D&A Blogs

Medical Degree for NRI in USA, UK & Canada - Study MBBS, PG/MD, BE programs

2011-02-27T14:20:00.000-08:00

Now People of India Origin, NRIs, US, UK and Canadian citizen can study MBBS in India and do MD back in USA, UK etc and qualify for USMLE etc. The students can also study BE / BS in Engineering in all disciplines in India and do Masters in the USA/Canada/UK etc.

There are several advantages to studying in India and it is more economical to study there and graduate early in reputed colleges.

The College Admissions to Engineering and Medical require that students complete 10+2 (High School) with at least two years of English, Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology and Math (required only for Engineering admissions).

For medical students, MCAT is not required to be taken to graduate as a doctor in India.

If you would like to learn more and need more details you may contact below in the UK,USA and Canada. please send an email to D&A at Contactus@daaspace.com or Call us in USA / Canada at (920) 750 4365

Heart risks and Diabetes - Significant causes of Deaths in India and other countries

2010-11-23T19:07:00.000-08:00

It is estimated that over 50% of health related deaths in India are attributed to Heart attacks, Diabetes or skin cancer (exposure to excess sun)and this is also prevalent is other countries. However, the average life span of Indians is still way lower (Around 60 years) compared to developed countries (Around 72-75 years).

Heart attacks and Diabetes are controllable if identified early on and by making changes to the life style and diet. High cholesterol increases your risk of heart disease and heart attacks. These risk can be reduced by making some lifestyle changes to reduce cholesterol. These two issues are the largest contributor to the deaths in India and other countries. It is estimated that over 50% of health related deaths in India are attributed to Heart attacks, Diabetes or skin cancer (exposure to excess sun). This is applicable to all ages and more so for people over 30 years old.

Simple changes in daily life can significantly reduce the risk of Heart Attacks, Diabetes and skin cancer.

Important - Even if you are healthy, please take a Blood Cholesterol test as soon as possible and monitor the Cholesterol levels each year or as periodic as possible

As a thumb rule for a good heart;
Total cholesterol needs to be Less than 200 mg/dL
LDL (Bad cholesterol) needs to be Less than 100 mg/dL
HDL (Good Cholesterol) needs to be 50-60 mg/dL and above
Triglycerides needs to be Less than 150 mg/dL

1. Lose extra weight - Loose the extra pounds / Kgs as overweight contributes to high cholesterol. So losing as little as 5 to 10 pounds (about 2 to 5 kilograms) can help reduce cholesterol levels significantly.Look for ways to incorporate simple changes to your daily life, like using the stairs instead of taking the elevator, parking away and as far as possible and walking to the office / shopping. Optimum weight can be found by adding about 15 to your height (5' 8" height needs to around 74 Kgs) The body mass index (BMI)which is a measure of Height(in Ft)/Weight(in Lbs) needs to be between 19-25 for normal weight

2. Eat heart-healthy foods - Eating Healthy from now on and making a few changes in your diet can reduce cholesterol and improve your heart health and reduce the risk of Heart attacks.

- Eliminate trans fats. Trans fat can be found in fried foods and many commercial baked products, such as cookies, crackers and snack cakes.

- Reduce LDL (Bad Cholesterol) and your total cholesterol and Increase HDL (Good Fat)

- Avoid meat if possible. If you do eat meat then reduce the consumption and choose leaner meat like skinless chicken instead of lamb/mutton and red meat.

- Take low-fat dairy and monounsaturated fats — which is found in olive, peanut and canola oils,

- Avoid Ghee (Butter), Fried food including Fried rice, fried curries etc. Eat boiled vegetables/curry with less salt to the extent possible.

- Eat whole wheat like Roti (dry), Naan(without butter),whole wheat bread instead of plain white rice.

- Eat less white rice as it produces carbohydrates and sugar. The less white rice the better it is. Use wild rice or the raw rice in small quantities

- Eat lot of vegetables, green leaf, cauliflower, spinach etc.. and in boiled curry form (less or no salt)

- Eat at least 2-3 fruits daily - Bananas, Apples, Grapes are good source of fiber and is good to the heart and health

- Limit cholesterol in your food and keep it to 200-300 mg a day. Example; a full Egg has about 200mg cholesterol . If you have heart disease avoid Egg yellow as it is a significant source of cholesterol. Eat Egg whites and avoid yellow if possible.

