooming everywhere.

Tell us About the Initiatives and Events conducted by you Innovation Challenge Contest at NIT, Trichy was conducted in order to bring out the latent innovation potential among the students and to facilitate more students with innovative ideas to realize them as successful prototypes. A unique contest ‘ideas challenge - cash it on the ideas catch’ was promoted by TREC-STEP,in which the 10 best selected ideas were awarded cash prizes and the efforts are on to generate Applications for TePP /Micro TePP support.

TREC-STEP is the first TUC to bring out a series of TePP popularizing articles in local, national and international magazines and platforms. TREC-STEP worked with INSEAD (World’s Best Management Institution Outside Europe) to generate an exclusive comprehensive coverage in DARE Magazine in its recent issue.

TREC-STEP organized an Innovation Booth in the International Conference on Business Incubation at Chennai with the support of DSIR, generating very good marketing opportunity.

TREC-STEP has published a series of articles for Info Dev World Bank on TePP Success which have been published in their web site and got great visibility and coverage.TREC-STEP has promoted the TePP Activities to GTZ and working to link the DSIR TePP Programme for greater leverage.TREC-STEP has involved industrial giants like BHEL, OFT,HAPP as much as possible in TePP Programme brining in new expertise, enthusiasm and innovation participation.

Your Associations and Tie Ups The service and infrastructure supports offered to Entrepreneurs at TREC-STEP, are benchmarked to International Best Practices for Business Incubation. TREC-STEP has partnered reputed International Developmental Agencies such as the World Bank in a Project for developing a set of ICT tools for leveraging the performance of Start-up Ventures, with the European Union for Knowledge sharing of Business Incubation practices and Euro Office Services for Internationalization of small, innovative firms. New, Venture Incubation Packages have been developed and standardized for Mentoring, ensuring successful growth and exit, of the Incubated companies.

According to you, Innovation is Innovation is an idea, a change or an improvement put to use effectively causing a social or commercial reorganization. An Innovator successfully converts his idea into a venture for the benefit of society.

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career

guru

I have completed my BE(E&C) in 2009 with 53% and I am unsure whether I will get a job in a MNC, What should I do to get a job in an MNC? Alex Puthukeril, Calicut



We consider that a masters degree is important for an individual to grow in an organisation.

You can at this stage choose between 2 options.

Either you can take up a job and work for 1-2 years. This will give you a perspective on jobs in the E& C segment. and then you can do a post graduation later. Or you may study further in the Technical side (like a Masters) or do an MBA. The choice of any of these routes depends on your career aspirations.



I completed my B.Tech but still have to clear 3 papers, for which my exams are later this year only in April 2010. Can I write the any Public Service Exams 2010?

Ashita Rawal, Mumbai Yes you may give the entrance exam if you clear your back papers before the main examination.

But you have to submit your degree certificate/ provisional certificate before the main examination if you clear preliminary. The photocopy of a certificate has to attach with the main application. It is in the month of August.

So, you have to get your provisional/ course completion certificate before main application.

For further details log on to http://www.upsc. gov.in/exams/notifications/csp2009/notcvl. htm I completed B.E (ECE) in 2008.I like to pursue MBA in Shipping Please tell about the nature of the course?

Manas Modi, Cochin



An MBA in shipping and logistics management is a rare course. There are many leading institutes in private sectors, conducting twoyear full-time MBA course with specialization in the areas of shipping and logistics management.

This programme is designed to equip students with adequate skills and knowledge in General Management, functional specialisation in the areas such as marketing, finance, human Resource, etc. and sectoral specialization in shipping and logistics management. careerQ@technofirstonline.com

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

innovator of the month

Cutting Edge Innovation Vinayaka Pandi

BIRAMHA MACHINE TOOLS

My Innovation Redesigning the wood cutting tool and redefining the process of its manufacture is my innovation all about. The process ensures long life of the cutting edge and thereby stands for long use. It also looks into the details and ensures safety of the user and the material.

Impact on Society The innovation has many positive aspects which makes it better than its earlier counterparts. The cost of the product will become affordable even to a carpenter with minimum means. The longer life of the products and lower damage to material also reduces the cost of production of the wood industry.

