2011 Batch: TCS to increase workforce by Rahul on July 31, 2010

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Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest outsourcing company, plans to increase its workforce by a quarter to help drive expansion into fast-growing emerging markets.

India’s IT outsourcers, whose largest revenue stream comes from North America and Europe, have proved highly resilient in the economic downturn.

Now, as are many global businesses, they are looking for opportunities in high-growth regions, including Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. TCS is expanding its workforce by 40,000 to 200,000 people this year to service its fast-expanding global operations.

In the long term, emerging markets are expected to contribute “upwards of 20 per cent for TCS” in terms of overall revenues, compared with 7 per cent two years ago, said N. Chandrasekaran, the company’s chief executive.

The revenues TCS derives from emerging markets such as China, Latin America, Asia and eastern Europe have risen to about $1.2bn from $100m seven years ago.

However, Mr Chandrasekaran acknowledged that his group was struggling to crack opportunities in China, as it was in Japan, where it has been held back primarily by cultural barriers and high turnover of employees.

By contrast, the group has embarked on a more enthusiastic Latin American expansion in recent months.

He said: “We have close to 8,000 people in Latin America and our revenues are well over $300m. I think Latin America can easily be a $1bn market in the medium term.”

The company is expected to find it a big challenge to sustain its strong performance, where net profits rose 24 per cent in the latest quarter, analysts believe.

Rising pay is putting a strain on profit margins. TCS has said that it would spend $200m in the coming fiscal year on salary increases, and planned to give 10 per cent annual rises to Indian employees.
(Source: Financial Times)

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Chrome Frame: Turn IE 6/7/8 into Chrome by Rahul on July 30, 2010

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A project that started in September last year has been made stable enough so much so that it is now in the beta stage. What project Chrome Frame has done is, it renders everything on IE as it would appear on Chrome.

All a user needs to do is install this plugin (get it under the Chrome icon) on Internet Explorer 6/7/8 running on Windows 7/Vista or XP. “We think it’s really stable,” engineer Alex Russell said in noting the move to beta.

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Well, TCS is expected to grow better than industry average in FY 2011 by Rahul on July 29, 2010

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Updates  Browser Addon
Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) performance in the June 2010 quarter reaffirms the company’s ability to take advantage of the gradual recovery in the demand for IT services and solutions in the US and Asian markets. The country’s largest IT exporter delivered better than- expected results for the quarter backed by volume pick-up and better cost management.

The company is likely to benefit the most from the improving demand traction even in future given its strong presence across major global markets. Further, its growing influence in the domestic market for IT services adds to its strength.
(Source: Economic Times)

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Twitter to begin wrapping up links officially with t.co link shortener by Rahul on July 27, 2010

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With many changes that have been coming to Twitter, none were as big as this. Now all links that would be posted in Twitter would be shortened in the t.co/****** format. On one hand this would help cutting down on spam, and on the other, the links can be tracked, as the service will be able to accurately monitor the distribution of each link. Twitter analytics would also be no doubt be immensely benefitted by this new feature.

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Google stops experimenting with background image after hiccup! by Rahul on July 23, 2010

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With rival search engine Bing keeping on flashing stunning shows of photography in its homepage, Google tried to take a step forward towards that idea. But users reportedly went crazy on June 10^th, 2010 when they found their homepage clustered with crazy hippos. Hundreds of tweets went out.

After few hours Google returned back to their famous ever traditional neat and clean homepage, maybe realizing that it might not have been a good idea after all. Users that visit the Google homepage are now shown the normal design, along with a link that says “Curious about today’s homepage? Add your own background image now”.

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Google added a background image to its homepage by Rahul on July 20, 2010

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Google may be taking note of the photogenic interface of the Bing homepage which led it to add a background image last month. The traditional neat look of the homepage faced a sharp contrast with the flashy background image behind the Google search box. Bu the question is that will Google users accept this change whole-heartedly.

