Health Sector Facing Severe Shortage Of Personnel The status of medical services for children is becoming a matter of concern in Assam even as the State Government seeks to expand its healthcare infrastructure. A severe shortage of human resource has undermined the Health Department's attempts at improvement, and doctors and nurses are under stress as workload increases manifold. Those acquainted with the prevailing situation fear that the challenges of providing healthcare services will only increase as new medical colleges and hospitals come up without the required number of doctors and nurses with specialised background in child care. In Guwahati Medical College Hospital, the paediatrics department needs more doctors and nurses as it is seeing an increasing footfall in patients who are in need of both outdoor and indoor facilities. For reasons best known to the authorities, the department at present is functioning with only one Professor.
Source : 27-03-11 Assam Tribune Compiled by Amresh Anjan
Protesting Workers At GM's Halol Unit Get International 'Moral' Support The employees' strike at General Motors' (GM) Halol plant has got international support. The Indian National Trade Union Congress (Intuc) claimed that the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) has extended moral support to the Gujarat Kamdar Mandal-backed workers' strike at the factory. Intuc Gujarat president Mr. Nihil Mehta said, "IMF has extended their moral support to the workers' strike at the Halol plant. They operate unions in GM plants across the world. GM India's top man Karl Slym is on his way from the UK and will reach Halol tomorrow. "Intuc has received a mail from IMF South Asian office expressing solidarity with the strike.The IMF letter says, "We appreciate your valiant efforts to uphold workers' rights. IMF extends its solidarity and support to struggling General Motors workers. IMF will also inform about this struggle to its international affiliates." Geneva-headquartered IMF represents the collective interests of 25 million metalworkers from more than 200 unions in 100 countries.
Source : 24-03-11 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan
Kerala Based IT Professionals Have Been Asked To Return To Japan Employees of Kerala-based IT companies contracted to work in Japan have been asked to return to work. These employees had left the country in the wake of a devastating earthquake and tsunami and fears of a radiation leak from a crippled nuclear power plant.Nearly half a dozen Kerala-based IT companies have their working operations in Japan. There has been no official communication to the 100-odd employees, either from the companies here or in Japan, who have returned. This has, however, been communicated to them unofficially.
Source : 27-03-11 SIfy.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan
ICAI Wants Entry-Level Salary For CA professionals to be raised Companies which wish to recruit fresh Chartered Accountants (CA's) will now have to shell out more as the Institite of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has decided to advocate a 50 per cent hike in floor salary package for new accountants. This means, minimum pay for freshly minted accountants will work out at Rs 75,000 per month. Last year the floor was Rs 50,000 per month. "New CAs get solid grounding while doing their article ship and are good at managing a business environment. The compensation should reflect the talent they possess," said G Ramaswamy, President, ICAI.Of a total student strength of 5,300, the institute has placed 1,800 students so far. The highest salary at the institute has been offered to three students with an annual package of Rs 67.5 lakh offered by Olam International in Singapore. Last year the highest salary package offered at smaller centres was Rs 7.4 lakh which has gone up to Rs 9.05 lakh this year.
Source : 28-03-11 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan
EXL Says 8-9% Salary Hike For India-Based Staff Good times seem to be rolling for BPO employees. Offshore BPO firm EXL Service Holdings is looking at an average salary hike of 8-9 per cent per cent for its India-based employees this year. For non-India employees, the salary increments will range from 2-3 per cent in case of its US staff and 7-8 per cent for the Philippines. "We are in the process of finalizing the salary increments for 2011. The hike will probably be about 8-9 per cent, which is slightly more than the usual average. Since the inflation in India is higher this year, there is a bit of catching up to do," Mr Rohit Kapoor, President and CEO of the company said. As on December 31, 2010, EXL's global headcount stood at 12,700 employees. The wage hikes will be handed out next month.
Source : 27-03-11 Hindu Business Line Compiled by Amresh Anjan
Wipro's CEO Is Among The Highest Paid CEO's In The Indian IT Services With an annual remuneration limit of Rs 10 crore, Mr. T K Kurien, the recently-appointed Chief Executive Officer of Wipro's information technology business, has become the highest paid executive (excluding stock options) in the Indian IT services segment. With a target to get the IT business back on growth, Mr. Kurien will get a salary in the range of Rs 3 crore to Rs 10 crore per annum. According to the statement by the company on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Mr. Kurien has been appointed the CEO for five years. His salary will include periodic increments as may be approved by the board within the above limits and will also include variable pay (based on performance criterion) among other benefits
Source : 22-03-11 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan
Nasscom In Tax Relief Plea The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has requested the government for relief to small and medium IT units under the proposed direct tax code (DTC) to offset the impact of the termination of the STPI (Software Technology Park of India) scheme. Nasscom president Som Mittal said a memorandum had been submitted to the government seeking fresh incentives based on the location, innovation or employee potential of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in tier 2 and tier 3 cities."With the end of the STPI benefit from March, we expect the government to offer tax exemptions to support SMEs because they are the ones who are driving innovation in the industry. The interim offer of investment-based incentives is not very useful as the IT industry works on human capital and, hence, incentives should be focused on relief for human resources,' Mr.' Mittal said. He said the country faced a negative trade balance, which could be improved by infotech. "India needs to focus on IT exports to offset the trade balance and technology offers high value-added exports." The $76-billion IT/BPO industry was disappointed over the government's reluctance to continue the STPI scheme. Besides, the Centre has brought SEZs under minimum alternative tax (MAT) in the budget, which will hit IT units. Nasscom expects the industry to grow 16-18 per cent in 2011-12 and offer up to 2.4 lakh jobs. An average salary hike of 10-12 per cent across the board is also likely in this year.