With such effective and efficient cutting tools which can be used even on low cost machines makes the poor rural youth also setup their own wood processing industry. The cost of construction related to wood will also be lowered for the common man. Above all, the maiming of poor carpenters due to loss of fingers can be totally avoided.

The production process also ensures lower wastage, lower volume of raw material and recycling of used tips. The use of our innovative tools requires less power and less process time. The innovative tool also reduces wastage of raw material due to smooth flow.

Hence, our products completely stand against and reduce the environment pollution.

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The Spark The ailing carpenters who lost their fingers and the source of their earning motivated me to come up with a solution to their problems. This was the guiding and motivating factor which made me come up with this innovation.

Your entrepreneurial journey Seeing the apathy of the carpenters made me think on the solution for it and after constant research could come up with such an innovation.

Though the product could be developed, the later stage needed more persuasion. It needed lot of persuasion and demonstration to convince the carpenters initially to use our products, they doubt especially when they see the low cost of our innovative tools comparing to the imported tools of high cost. Now carpenters in South India have started using our tools and it is yet to be taken to the carpenters in remaining parts of India. However, the market for our tools spreads around the globe simply because of the cost, quality, durability and the wide range of cutting profiles, which otherwise is not available elsewhere.

Association with TePP It is through TePP that I and my innovation got the recognition.

But for the financial help from the TePP, marketing the innovated product might have been completely delayed. It is the moral support in addition to the financial support that has given me enough confidence to establish an industry and engage more than 20 employees. With the further grant in process I hope I can take the products to all the underdeveloped, developing and developed countries around the world.

Recognitions/award ISBA Award for the year 2008 under the category ‘Material Science qand Manufacturing’.

Martin Lockeed and DST – ‘Best Innovation Award – 2009’

Patent status

made. Complete specification is yet to be filed.

Future plans To take the products to the carpenters around the world.

Simultaneously, different simpler, safe and cost effective machines are being developed, so that a complete comprehensive solution can be given to the carpenters.

I will come out with such newly developed machines within short span of time.

Contact BIRAMHA MACHINE TOOLS B-2, TREC-STEP, TRICHY – 620 015 Mobile : + 91 98659 54149 E-mail: vinayakapandi@yahoo. co.in mbiramha@yahoo.in

Word of advice Approach the right people in the right time with righteous product.

Innovation philosophy Observe the problems around and offer innovative solutions.

Best STEP Award in the year 2001 from Ministry of Science and Technology Best Innovation Award in the year 2002 from Indian Railway Board Best Entrepreneurs Award in the year 2004 from Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Ahmedabad “International Champion of Business Incubation Award 2006” instituted for the first time

by United Kingdom Business Incubation and awarded to Mr. R. M. P. Jawahar, Executive Director, TREC-STEP, at UK The World Bank Development MarketPlace Award in 2008 for the ‘Mini Cold Storage Ventures for Farmers Markets

In the European Commission supported ‘Euroffice Services (EOS) Project TREC-STEP has been Awarded ‘the best success story resulting from the usage of EOS Soft Landing and Business boosting services’ in 2008’

Provisional registration has been TF March 2010 57

tech talk

GENETIC ALGORITHMS AND COMPUTER OPTIMIZATION

The concept of developing a machine for computational purposes came from a Greek game called ‘Abacus’. Later on the computer came to be used for other purposes as well. Some interesting facts about the same.

Esha Chakraborty

Scientist-B’ DIPR,DRDO

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he word computer is related to computing. It was formerly a machine that was developed to do most of the computational work. The concept of developing a machine for computational purposes came from a Greek game called ‘Abacus’. Later on the computer came to be used for other purposes as well. But the basic task for which the computer is meant for remains the same. Explicitly speaking, the basic task is searching for solution(s).

There are various techniques, namely Breadth First Search (BFS), Depth First Search (DFS), and the like for determining the solutions. Data structures like trees, etc are available for the purpose. These techniques enable the computer to find a number of solutions from which a particular solution is short-listed based on suitability. The space over which the entire set of solutions is spread is called the solution space. The most suitable solution is found out with the help of optimization techniques.