Google’s Marissa Mayer writes in a blog post :

To provide you with an extra bit of inspiration, we‘ve collaborated with several well-known artists, sculptors and photographers to create a gallery of background images you can use to personalize your Google homepage. Included in the collection are photographs of the works of Dale Chihuly, Jeff Koons, Tom Otterness, Polly Apfelbaum, Kengo Kuma (隈研吾), Kwon, Ki-soo (권기수) and Tord Boontje, as well as some incredible photos from Yann Arthus-Bertrand and National Geographic. We’ll be featuring these images as backgrounds on the Google homepage over the next 24 hours.

Of course, since we want your Google homepage to be personal to you, you can still choose an image or photo from your computer or your own Picasa Web Album. Whether you select an image from our new artist collection or prefer to have a more personal touch on your homepage, you’ll still enjoy the speed and ease of use that you’ve come to expect from Google.

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TCS 2011 Batch Campusing and a stellar performance by TCS by Rahul on July 18, 2010

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Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Thursday reported a 24.3 per cent higher net profit at Rs.1,906 crore for the first quarter of 2010-11 against Rs.1,534 crore in the same quarter in the previous year. Revenues were 14 per cent higher at Rs.8,217 crore (Rs.7,207 crore). The company's operating profit for the quarter was up 24.6 per cent at Rs.2,245 crore.

The board of directors of the company has declared a dividend of Rs.2 per share.

TCS CEO and Managing Director N. Chandrasekaran said, “this has been a quarter of complete outperformance. This has been our best performance in terms of growth since September 2008. Our balanced growth was driven by disciplined execution and strong demand across markets and industry sectors. Our holistic growth across service lines highlights the growing traction among corporations for TCS' full service strategy. While we remain alert about changing micro dynamics in many markets, our customer-centric business model is very relevant and helps us participate in the ongoing recovery.''

Mr. Chandrasekaran said the growth had happened in spite of “headwinds due to salary hikes and currency fluctuations particularly in the euro and the sterling pound with both factors carrying negative impact of around 36 basis points. We have a robust deal pipeline and are chasing 10-15 large deals. There are opportunities for pricing increases as the environment is stable.''

Structural strength

“The structural strength of our business model has been highlighted during this quarter,'' said company CFO and Executive Director S. Mahalingam.

“Our ability to execute in an optimal fashion through continuing off-shore shift and disciplined pricing have mitigated the impact caused by wage and currency headwinds and helped us post a strong margin performance. Our investments in building an extensive front office presence in new markets is helping support and sustain higher growth.''

All industry sectors made good contribution to the company's growth. In terms of service lines, there was balanced growth across IT and other new services lines like BPO, infrastructure services and assurance.

In terms of markets, North America and Asia led the momentum for growth, and all other markets grew in constant currency terms.

Mr. Chandrasekaran said “we have done well across all geographies and even India grew at 6 per cent. We would like to get continuous growth in India and have broken out of the cyclical growth pattern here over the last three quarters.''

During the quarter, the company filed 26 patent applications and was granted one in the area of object oriented models. Till date, the company has applied for 323 patents and has been granted 61.

In terms of human resources, utilization in the first quarter was 82.6 per cent (excluding trainees) and 74.8 per cent (including trainees). The company had a gross addition of 10,849 employees (net addition of 3,271 employees). The attrition rate during the quarter for IT services was 12.3 per cent while for BPO services it was 20 per cent and the overall attrition was at 13.1 per cent against 11.8 per cent.

At the end of the quarter, the total employee strength of the company was at 163,700.

Hiring target 

“We have decided to increase the hiring target to 40,000 for 2010-11, an increase of 10,000 from the previous estimate given the strong deal momentum and continuing ramp ups. We continue to focus on retention as it is the key and we would like to control attrition,'' said TCS Vice-President, Head, Global Human Resources Ajoy Mukherjee.

From July, TCS will hike wages in India by about 10 per cent, 2-8 per cent in emerging markets and 2-4 per cent in other markets. 

