Bloggers D-days

Its all happy days for us now.

I (Ashok) have landed a job in Nomura (Powai, Mumbai). Also have an offer from Cognizant.

Keerthana has landed with multiple opportunities.

Offers from

1) Wells Fargo India Solutions

2) Infosys Technologies

And more than all, admits from

1) University of Southern California

2) Ohio State

3) UFL

With things settled and finishing our college days, we like to make things buzzing in this page...

How to greet Foreign Leader

I like to add a pic with title India:
Obama sitting in chair. India bowing to Obama.

Obama doesnt seem to be as good as Bush to India.

Take for example,

1) Protectionism in all sectors

2) Delay in N Deal after Bush govt.

3) Pouring money into Pak even as India warned US of potential use of such money to fund terrorism.

4) Tilt towards China as it has been US major trade partner and largest holder of US Treasury bonds...

Google's Solidarity

Ever heard of anyone jailed for Posting in a blog.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/11/23/china.blogger.prison/index.html
He was jailed for helping Earthquake Victims...

http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2010/02/chinese-factory-worker-jailed-for-joining-political-party/
He was jailed for joining a democratic party..

http://cpj.org/blog/2009/12/the-story-of-dhondup-wangchen-a-filmmaker-jailed-i.php
Filmmaker jailed...

And now to add to the worst if you support Google in your Blogs you will be jailed!!!

Google sends Chinese users to its Hong Kong site

In a relentless fight to give the users with uncensored content Google has shut all censors and it has directed all its China Mainland users to Hong Kong server where they will receive uncensored contents.

And who knows the Chineese govt. may soon block this also.

By taking such a brave step google could altogether be wiped of from the Worlds Largest Internet market. But it has shown solidarity and braveness to loose the market rather than to provide censored contents.

Cheers for Google...
And wish other US companies operating in China support Google. Microsoft please dont show your fight in this matter.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-approach-to-china-update.html

ITs the Road Traversed!

Agriculture being the major occupation of India, what brought in the revolutionary shift to IT field? The question is pretty old with a diverse set of answers. Here is my simple touch to the same, with very few or no industrial jargons used. Let me handle this with an excerpt from a speech delivered at PSG Tech by Venky, Project Director-Cognizant.

1) In 1991, Manmohan Singh, then India’s finance minister, began opening the Indian economy for foreign investment and introducing competition into the Indian telecom industry to bring down prices. He thus made it much easier for companies to set up satellite downlink stations in Bangalore, so they could skip over the Indian phone system and connect with their home bases in America, Europe or Asia. So by post-1991, companies having base or clients onsite, were relieved of the foremost communication problem as they could easily own a satellite downlink with no limitations by Govt Bureaucracy policies.

2) Since then, the borders were almost virtually open. Accidentally it was at this period that the millennium bug started bugging the Americans. Yes, the Y2K Crisis was alive then!! The tedious upgrading it demanded was not giving them a competitive advantage, and to be plain, they found that it extremely boring to modify two digits to four. So they decided to find someone else who would do it for them and infact do it for very little money possible. "America was ready to go on a blind date with India". This served as the biggest opportunity for India.

3) India fixed up the problem in a most impressive way. American began to think, " Hey! when those guys can do even monotonous jobs to this extent, why not we give them the real jobs?!"And again fortunately, it was at that period e-commerce emerged in different dimensions. Indians where now given the "order-taking work". If Y2K issue was a blind date for India , then this has taken the relationship to a higher step of falling-in-love. Americans were completely fascinated by the Indian work ethics and eventually the respect for the Indian IT industry began to multiply. Outsourcing between US and India exploded in a bigger way, rather would be no exaggeration to say that it has become inevitable today for smooth running of both sides. Its the chain of such events that has driven us to high profile jobs as in 'Consulting' domain.

Thus the route taken is:
Blind Date--->Order Taker--->Consulting---> ? ---> ? A lot more to come :) :) :)

‘‘The Indian IT industry got its footprint across the globe coz of Y2K Crisis. And, we never looked back after Y2K.’’

Blue days for IT employees!!!

With economy rebounding, attrition which was not at all a problem for employers last year has started to shoot high.

Wage inflation is back. Though this year it will be around 2-8% on average surely by next year it may touch double digits.

According to Nasscom, the Indian IT industry will hire around 90,000 staff this year, taking the total IT workforce to around 2.3 million. Last year, the industry added only around 20,000 professionals as companies stalled their hiring plans.

Economy Part II

Please read my previous post before you read this one...

Yes you guessed it right. Lollipop is the stimulus and the boy is the people. So the govt now needs to snatch the lollipop from the boy. Can we take the lollipop back.. let us take a look.

In US, the economist have forecast a slower growth when compared to Q4, 2009. In Q4 2009, US expanded by 5.9% but this time estimates are around 2.5%. This has already applied brakes on the removal of stimulus.

In Greece, because of the record high fiscal deficit of around 12.5% and debt of 20bn euros, the greek govt is reducing incentives and increasing taxes which is contrary to what is happening around the globe.

In Dubai, we all know about the crisis.

Lots of fund has been poured into the market worldwide. But many parts of the world are still not able to become independently sustaining. What I feel is if we remove the stimulus now, there surely will be some metal parts dashing in the economy vehicle becoz of the removal of stimulus.

Economy as far as we know

Well this question was asked to me in two company interviews - LaserWords, Nomura.

Let me present my answer here.

The past two years were dramatic with more lows. Lehman Brothers started the story, with many companies following.. Then we saw governments of all nations flooding the streets with paper money that really doesnt exist. Huge bailout plans were layed out. Many monetary and fiscal stimulus packages were thrown into the market.

Off course they had their own effect by cushioning the market movement. We reached the bottom of our fall, and we are making a 'U' or 'L' shaped curve. now its time to remove the cushion - the stimulus packages.

Y we need to remove the stimulus - stimulus is just a cushion provided for smooth run. Its like someone is giving you money when your in dire need. Govts across the world gave money to people to get the economy running. To put in simple words, in tough times people wont buy anything. There wont be any trade happening in country. Even if all the people have more money and if they dnt trade soon that nation will become poor. On the other hand though there is oly little money in people hand and if they trade enough there is possibility that all may soon become rich. But at tough times people will have the fear to spend. So the govt will step in giving more money to people so that they start spending and the economy starts to rotate normally. The same was done by all govts. The bank interest rates will be reduced. Easy funding will be made available, incentives will be given if you buy somethin all kindling you to spend more..

interest rates in US Europe were brought to near zero. incentives were given for people buying cars. All taxes were reduced.



In the course, govt lost their source of income. Their expenditure went way beyond their income - what is called as Fiscal Deficit. Indian fiscal defecit was about 6.5% of GDP. next year our fiscal deficit target is 5.5% of GDP. US fiscal deficit is at 12% of GDP.

now we have to arrest the fiscal deficites so that the govt may stop makin losses. So they have slowly started removing the stimulus packages. They have slowly started to remove the money that they gave to you. Now small recap, u were in diff condition someone gave you money now he wants money back. So with that money you should have come to a stage from where you can move independently. Yes, Govts are removing money from market, now we have to look at whether companies can stand on their own legs without the cushion of govt.

Are the companies capable of standing on their own legs now?

Let us discuss this in the next blog....