Genetic Algorithms are adaptive methods, which are used to find the optimum solution from a solution space. Thus they are very effective in solving search and optimization problems. They deal with a population and samples drawn from that particular population. Each unit of the population under

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consideration is termed as an individual.

The work of Genetic Algorithm is to deal with the population of individuals, where every individual can represent a possible solution to a given problem. Every individual is assigned a number, known as fitness score. This score is given based on the goodness of the solution as per the problem. Thus the population has two major parts now, namely, the population of highly fit individuals and that of least fit individuals.

Highly fit individuals reproduce by cross breeding with other individuals in the population. This generates an offspring, which is a new individual. The offspring shares some features taken from each parent. The least fit members of the population are selected for reproduction and so they die-out. Best individuals, that is, the ones with the highest fitness scores, are selected and they mate to produce a new set of individuals.

Thus the high proportion of qualities and good characteristics possessed by the good members of the previous generation comes in the new generation. Thus over many generations, good characteristics are spread throughout the population. Mating of the individuals having high fitness scores explores the most promising area of search space. The population converges to an optimal solution for the problem in case the genetic algorithm is designed well.

Solving a problem by Genetic Algorithm involves encoding any potential solution to the problem. This could be a string of real numbers or, as in most of the cases, a binary bit string. This binary bit string is known as chromosome. A typical chromosome may look like: 1100010101001111000011000 Consider the following binary string: 1101001100101101. The string would represent a possible solution to some parameter

Steps for finding an optimal solution Initial Step Create a large population of random chromosomes, such that, each one when decoded represents a different solution to the problem at hand. Let us assume that the initial population has N chromosomes. Repeat the following steps till an optimal solution is found.

Step 1: Test each chromosome to check its effectiveness in solving the problem in hand and subsequently assign it a fitness score depending upon the effectiveness.

optimization problem. New sample points in the space are generated by recombining two parent strings. Consider this string 1101001100101101 and another binary string, yxyyxyxxyyyxyxxy, in which the values 0 and 1 are denoted by ‘x’ and ‘y’. Using a single randomly-chosen recombination point, 1-point crossover occurs as follows: 11010 \/ 01100101101 yxyyx /\ yxxyyyxyxxy Swapping the fragments between the two parents produces the following offspring: 11010yxxyyyxyxxy and yxyyx01100101101 After recombination, we can apply a mutation operator. For each bit in the population, mutate with some low probability pm.

Typically the mutation rate is applied with 0.1%-1% probability. After the process of selection, recombination and

Step 2: At random, select any two members from the current population depending upon their fitness scores.

Step 3: Choose a random point from each chosen chromosome. Carry out single point crossover from the random point of the chosen chromosome.

Step 4: Flip the chromosome bits depending on the mutation rates.

Step 5: Repeat Steps 2, 3, 4 till a new population of N members has been created.

mutation is complete, the next population can be evaluated.

The process of valuation, selection, recombination and mutation forms one generation in the execution of a genetic algorithm.

Thus this technique can be very useful in computer optimization. It extracts a sample from the main population based on fitness scores, carries out crossover and mutation on the selected chromosomes of the sample to retain the good characteristics and eliminate the bad ones.

Thus we get a population in which good qualities are dominant. Repeating the process further can enhance the qualities of the chromosomes in the sample.

These chromosomes in turn are nothing but probable solutions.

So the suitability of the solution is improved. Thereby optimizing the solution.

Geographic Information System V Govindankutty Programme Director and Coordinator, UNIGIS Programme

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lmost everything that happens, happens somewhere in the geographical space. Largely, activities of human are confined to the surface and near surface of the earth.

We travel over it and in lower levels of the atmosphere, and through tunnels dug just below the surface. We dig ditches and bury pipelines and cables, construct mines to get at mineral deposits, and drill wells to access oil and gas. Keeping track of all this activity is important, and knowing where it occurs can be the most convenient basis of tracking. Knowing where something happens is of critical importance if we want to go there ourselves or send someone there, to find about the information about the same place or inform people who live nearby. In addition, most of (perhaps all) decisions have geographic consequences. Therefore geographic location is an important attribute of activities, policies strategies, and plans.