- Drink skimmed milk or Soy milk instead of whole milk or 2% milk.

- Drink lot of water (at least 8 glasses per day)and drink atleast one or two glasses of Orange/Cranberry/Apple juice daily

- Avoid Soda (excess sugar) and coffee (excess caffeine) to the extend possible

- Plain Black tea and Green tea contain Antioxidant is good for health.

- Eat fresh fruits daily (as available in the season), dried fruits and nuts for snacks instead of Chips, fries, burgers etc.. If you prefer dried fruit to fresh fruit, limit yourself to no more than a handful as dried fruit and nuts tends to have more calories than does fresh fruit.

- Eat foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids which is found in fishes like Salmon, mackerel and herring (found is the US and Euope). Only some fishes in India contain and you need to check on these fishes. Some fished contain mercury and you need to avoid these fishes as they can be harmful. Omega-3 fatty acids can help lower your LDL ("bad") cholesterol. Other good sources of omega-3 fatty acids include walnuts, almonds and ground flaxseeds.

- If you need drink alcohol then limit it to 1 drink a day (low carb Beer or Red wine) - Not suggesting you start to drink for heath reasons.

3. Exercise at least 5 days a week: Irrespective of your weight, exercise help reduce cholesterol. Exercise for at least 200 minutes a week diligently. Moderate physical activity (60 mins a day or so) can help raise high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, which is the "good" cholesterol. Exercise can include;
* Taking a brisk daily walk during your lunch hour or in the mornings/evening
* Riding your bike to work or for pleasure
* Swimming / jogging
* Playing a favorite sport like Tennis, Soccer, Cricket etc..

4. Limit exposure to Sun Rays - Reduce the amount of time spent under direct sun rays and apply sun screen (SPF 15 or over) as a precaution. Direct exposure to excessive Sun rays can cause skin cancer.

Disclaimer: These are general guidance based on research and learnings. This should not be construed as medical advice and please consult your doctors for specific health issues or concerns. Sources: WebMd, Mayo Clinic and self learnings

India Job Market for fresh graduates.

2008-06-18T15:16:00.000-07:00

The job market in India is undergoing a phase shift in the current economic times.

You have to look at the broader perspective on the Indian Economy and the job trends in the developed nations to get the big picture on what skills are required today and in future.

In the last decade or so we saw the Technology boom in USA & Europe and this led to a number of IT and Technology jobs in India and this created a service sector. Now with the economy down in USA, there growth has stalled and its impact is reflected in the India IT job market with a number of company experiencing job cuts etc.. The technology sector has matured now and the skills required to fill these jobs are different and more emphasis on the business process / knowledge and communication. Although India produces several hundreds of Engineering in IT and other areas study by several analysts has shown that not all engineering graduates are qualified for the open positions.

OK, on the brighter side, fresh graduate in India should look for openings in other areas like Research, bio-medicine, Financial/ Market Analysts etc.. and with the booming economy of India there will be more opportunities for the qualified in these areas.

Green Revolution – How some European countries are leading the way !

2008-04-15T10:02:00.001-07:00

Iceland – Reykjavik - The Greenest place on earth!

Iceland is a small Island country in the North American hemisphere and is in the forefront with the Green revolution and Energy efficient ways.

Iceland meets about 80 % of the energy requirements with the renewable energy like Geo-thermal, Water and wind. This is against the forecasts for using renewable energy of 20% by the European union by 2020 and less than 5% by Asian countries like India and China.

The leading green index countries are Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, UK .. and US is around the 66 in the list and India is close to the bottom of the list as of now.

Iceland is the first country in the world to make commercial use Hydrogen in the cars and is also making great use of the Geo-thermal and water energy for the daily business and residential energy consumptions with practically no emissions and minimal use of the fossil fuels.