Source : 25-03-11 The Telegraph Compiled by Amresh Anjan
Disney Shareholders Re-Elect Steve Jobs On Board Shareholders of The Walt Disney Co re-elected its entire board including Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs, despite concerns over his health and his poor attendance at company board meetings. Proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis & Co had recommended voting against Mr. Jobs' re-election because he failed to attend 75% of the board meetings in fiscal 2010.Steve Jobs became Disney's largest shareholder after it purchased Pixar Animation Studios in 2006 for $7.4 billion in stock.
Source : 27-03-11 Hindustan Times Compiled by Amresh Anjan
Indian IT Industry Must Look For New Highs India's Information Technology industry is set to close the current financial year with $75 billion in revenues — of which as much as $60 billion will be in exports, according to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom). What's more, the association expects 16 to 18% growth in the new fiscal year. The number of jobs added by the IT and IT-enabled services industries in the current year is estimated at 2,40,000 and a similar number is expected in the new fiscal year as well.
Source : 27-03-11 Hindustan Times Compiled by Amresh Anjan
Child's Education Expenditure Has Gone Up by 168% In 6 Yrs: Assocham Parents' annual spending on a child's education has risen by over 168% to Rs 94,000 between 2005 and 2011, a study by Assocham said. In 2005, the education expenditure was about Rs 35,000 a year. The expenses have increased due to hike in tuition fees, books, uniform, transportation, tuitions and extra-curricular activities.The chamber surveyed about 2,000 parents, with a minimum salary of Rs 7 lakh annually, in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. The rising cost of education has become a major cause of worry for parents with a majority of them spending more than 18-20 lakh on average on a child's schooling, the study said. The cost of education is increasing every year, parallel to the inflation, it added. The general inflation in February was 8.31%.The parents' annual income, on an average, has risen up to 32% in the past six years, the study said. It also said that majority of parents believe it is difficult for a single parent to fund a child's education.
Source : 27-03-11 Hindustan Times Compiled by Amresh Anjan
College Fees To Go Up By 10% After Every 3 Years The cost of higher education is going to be steep soon. A 10% fee hike every three years in on cards as the vice-chancellors (V-Cs) of the central and state universities have recommended this as a measure to meet the financial requirements of the universities. Discussing the models of financing higher education at a national level conference organized by University Grants Commission (UGC) and Human Resource Development Ministry (HRD), over 200 V-Cs agreed that the central and state universities may be statutorily required to adopt revision of fee structure payable by the students by at least 10% for every three year period. The recommendations are yet to be approved by the HRD ministry in case of central universities, while for state universities, the state governments will have a final say. A similar recommendation for a steep fee hike for Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) students was shot down by HRD minister Kapil Sibal recently. On education reforms, the VCs recommended a semester system to be implemented across all universities with a credits-based system. To attract good quality of faculty, it was suggested incentive structures to be introduced to attract and retain quality faculty, particularly in state universities and institutions in remote rural areas. To prevent brain drain, Indian universities could also be encouraged to engage with foreign universities for tie-ups between departments, for faculty exchanges, student exchanges and so on.
Source : 28-03-11 DNA Compiled by Amresh Anjan
NTPC CMD Gets Re-Elected As Scope Chairman Arup Roy Choudhury, CMD of NTPC has been reelected as the chairman of SCOPE the apex body of public enterprises. He will be the chairman of SCOPE for the period between 2011 and 2013. Mr. Arup Roy Choudhury has had a career spanning over 32 years of contribution in the field of engineering, strategic management and business leadership.
Source : 28-03-11 Financial Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan
Industry Upbeat Despite Inflation: Says CII Ascon Survey Over one-third of the 121 manufacturing sectors tracked by a CII-Ascon survey projected a growth of above 20 per cent for fiscal 2010-11 despite the rise in interest cost and inflation. The reason for the decline in the number of sectors showing "high growth" between 10 per cent and 20 per cent to 26 per cent this fiscal from 30 per cent in 2009-10 was stated to be their shifting to the "excellent category", the survey said.
Source : 27-03-11 The Telegraph Compiled by Amresh Anjan
Rajat Gupta Quits From ISB's Chairmanship Mr Rajat Gupta, Chairman, Executive Board of Indian School of Business (ISB), has requested the board to relieve him of his responsibilities. "Mr Gupta has requested the ISB Executive Board to relieve him of his board responsibilities till his pending matter with the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is resolved,'' the Hyderabad-based premier business school said . The request of Mr Gupta and the appointment of the new Chairman would be tabled at the upcoming Board meeting on April 2, 2011. Mr Gupta had a long-association with ISB as he has been Chairing the board of ISB since its inception about 10 years ago. He was said to have "bailed out" ISB when it faced a tough time in finding placements to its entire batch of students during the economic downturn.
Source : 21-03-11 Hindu Business Line Compiled by Amresh Anjan
Soaring inflation forces IIM-A to increase fees by 5% Persistently high inflation has forced the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), to increase fees for its various courses by a little more than 5%, the third hike by the premier business school in the past three years. With this, the fee for the institute's flagship programme, the post- graduate programme in management (PGP), is Rs 14.45 lakh for the batch 2011-13.The PGP fee stood at Rs 13.7 lakh for the academic term 2010-2012. It was Rs 11.5 lakh in 2008-10 and was raised to Rs 12.5 lakh in 2009-11Another important course the institute offers is a one-year programme in management for executives (PGPX), which will now cost Rs 20.31 lakh. It has been increased by about Rs 1 lakh."We had to hike the fees to meet the increasing cost caused by high inflation. However, this rise is still roughly half the inflation rate," IIM-A director Samir Barua said.The business school does not receive government funding to run its programmes because such financing is limited to developing infrastructure for accommodating students under the other backward classes quota.
Source : 27-03-11 Hindustan Times Compiled by Amresh Anjan
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