"Surat had 2,500 to 3,000 diamond-cutting and polishing units operational before Diwali. However, only 1,000 units were able to start operations after the vacation," said CP Vanani, president, Surat Diamond Association. Confirming that 500 units had re-opened this month, he said 1,500 units were now back in business.
As part of its focus on developing startups across the world, Goldman Sachs is looking at training and development of around 29 select women entrepreneurs in India.
Asked if it is looking at the Maruti 800 and the Chevrolet Spark segment, Nigel E Wark, executive director, marketing, sales and service, Ford India, said: "Yes, we will be launching the small car in this segment broadly, but there are sub-segments and this is where we will differentiate ourselves. We will be competing in the largest volume segment. India and China are the two markets where small cars are in huge demand and we will be focusing on these countries."
RIL is aiming to revive its 350-odd outlets in Gujarat and Maharashtra by the end of April, followed by the rest of the country. The company may sell only these two products for some time. The company had closed all its 1,400-odd retail outlets through the country last year, after sales dropped drastically due to its inability to match the subsidised prices offered by state sector oil marketing companies.
In a bid to increase efficiency, telecom major Vodafone Essar is set to relocate over 1,500 of its employees to Ahmedabad from all over the country.
Mumbai-based SP Jain Institute of Management and Research has announced that it will provide initial financial assistance to the tune of Rs 20 lakhs (Rs 2 million)to any of its students who wishes to don the entrepreneurial hat. The business school has set up an entrepreneurship cell in association with National Entrepreneurship Network.
Firms like Abbot, Piramal and Bayer India have made their presence felt at KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. Increasingly, pharma companies are finding it easier to recruit people from B-schools for jobs in marketing, human resources and finance.
Analyses cricketers' valuation based on their attributes.
Going by the adage 'necessity is the mother of invention', business process outsourcing knowledge process outsourcing units in Gujarat keep finding unique ways to cut cost amidst economic slowdown.
Having already witnessed a job cut of around seven lakhs so far in the year, the textile industry may see a further reduction in manpower by five lakhs, given in a decline in business by 1.5 per cent.
Consolidating on its 500-year-old legacy of providing quality education, The Society of Jesus (SJ) (popularly known as Jesuits) has applied for a Central University status with the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).
Case study suggests strategy to offer 'maximum bang for the minimum buck'.
Wary of the times ahead in the job market, business schools are working on a risk-minimisation strategy and looking at doubling the pool of companies on the campus for the summer placements scheduled in November this year.
"Funds received from alumni and companies are usually meant for specific projects. These funds pour in between October and December every year. Current projects will not be affected despite the economic slowdown, but new projects might take a hit," said T K Ghosal, deputy registrar (finance), the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur.
Hollywood is all set to use Indian technology for the first time. An erstwhile incubatee at the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship, at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, has been approached by prominent Hollywood production houses for his patented technology, which finds its application in the current film technology and also for Digital Intermediate Technology of the future.
The institutes have now begun sensitising students about business ethics and morality as well. Be it inviting eminent personalities like the Dalai Lama to speak on business ethics or incorporating ethics as a compulsory course, IIMs are making efforts to produce socially-sensitive managers.
The BCG project, which is supported by the United Nations' World Food Programme, the government of India and the government of Orissa, involves scanning finger prints and the iris for preparing biometric cards for a population of around 1 million. Srijan Pal Singh, an IIM-A student, who is part of the project, says the biometric cards will be filtered through a super computer to avoid duplications.
This will enable the firm, a wholly-owned subsidiary called CIIE Initiatives, to buy stakes in the companies that it incubates by investing its time and resources.
The Certificate Programme in Business Administration offered by the Institutes of Management has not found favour with information technology companies.
While some have announced setting up of a PE club for aspiring entrepreneurs, others plan courses, special lectures and seminars to create awareness about the booming sector. Students of the Post Graduate Programme for Executives at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, will go through a course on PE in their last term between December and February.