The country has a small population of about 300,000 and mostly concentrated around the capital city Reykjavik. High Energy dependent manufactures such as Aluminum - especially ALCOA sees this an opportunity to stay committed to stay Green and is in the process of build 300+ stoves using the energy from Geo-thermal and water. The renewable energy in Iceland is extremely cheap due to its availability in abundance and also innovative ideas and technologies of the Icelander's. This small island has or planning on having more than 8 Hydroelectirc plants and 6-8 large Geo-thermal based plants and is the pioneer for using Hydrogen fuel in commercial cars etc.. Iceland is indeed committed to the environment, preserving natural resources and staying green.

Some of new energy friendly and innovative green initiatives:

Developed nations in North America and Europe and combined with rapid growth in the BRIC nations – Brazil, Russia, India and China there is an un precedence growth in the consumption of natural energy and fossil fuels in the last few years driving up the oil prices and also resulting in consumption of non-recycle resources.

Here are some of the initiatives that some of the companies in Europe are taking to help protect the natural resources and be green friendly.

Recycle - More and more biz in Europe and North America are using recycle papers, plastics, Aluminum and other precious product that are using natural resources. This is help avoid the land refills and also reuse the natural resources..

Energy conservations bulbs– Leading manufactures in Europe are doing research in coming with LED bulbs instead of the energy efficient CFL. These new generation bulbs will utilize less than half of the energy of CFL and produce equivalent or more lumen output and will be significantly more lasting.

Wind Power for Shipping: Wind power is being tested to be used for large Ships complementing the regular oil guzzling engines and tests have proved that the energy requirements of the ships can be reduced by as much as 20% if the wind power is used during the sail. Just to keep the perspective – large ships consume oil to deliver 35 to 40 feet per gallon and the study predicts that the shipping industry is consuming couple of billions of gallons of oil.

Energy efficient Hybrid cars – Several new energy efficient cars are in the research stage and recently Aptera Motors out of Carlsbad, California has rolled out prototypes of the new 2 seat car that can go up to 300 miles per gallon and is expected to be priced around 30000 USD and working primarily on recharging battery with minimal to no fuel emission. Number of these units have already being pre-sold.

Energy efficient cooking stoves: In the developing countries, there is significant usage of stoves that are energy in-efficient and natural resources. Shell foundation has invested about 25 million to work with companies to develop low cost energy efficient stoves and these will be sent to about 10 million households in India, Africa and Latin America.

That is it for now..Save energy - Think and implement Green !

D&A Blogs - Contactus@daaspace.com

References and Resources: Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Economist

Why India and why now ?

2008-04-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

In the last 10 years, India has emerged as a growing economy and a power in the Asia and continues to be a rising star in the international business community, India has unlimited opportunities and is becoming the land of opportunities.

Since the Liberalization of the Indian Economy in the early 1990, the trade laws in India have been revised to allow significant foreign investment and trading with foreign companies and other nations has become relatively easily. The new regulations have opened the doors for Indian Business to market their services outside India. This helped the Indian Businesses as they began to partner with large companies including a number of Fortune 500 companies by providing quality services at low costs.

As we all know that the water flows from an high level to a low level, so do the costs ! Business in the high cost and developed countries took a note of the low cost service providers and manufacturers as well as manufacturing opportunities in India and are looking at lower their costs of operating business in these high cost countries ie, USA, UK and other European countries.

While more and more service are being provided by the Indian Companies or the Multi-nationals companies in India, the costs of services, salaries, real estate and property costs are increasing in India due to the exponential increase in the demand and is causing a strain the te infrastructure. However there cost differentials are still quite high between USA & India and this will continue to be so till the next few decades.

With the liberalization during the early 1990s the doors opened up for the Indian businesses to explore the opportunities with the business across the world. The Y2K fear during the late 1990s compounding with the gigantic nature of the impact to the business and the scope of work prompted the businesses in USA and UK to look for cheap resources outside. The newly available IT Services in India came as a critical resources to the businesses.

Together with the Internet boom during the same period, IT companies like INFOSYS, TATA CONSULTANCY (TCS), WIPRO, SATYAM etc.. opened their doors to the business in the USA and Europe. Initially during the mid to late 1990s the businesses in USA and Europe were looking for help with the Y2K, Euro initiatives and some software maintenance from these companies.

