MarketHero.in is one of the first financial market gaming portals. A free-to-use financial and stock-broking game, built on Web 2.0 standards, it has recorded close to 500 registered users in one month. The participants can manage a virtual gaming portfolio of Rs 1 million and trade equity stocks, mutual funds and commodities, which are backed by real prices from the exchanges. It will be extended to multiple platforms such as mobile and other networks -- Facebook and Orkut.
Global information technology player, IBM, has selected 100 employees across 33 countries, including 20 from India, for specific projects under its Corporate Service Corps initiative, launched as part of its corporate social responsibility drive. These 100 employees are being sent to emerging and developing countries to address core challenges confronting society in fields like education and environment.
Reliance HR Services (RHRS), a human resources company formed by the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), will recruit half a million people for the group in the next four years.
While most companies send their employees for executive education programmes at various IIMs and IITs, freshers' recruitment is mostly based on conventional degrees since the belief is that distance learning does not enjoy the same value as regular classroom programmes. Why is it so?
The Mondols were taken in by the 'Kajla Janakalyan Samiti', formed seven years ago in Contai Deshapran block in east Medinipur district, an NGO supported by various other organisations and individuals, which works with displaced and trafficked families and trains them in ways to earn alternate livelihood.
According to Ajit Balakrishnan, chairman of the board of governors of IIM-C, "Most students who study in IIM-C come from families whose annual income is Rs 5 lakh. We are a public higher education institute funded by taxpayers' money. Hiking our fees just because IIM-Ahmedabad or IIM-Bangalore has hiked theirs will make IIM-C an opportunist."
In what could be termed as a major innovation in the field of male contraception, the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) has invented a unique male contraceptive that can have a continued effect for 10 years. A single 60 mg injection can be effective for at least 10 years. A single dose, which may cost the manufacturer Rs 50, is expected to be marketed at close to Rs 200.
The Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) and Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM), for instance, recently introduced an initiative -- the Deferred Placement Programme (DPP) -- to provide a safety net to students willing to take up the challenges of entrepreneurship. Under this programme, students interested in starting entrepreneurial ventures will be allowed to push back their participation in campus placements for a maximum period of two years.
E-kiosks for services like bill payment and job queries are mushrooming all over rural India. Many youths in rural India have taken up CSC projects to start their own businesses and are earning a decent income out of it. The work at CSC basically involves collecting and paying phone and electricity bills of the villagers. Additionally, they can provide add-on services like English course. Srei Infrastructure and Reliance Infocom will set up such centres in PPP in West Bengal.
The group is investing Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion) to expand its edible oil business thisyear by foraying into palm oil, soya oil and rice bran oil production. In its new FMCG products, the company will launch 18 new products in hair care, babycare and men's grooming segments. Initially, the company will sell its edible oil in bulk to industries that are into production of chips and biscuits. Brands will be launched later on, depending on the initial success.
The information technology sector in West Bengal is likely to see addition of 20,000 jobs in 2008. The state currently has about 300 small to big sized companies and employs 55,000.
The dissent against the Tata Motors Rs 1 lakh car project at Singur appears to be finally ebbing with the disputed land being reduced to 120 acres vis--vis the earlier level of 330 acres.
The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) is investing close to Rs 46 crore (Rs 460 million) in four new centres of excellence -- School of Entrepreneurship, School of Infrastructure Design and Management, Steel Technology Centre, and Centre of Excellence in Telecommunication Engineering.
It is no coincidence that most of the willing land sellers are non-tribals who own plots to the south-west of Torpa on the road leading to the town of Simdega, where the highway crosses the Koel and Karo rivers.
Torpa is looking for a second chance to migrate from a poor village to a modern urban cluster but tension is building between those who want development and those against it. For two decades, National Hydel Power Corporation (NHPC) proposed, and some local tribal groups opposed, the setting up of the Koel-Karo hydro-electric project there, and it was finally abandoned last year.
Webel's digital tool enables people with cerebral palsy to communicate.
India is likely to see the addition of at least 400 restaurants, fast food outlets and coffee joints in 2008. Food chains such as Yum Brands, McDonald's, Domino's and Caf Coffee Day have earmarked an estimated investment of over Rs 300-400 crore (Rs 3 to 4 billion) this year in expanding their retail presence across the country.
Reliance ADAG's Big Music and Home Entertainment is looking at garnering close to 40 per cent market share of home and music entertainment business in India.
According to Gibson G Vedamani, CEO of RAI, "We have urged Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to allow shops to stay open till at least 11.30 at night, if not overnight. In Mumbai and Delhi, a few retailers had approached the government individually and got permission to keep their shops open till late." At present, all retail outlets in West Bengal have to shut by 8.30 pm, making it difficult for people who work late hours to manage their shopping during the week.
Indian small and medium enterprises are expected to emerge as major buyers of the information technology products by 2008. According to Joydeep Datta Gupta, executive director of Deloitte & Touche Consulting, any IT-led SME business transformation project could succeed only if the project was sustained.
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