Geographic Information Systems are special class of information systems that keep track not only of events, activities and things but also of where these happen or exist.

Geographic Information System helps in collecting, storing, managing and analyzing the spatial information.

Today Geographic Information System is used to find solutions to all geographic problems; Health care managers solve use GIS to locate new clinic and hospital and identify origin and spread of diseases or for identifying shorter routes to reach hospitals during emergency.

Delivery companies solve use GIS decide the routes and schedules of their vehicles often on daily basis.

Transportation authorities use GIS to select new routes for building new highways, railways etc.

Governments at all levels use GIS to provide better services to its citizens.

Defense authorities use it for planning movement of troops and logistics.

Urban planners use it developing city plans

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tbi news Catalyz bags ISBA 2010 National Award

Catalyz Scientific Technologies incubated at Technopark TBI Trivandrum won national award for the best start up company in Biotech/Pharma sector for the year 2009.

Dr. Biju Jacob,Founder and CEO of Catalyz along with Mr. Mervin Alexander, CEO Techoparkand Chairman, T-TBI and Mr.KCC Nair, CFO-Technopark & Secretary & Registrar, T-TBI received the award from Hon’ble Union Minister for Science and Technology, Sri Pritviraj Chavan at 4th ISBA International Conference on Business Incubation held in Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

Dr. T. Ramasami, Secretary, DST, Dr Samir Bramhachari, Secretary DSIR & Director General CSIR, RMP Jawahar, president ISBA, Rajendra Jagdale, Secretary general- ISBA, Arindam Dutta, Vice President - ISBA, and Prof Arun Nigavekar, former chairman, UGC, were also present on the occassion. On receiving the ISBA 2010 award Mr.Mervin alexander, Chairman-, T-TBI said that the efforts of the Technopark administration and government support along with the performance of our incubatees in the global arena have made Technopark Technology Business Incubation (T-TBI) Centre as one of the most prestigious incubation centres of the country. K.C. Chandrashekaran Nair,

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Secretary & Registrar of Technopark TBI says “This is the first time a biotechnology company incubated at Technopark Trivandrum received national award for innovation and entrepreneurship, adding one more feather to TBIs cap”. Catalyz is developing effective yet affordable diagnostic systems for infectious and chronic diseases. Catalyz Chief Dr. Biju Jacob claims that their test needs no technical knowledge or any device to interpret the result, hence making it easy for a layman in confirming or ruling out certain diseases.

Catalyz has been instrumental in launching first Stem Cell Therapy initiative across Kerala State last year. The team has been successful in establishing a pan India network of Stem Cell Therapy units.

CERTES launches new product

CERTES, the virtual incubatee of T-TBI, launched their fourth product ASIS- a novel entrance training software. ASIS is the acronym for Automatic Surveying Invigilation Scheme which act as a website that works offline from the CD. The first Product has been delivered to Mr.Rajesh. P., Manager cum representative of SYSMANTECH and HCL Systems by Mr. Sujith Kumar M.K.,project manager for software solutions in CERTES. SYSMANTECH also received the dealership rights for ASIS. CERTES CEO Bobin Paul, MD Mr. Abhilash Jhonny, CFO Mr.Arun S Praveen, CTO Mr. Vishnu V Nath and CMO Mr. Nithin Gopal were also present in the function. Certes is a student company that came out of Matha College, North Paravur and is presently working as virtual incubatee of Technopark TBI.

Akros signs in as T-TBI incubatee

Akros TechLabs Pvt Ltd signed agreement as incubatee of Technopark TBI on January 30, 2010. Sid Prasanna is the CEO of Akros LLC. Mr. Sunil Belani will

be MD of the Indian entity and Mr Chander Pratap will be the Chief Technical Officer.

Akros will operate out of Nila building inside Technopark.