The Internet boom in during the 1999 and 2000 led to tremendous requirements in the Internet & eCommerce programming for the dot com businesses in the USA & Europe.

With the boom in Foreign direct investments (FDI) in India, the requirement for the IT & Business skills increased tremendously and workers in these areas started to see their salaries and perks raise and the attrition rate began to climb.

Most of the skilled work force are int he 20s and 30s and this affluent age group now are the main drivers of the real estate, automotive and the retail industries.These factors let to changes in Indian market dynamics and the young middle class now have a lot of money to spend and now moving from the basic necessities to the looking at buying the luxuries in life. The Business marketing in India are now targeting this young work force by offering products and services targeted at this audience. This size of this young target middle to high class is growing rapidly and the estimates are that by 2025 India will have largest working middle class in the world.

During the years prior to the 1990s, the Indian middle and rich could not purchase imported items as the Government had a number of restrictions on imports due to the low foreign exchange (FOREX) reserves and also was asking the Indian citizens to purchase the Indian made goods and items. Most of the items in the automotive and electronics were using the old technology and were not appealing to the Indian consumers. The liberalization of Indian Economy allowed the companies in India to partner in Technology transfer and tie up and partner with the leading manufacturers in the developed countries like USA, Germany and UK primarily in the consumer and automotive industries. The Indian consumers can purchase the world best automotive and consumer goods and also able to afford these goods.

As we all know that the water flows from an high level to a low level, so business do want to lower their costs !

The Businesses in the high cost and developed countries like USA, UK & Canada are in high pressure to lower cost and stay competitive and also improve the shareholder value. These businesses are now taking a note of the low cost service providers and manufacturers as well as manufacturing opportunities in India and are looking at lower their costs of operating business

The trade laws in India now allow investments and trade with foreign companies and other nations like USA, UK, Canada, Germany. This has resulted in an affluent middle class in India and the demand for foreign goods and high quality consumer goods has increased by multiple folds and thereby opening up an new market segment for the affluents.

सौर्सस: बुसिनेस वीक, इकोनोमिस्ट॥

Licence Raj – An obstacle in India growth..

2008-03-24T16:48:00.001-07:00

Licence Raj – An obstacle in India growth..

India has had a good growth in the past 15 years and more importantly in the last 5-8 years. The growth has been at a rate of over 9% year after year in the past 4-5 years. This year the growth is set at 8.4 %. The private sector has been doing a tremendous job and the growth is also dependent on the Indian administration called the civil service. The civil service is about 10 million strong in the public sector and the government sectors. The faster growth rate is affected by the failure of the government to react quickly to improve the infrastructure and this is setting a speed limit on growth. Significant amount of foreign resources are being invested in India and most of the foreign capital is pumped in the Indian Stock Market (BSE) and this turbulence is noted in the Indian Stock market lately and there is a noticeable unproductive growth in the FOREX.

In order to sustain the growth there is an immediate need to change some of the government policies and the License Raj system prevalent in India.

Reforms are not done at a fast enough pace and the poor infrastructure is affecting the foreign capital inflow and this largely due to the government debts, limited freedom to the banks, pension funds etc..

The civil service is administered by the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS) who provide the administration and management of the state welfare measures and partly oversee the infrastructure.

The state welfare is managed by Collectors, formed by the British Rulers, as bill/revenue collectors for the district. The state magistrates and the collectors sometimes oversee about more than 500 villages and serve over a million people and have out dated machinery. And some barely have the technology such as Computers etc.. to manage these welfare measures. This leads to lot of delay and red tapism and the welfare measures may not reach the villages or the villagers in a timely manner and the critical infrastructure projects either get delayed or do not see the light.

Although India does provide Universal Health care, water, food and education the spending on this basic provisions is very meager and more needs to be done to ensure that the basic welfare reach the poor and the needy in a timely manner.