(from Business Line)

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What’s my TCS college grade? by Rahul on July 17, 2010

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2011 Batch Joining Dates  Latest Updates  Updates in Browser 2010 Batch Joining dates TCS 2010 Community ILP Study Materials
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With the joining dates of 2010 batch students going on, candidates are more than ever curious to know what grades would be given to their college. Based on last years data where more than 20,000 TCS candidates of 2009 batch shared their information of colleges in Orkut and various other communities, this list is presented below. Apparently the joining dates are given in the order of grades, i.e. A, B, C* and then C. But after a few months different colleges of different grades of both CS and Non-CS streams start getting their joining dates parallely. Here is the summary of the college grades.  
 

The 2010 batch joining dates have started earlier than the 2009 batch joining dates no doubt, and hence the mood is really high amongst the candidates. More so after a stunning show of performance by TCS in the quarterly results.

This useful chart below gives a schematic idea of the distribution of the different college grades in the different branches.

Tips to use the chart:
To know the number of colleges of a particular grade for a particular recruiting branch, just observe the height of the bar of that color for that branch. For example, to know the number of A grade Colleges in Chennai, notice the pink bar right above grade “A” in the horizontal axis. 



Quick Tips to find your grade:
1. Press Ctrl+F and type in the abbreviation of your college name.
2.

Press Ctrl+F and type in your full college name.

3. If you know your recruiting branch, you can keep scrolling following the color of your branch until you find your college name.

If you find this article useful, click here to help it and get occasional updates.

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Wordpress becoming unreliable? by Rahul on July 16, 2010

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With a fairly reliable track record over the years, Wordpress.com faced a big hiccup last month which affected more than 10+ million blogs, and then again on June 10th, 2010. Most of the blogs including TechCrunch and some of CNN’s blogs which are hosted on tha platform went down. The only message available was “WordPress.com will be back in a minute!”

This message is sure to send shivers down across some of the big sites and which have so long been blindly trusting the reliability of this blogging platform. Blogger on the other hand, which had been my favorite blogging platform for more than 3 years now, continue to provide amazing robust service which I never realized earlier before I started using it.

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Hacking: Timeline of History by Rahul on July 13, 2010

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Two planets named after South Point High School students! by Rahul on July 11, 2010

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Great news for Pointers! Two students of South Point High School in Kolkata will now have minor planets named after them. 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Lincoln Laboratory, USA, have bestowed the honor on Anish Mukherjee and Debarghya Sarkar in recognition of their winning the second Grand award in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering category at the Nevada Fair, the South Point Education Society said in Kolkata. The honor was given to them in recognition of their performance at the 2009 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Neveda, USA. Anish and Debarghya won the second grand award in the electrical and mechanical category in the event.

"Minor planet 2000 AH52 (citation No. 25629) and minor planet 2000 AT53 (citation No. 25630) will, henceforth, be known as 'Mukherjee' and 'Sarkar', respectively," it said.

The two planets were discovered on January 4, 2000, by Lincoln Laboratory Near-Earth Asteroid Research team at Socorro under its Linear programme, a release said. “When we started working for this technology in 2008, we never imagined that planets would be named after us,” said Sarkar

The students passed out of South Point High School in the city this year. Anish has joined the engineering course at Jadavpur University and Debarghya has joined the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research.

A minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is neither a dominant planet nor a comet. Since 1801, more than two lakh minor planets have been discovered mostly in the asteroid belt.

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USA Engineering Colleges Ranking

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This is one of the most sought after ranking list with so many engineering colleges in USA. Change being a continuous process, the list is no doubt permanent. Hence special care has been given to several conditions. Some of the key factors that had been taken into consideration are the starting and ending  ranks of some of the top streams, the campusing element, infrastructure and several feedbacks from students studying in these colleges. This list is updated regularly based on several feedbacks on various issues and criteria. Feedbacks range from students to administrations to the common people. With such a robust concept behind building this list, it seems very likely to be standing the test of time over the years to come.

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Google Music: iTunes competitor unleashed? by Rahul on July 9, 2010

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We might soon be able to search a song or music in the market and click the download button to save it in our Android devices. The idea is pretty compelling of Google Music, if that is what it is going to be called in the end. Google teased the audience a few weeks ago about this which would be a new segment in the Android market.