Akros is a technology solutions company, focused on developing and marketing cutting- edge solutions for the global mobile technologies industry. They have recently signed an agreement with Religare Technova IT Services Ltd as a Value Added Reseller of Akros’ “CNBSignln Two Factor Authentication product in the Indian, US, European, Middle East and

4th ISBA Conference held

Incubation is the best vehicle for innovation and it can play a significant role in achieving inclusive growth. There is much greater potential left to be harnessed to bring technologies to market and convert our young technopreneurs to become job creators instead of job seekers.

This was stated by Sri Prithviraj Chavan, Hon’ble Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences while inaugurating the three day Conference of 4th ISBA (Indian Science and Technology

Entrepreneurs’ Parks and Business Incubators Association).Sri Chavan gave national award to VIT Vellore for outstanding TBI 2008 (Technology Business Incubators) and ISBA 2010 Awards to nine outstanding incubatee Companies under different categories. ISBA 2010 was held from February 8-10, 2010 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. From Technopark Mr. Mervin Alexander, CEO and Mr.KC. Chandrasekharan Nair, CFO & Programme Co-ordinatorNew Initiatives, attended the 3

Asia Pacific markets. Akros is founded by a group of enterprising professionals, with a global network of contacts, to develop and market cutting edge mobile technology solutions.

The Akros founders, Surender Bhagia, Chairman, based in Washington, D.C, Sid Prasanna, Managing Director an MBA from Lamar University, Texas and Sunil Belani, VP Marketing, a Chartered Accountant based in Indore and CP Singh , Chief Programmer collectively, have over 75 years of experience in various business functional areas.

day conference. Mr. KCC Nair delivered a session on “Incubating Innovative CleanTech Start ups for sustained growth” and also chaired some sessions.

The ISBA Research at Work exhibition offered a unique opportunity to the people to witness some of the novel technologies/products in areas ranging from crime detection, hazard mitigation, herbal pesticides, value added products from forest wastes,bio-diagnostics etc. From Technopark MobME participated in the exhibition.

During the Conference/exhibition around 200 national and international delegates besides a large number ofvisitors from academia organizations, investors etc participated in the exhibition.

Dr. T. Ramasami, Secretary, DST and Dr. S.K. Brahmachari, Secretary, DSIR also addressed the participants. Shri R.M.P. Jawahar, President, ISBA, Dr. Rajendra Jagdale, Secretary General, ISBA and Prof. Arun Nigavekar, Mentor Academia-R&D Workshop, ISBA were also present.

TF March 2010 61

hot jobs Dutch Asia Motor Works(AMW)

Recruitment of Graduate Engineer/ Diploma Engineer Trainees Name of post Graduate Engineer Trainees Qualification Passed in 2008 and 2009 in Mechanical/ Automobile Engineering. 60% aggregate marks scored Stipend

Jr. Supervisor Trainee (HR) 01 post Age : 27 years Stipend : Rs.16500/- after completion regularized in pay scale Rs.7300-12660/Jr. Technician Trainee (Electrical) 38 posts Age : 27 years Stipend : Rs.11000/- after completion regularized in pay scale Rs.5000-9590/-

1st Yr - Rs 2.4 Lakhs CTC p.a 2nd Yr - Rs 3.2 Lakhs CTC p.a 3rd Yr - Rs 4 Lakhs CTC p.a Name of post

Junior Accountant 01 post

Diploma Engineer Trainees Qualification

Application fee:

Passed in 2008 and 2009 in Mechanical/ Automobile/ Mechatronics Diploma Engineering. 60% aggregate marks scored Stipend 1st Yr-Rs 1.2 Lakhs CTC p.a 2nd Yr-Rs 1.5 Lakhs CTC p.a Interview Schedule: Walk-in-interview on 18th February to 14th March 2010 http://amwasia.com/pdf/Final%20%20 Interview%20 Click Here For Details http://amwasia.com/interview.html

Power grid corporation of india ltd.

(A Government of India Enterprise) POWER GRID requires dynamic & talented Trainees for its Western Regional Transmission System -II, Vadodara for following posts:

Age : 36 years. Relaxation as per rules Pay Scale : Rs. 7300-12660/Rs. 100/- in case of Jr. Supervisor Trainee (HR), Diploma Trainee (Civil), Diploma Trainee (Electrical) and Rs.50/- in case of Jr. Technician Trainee (Electrical) in the form of Crossed Bank Draft from any Nationalized Banks on favouring “POWER GRID CORPORATION OF INDIA LTD.” and payable at Vadodara.

How to apply: Application in prescribed format should be send by ordinary post to : Post Box No. 9248, Krishna Nagar Head Post Office, Delhi - 110051 Last date of receipt of application is 12/03/2010

Tamilnadu PSC Recruitment of Assistant Geologist and Junior Chemist Name of post: Assistant Geologist in Geology & Mining Department No of post: 4

Diploma Trainee

Qualification: M.Sc (Geology). Note: Other things being equal, preferencewill be given to candidates who possess practical experience in field work.

(Electrical) 08 posts Age : 27 years

Name of post: Junior Chemist in

Industries and Commerce Department

Stipend : Rs.16500/- after completion regularized in pay scale Rs.7300-12660/-

No of post: 3

Diploma Trainee (Civil) 10 posts Age : 27 years Stipend : Rs.16500/- after completion regularized in pay scale Rs.7300-12660/-

62 TF March 2010

Qualification: M.Sc in any Branch of Chemistry/ Associateship Diploma of the Institution of Chemists (India) obtained by examination.Note: Other things being equal, preference will be given to a candidate who possess Post Graduate Degree in Analytical

Chemistry or to a candidate who possesses practicalexperience for a period of not less than one year in any recognized Research or Analytical or Metallurgical Laboratory Note: Examination will be held at Chennai only (Centre Code

Jobs@Technopark InApp We have an urgent requirement for a Quality Executive. The candidate should have minimum • 2 years of experience.

• Should be strong in the Concept of Quality Methodologies • Exposure to Quality Models CMMI / ISO • Experience in conducting Process Audits, Defect Analysis • Experience in preparing MIS reports • Good in documentation Mail across your resume to sophy@inapp.com

Proxy Systems Pvt Limited Please find below the details of our current openings. Kindly refer if you have any suitable candidates at the earliest.

Software Engineers: 2 nos Experience: 3 years Candidate Profile: • BE / BTech/ MCA (Computer Science/ Electronics / Information Technology).

• An aggregate of 60% in graduation • Candidate must have a minimum of 60% aggregate in 10th and 12th.

• Sound knowledge in JAVA and J2EE Technologies • Sound knowledge of Object Oriented Programming concepts • Strong knowledge in Database preferably SQL Server • Should be capable of handling projects

No.001) Age Limit: 18-30 Yrs as on 01.07.10 Pay Scale: Rs.9300-34800 Selection procedure: Selection will be made in two successive stages (i) Written Examination Independently on all phases of software life cycle • Excellent communication, analytical and problem solving skills • Should be capable of migrating to any new technology according to the requirements.

Mail across your resume to menon@proxysystemsindia.com

Saihati Engg. Services (India) Pvt. Ltd Content Writer Qualifications : Post graduate/ MBA , Excellent communication Skill in English andMalayalam (Verbal & Writing), sufficient computer knowledge.

Experience : Minimum 3years Salary : Negotiable Please forward the CVs to segitvm@segi.com.sa

Artin dynamics

We have an urgent requirement for a PR Executive cum content writer with excellent communication , writing and presentation skills with good knowledge of MS Office and internet • Excellent communication skill • Extreme Good knowledge of Internet and MS Office • Presentation skills • Base Marketing Skills Send across you resume to hr@artindynamics.com

and (ii) Oral Test in the shape of an interview.

Examination Fee: Rs.100 only.