After Google Music Onebox and Google Discover Music, this Google’s another attempt into this Music world. It would be nice if Google releases its product sooner, because there are rumors of Apple unveiling something more iTunes stuff this summer which might well steal Google Music’s hotness.

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Reeder: The best feed reader on the iPhone is going to launch on the iPad by Rahul on July 6, 2010

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Most of the RSS readers work average with the iPad, many of the ones which used to provide superb performance for the iPhone work more or less less efficiently in the iPad.  Reeder didn’t have such a support for the iPad until recently when it will extend its support for the iPad soon.

It will be a separate app from the iPhone version and will carry a new, slightly higher price, $4.99. But judging from the pictures, and one stellar preview from MacStories, it will be worth it. One nice touch is that sets of feeds can be drilled into using the pinch gesture, similar to the way you unbundle pictures in the iPad’s photo app. (Source: Techcrunch)

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Yahoo! wants Huffington Post badly! by Rahul on July 2, 2010

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According to a article in Techcrunch, Yahoo is wildly wanting to acquire the Huffington Post, which is nearly the biggest thing on this planet with nearly 26 million unique visitors worldwide in April. Yahoo needs high quality content and videos and Huffington Post requires more traffic. So their signing a deal itself would be more than enough with a close integration of their services.

The two companies seem to be in negotiation over a deep content partnership. Sources with knowledge of the HuffPo’s thinking insist it is not for sale. But everything is for sale at the right price. An acquisition by Yahoo would accelerate the HuffPo’s growth, while at the same time give Yahoo a strong anchor for its content business. Buying the Huffington Post would not be cheap. When it last raised $25 million in December, 2008, that round gave the company a $125 million valuation. It would want multiples of that now. But is it really worth that much? A content deal lets Yahoo dip its toes in the water and find out.

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Brazil or Argentina? by Rahul on July 1, 2010

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Join the discussion by commenting below. The Argentina and Brazil football rivalry is a highly competitive sports rivalry that exists between the national football teams of the two countries, as well as their respective sets of fans. Games between the two teams, even those that are only friendly matches, are often marked by notable and sometimes controversial incidents. This rivalry is also called the "Battle of the South Americans."

I am a die-hard fan of Brazil myself. The flavor of the Brazilian football continues to mesmerize me even in the absence of the stars like Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Adriano. But as it is said, football is a team game, and so Brazil continues to be Brazil though with only Kaka and Robinho left of the star generation.

The Samba style of football have great expectations in this year’s World Cup. It will be interesting to see how Brazil takes on one power team after the other. The squad is as lively as any other Brazilian team is on any other day. A decently pretty young team, Dunga continues to create surprises for the media day in and out with the new philosophies. And who wouldn’t agree that it a treat to watch Brazil whatever way it comes to you? Even if its a charity match that they are playing, isn't Brazil always Brazil?

So, Brazilian fans, get your jerseys and beer cans and get ready for a rocking time over the next few weeks. Argentine fans has a lot of reasons to cheer. Maradona is nearly the 12th player right now. With the like of Messi and Tevez putting in the performances with the form they are in right now, the Argentine fans can surely dream about another cup this time round. And why wouldn’t one when the best player in the planet is in the team?

Argentina’s Latin American football has shown some superb sparks in the past few matches. No doubt they have got into their raw form pretty early in the tournament. The dribbling, the passing and everything else seems like a piece of art. It’ll be no doubt a pretty decent match to watch if a clash happens between the two South American giants.

Goals or no goals, it’s always a treat and a feast for the eyes to watch the game makers pave their own way and lead their own team to victory. And passionate as we all know about the Brazilian and Argentine fans, it would be one of the greatest matches over the decade with the stars present in the team now.

Argentine fans, be ready but here we too are coming as we’ll make you dance to the tunes of the Samba. Would be a pretty close match no doubt, but it would be interesting to see what could possibly stop Brazil this time round.

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