Examination fee should be paid only through any one of the Post offices listed in Annexure – III to the Brochure

• Lead Staffing Function Globally • manage process and process improvements • source, screen, and interview candidates primarily for India site • manage recruiting software for company as system admin, as well as process improvements, maintaining consistency, and training HR and management staff as needed • develop and sell company brand in conjunction with HR Director and Marketing Communications • maintain country compliance in each primary location (U.K., India, United States) • maintain standard staffing metrics for company • partner with existing HR team in India and U.S. for stakeholder analysis and buy in Education and Experience • 8+ Years in technology company • Masters in Human Resources Management • Ability to work with and influence executive staff • Previous experience leading staffing for a global company with U.S. compliance requirements • Some familiarity with compensation and contract requirements globally Send across your resume to blessy.martin@satmetrix.com

SatmetrixGlobal

For more jobs log on to

Staffing Manger Responsibility and Job

www.technofirstonline.com TF March 2010 63

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

This month is seen to be promising much joy at professional front. You would be able to show your presence on the work front and would be also able to get financial gain as per your active participation.

You will be highly benefited by being a livewire and making the fullest use of communications skills. For some the dream to take business to newer heights will bring positive results.

Lucky Color: Dark Gray. Lucky Number: 14

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

You are likely to have a very smooth sailing in professional life. To begin with, sudden development at workplace would inspire. Some of the natives may get elevation at their job front. Litigation if any will be decided in your favor. Success is strongly indicated on using professional expertise to solve stumbling blocks in your path.

Making the fullest use of aspirations and an open mindedness would work enjoyable. Lucky Color: Beige. Lucky Number: 3

Gemini (May 21-June 21)

Due to effects of Jupiter better earnings this month will resolve many of your problems. You should work earnestly and sincerely. Good news is in store for some of the natives. Those waiting to go abroad could widen their dreams. Inclination towards religious ceremonies likely, giving you spiritual contentment. Your ability to shoulder additional responsibilities and solve intricate problems brings professional success.Lucky Color: Aqua. Lucky Number: 2

Cancer (June 22-July 22)

During this month at work you are likely to undergo a test of an ability to handle pressurized situations on being entrusted with a special assignment. Good news is that your calculated professional moves would show positive results as the month progresses.

Increased income with rise in the bank balance will be the hallmark.

Remain cautious before going for big financial dealings during the second half of the month.

Lucky Color: Almond. Lucky Number: 10

Leo ( July 23-Aug. 22)

There are indications that new work assignments bring an important responsibility, giving an opportunity to prove your mettle. Financially, you will maintain comfortable position compared to the previous month.

The heartening news is that your incredible efforts would bring successful results. Interaction with important people also enables to gain a lot. Expect mid month to pave the way for success at work, this will certainly give a boost to career advancement.

Lucky Color: Cyan. Lucky Number: 4

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) our energy level will be on the higher side. You are not likely to face any problems, but there is a need to remain attentive to save personal interests. The good news is that your focused attention would remove all hiccups. Enjoying work to keep interest alive and at the same time keeping self-confidence high to handle the pressure would be highly beneficial. Opportunity for promotion or increment could also come.

Lucky Color: Green.Lucky Number: 6 64 TF March 2010

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) You may witness mixed results during the month.

Make sure your efforts are supplemented by positive thinking at workplace. Income from various sources will make you happy. There will be gain of wealth and your majority of expenditure will be on charitable purposes. On career front, some of the natives may be blessed with higher position. If you want to change a job it is the right time to take a decision.

Lucky Color: Navy Blue. Lucky Number: 7

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) The one aspect of life that would keep you happy this month is your professional life where you are not likely to face any major problems. You will be highly benefited on striving to acquire relevant skills and developing the ability to work independently.

Some of you would succeed in making the best use of creativity.

Success in your endeavors in your career front is indicated during this month.

Lucky Color: Orchid. Lucky Number: 5

Sagittarius(Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Do not let a shaky start disappoint you, because the month in general promises a result-oriented professional life. There are signs that a deep urge to explore new horizons will raise your career graph.

You will highly benefit on shouldering a variety of assignments spanning across various businesses. Success much depends on making groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s target your personal target. Travel towards far of place is also indicated.

Lucky Color: Silver. Lucky Number: 9 Capricorn

(Dec. 22-Jan. 19) This month would be lucky for you. Professional success especially at the beginning would heighten your spirits. There are indications that things are likely to move very smoothly throughout the month at work. In business some of you reach a settlement through compromise & bargaining thus paving the way for achieving targets. You might witness heavy competition within your organization than from outside, therefore remain alert at all times.Lucky Color: Steel Blue. Lucky Number: 6

Aquarius

( Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Professional life this month holds a mix bag of experiences. The first half in particular promises a good time when you are likely to fulfill many personal milestones. For some the dream to take business newer heights will bring positive results. However in later you could face some unexpected problems especially on finding it difficult to tolerate indiscipline & disorderliness around you. Taking calculated risks and keeping self-confidence high would be beneficial.

Lucky Color: White. Lucky Number: 4

Pisces

(Feb. 19-March 20) You may not make a great start but most things are likely to go as per plan at professional front.

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be nervous, slowly most of the thing will give you advantage on your work front. Direct and straightforward approach will be better for you. Success would pave the way for career enhancement as well as in your financial position. During travel to a foreign land new contacts would be made.

Lucky Color: Sea Green. Lucky Number: 8

T

his time around I am an Entrepreneur Campaign, has been going around the length of the state and conducting its campaign in a lot of campuses across the state. The campaign at TOC H was an all together a success and not just because of our enthusiasm but because of the students participation with over 550 students participating. The steal of the show was Sanjay Vijayakumar’s powerful speech on his journey as an entrepreneur and also the lessons that he learnt. There after we went to M A College, Kothamangalam, where more than 500 students attended the campaign with great enthusiasm, the students were astonishingly willing to share their ideas and it seemed more like that the students were filled and flowing with the ideas. 5 campus ambassadors selected among the students.

Over all we received a great response from the students and faculty. The campaign at Illahiya College was an altogether different experience as the campaign was conducted in two sessions. This time around the enthusiasm showcased by the students was unmatched and the students were very interactive with all the questions under the sky shot across to us. And during this sessions 3 campus ambassadors selected among them and overall the day ended on a high note of excitement and accomplishment. We then made our way to UC college, here we were put across to a lesser number of students and most of them were from the MCA. There were about 150 students and these students were looking ahead to making their future so there was surely some expected question at the same time we also got some unexpected ones. But all in all the response from the students and faculty was appreciable and acknowledgeable. We move forward to another level of excitement as we bring more campuses into our entrepreneurial loop.

1. How did Puru Pratap Singh make news on Children’s Day? 2. To whom did Intel pay $1.25 billion recently in a longrunning antitrust settlement?

3. How many floating point operations per second to two teraflops?

4. Google made its third most expensive acquisition to date by buying a mobile display advertising company for $750 million. Name the company.

5. What geographical feature’s names does AMD use as codenames for its notebook platforms?

6. Ron Sege is the President and COO of the company that makes network switching and routing products and which was acquired by a cyber-giant for $2.7 billion recently. Name both the companies.

7. Microsoft recently banned as many as a million players from Xbox Live for altering their consoles in order to play pirated versions of a new game.

Name the game.

8. What is ‘Namoroka’?

Answers 1. His winning entry for the Doodle4Google India contest appeared for the whole day on Google’s India homepage.

2. AMD. 3. Two trillion.

4. AdMob. 5. Names of rivers (Congo, Yukon etc).

6. 3Com and HP. 7. ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’.

8. The development name for Mozilla Firefox 3.6.

France.

I am an Entrepreneur Campaign

Printed and published by Arun Balachandran, ErupulamKattil (H), Edakadathy P.O., Edakadathy, Owned by Shine Damodharan, Kollattu (H), Chiyyaram P.O., Thrissur. Printed at ST Raddiar Press, Cochin.

Published from Mediafirst Publications, Cochin-21 and the editor is Basil P Varghese, Pokkanathil (H), Pothanikkadu P.O., Ernakulam District, Kerala.

66 TF March 2010

ABROAD

Postal Reg. No. KL/TV(N)/587/2008-10 TechnoFIRST March 2010 RNI Reg. No. KERENG/2004/22131 Licensed to post without prepayment : kl/tv(n/wtt/587/2008-10) Posted from RMS TVM