India Civil service has about 3 million in the central gov and about 7 million in the states and the world largest employer, the Indian Railways, has over 1 million employees. Majority of the civil servants are peons, clerks, office administrators, office assistants, drivers, who are ready to take orders and do the work from their superiors or administrators; about 5000 IAS officers. All the 604 districts in India, about 60% of Public Sector units, State organizations, Police and Railways are head or managed by the IAS officers. Each year about 100-150 IAS officers are recruited from about 200, 000 applicants from across the country.

Although this is an elite position, there is a large inequality in the salaries between the private sector and due to this the quality of the IAS officers appears to be on the decline to due the inequality. Political influence, low pay structure and interference, caste based reservations etc.. are also having an impact on the quality.

It is critical that the Indian Government take a note of the situation and look at revamping the License Raj system to meet the current times to keep in pace with the dynamic economy and to ensure that the growth can be sustained on an ongoing basis.

The foreign capital market is competitive and countries like China, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil etc..are competing for this foreign investments and capital. It is important for India to keep a check on the red tapism and improve the infrastructure in a quick turnaround period and in planned manner in order to sustain the growth.

D&A

contact - contactus@daaspace.com

Resources:
1) The Economist – London
2) Foreign Affairs – USA
3) Business Week - USA

Impact of urban sprawls in USA

2008-03-12T17:43:00.000-07:00

Background, harms & implications:
Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is the spreading of a city and its suburbs over rural land at the fringe of an urban area. For example, in large cities like Milwaukee, there is urban sprawl in the neighboring area to the Milwaukee city.

-Residents of sprawling neighborhoods tend to live in single-family homes and commute by automobile to work. Low population density is an indicator of sprawl.

-Urban planners emphasize the qualitative aspects of sprawl such as the lack of transportation options and pedestrian friendly neighborhoods.

-Conservationists and environmentalists tend to focus on the actual amount of land that has been urbanized by sprawl

Causes and effects
Health and environmental impact - The primary cause of these negative outcomes is that sprawl leads to people having to depend on the automobile because it will be a greater distance to travel and people will not be able to walk or ride their bicycles to their destinations.
Source: Measuring Sprawl and Its Impact, a Smart Growth America (SGA) study released October 2002.

Increased pollution and reliance on fossil fuel- On average, suburban residents generate more pollution and carbon emissions than their urban counterparts because of their increased driving.

Increase in traffic and traffic-related fatalities - Residents of more sprawling areas are at greater risk of automobile accidents and dying in a car crash.

Increased obesity – Urban sprawl culture forces to drive everywhere, thus walking far less than their urban people.

Decrease in social capital - Sprawl tends to replace public spaces such as parks with private spaces such as fenced-in backyards.

Decrease in land and water quantity and quality - Due to the larger area consumed by sprawling suburbs compared to urban neighborhoods, more farmland and wildlife habitats are displaced per resident and results in more wastage of water.

Increased infrastructure costs - Living in a larger, more spread out space makes public services more expensive. City planners are forced to build large highway and parking infrastructure, which in turn decreases taxable land and revenue

Increased personal transportation costs - Residents of low density areas in urban sprawls spend a higher proportion of their income on transportation than residents of Cities .

Brainstorm possible solutions

Smart Growth America (SGA at http://www.smartgrowthamerica.com/), is a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group has some of the following recommendations:

- Reinvest in neglected communities and provide more housing opportunities in urban areas and cities.

-Rehabilitate abandoned properties in cities

- Encourage new development or redevelopment in already built up areas

-Create and nurture thriving, mixed-use centers of activities in cities;"

Review of 2007 – India and the Global world economy, stock..

2007-12-21T12:22:00.000-08:00

Review of 2007 Highlights – India and the Global world economy, stocks..

India & World Economy

India economy is growing strong with GDP at about 8 %, inflation about 4.5% and has seen significant foreign investment. China, Europe, Dubai and Latin America & Canada have seen improved economy during 2007. China growth rate at over 14% continues to be increasing at an alarmingly high rate.. India exports performed strongly and rose by 20% to US$123.2 Billion and imports increased by close to 25% to US$184 Billion.

GDP (Based on Purchase price parity)

America's $12.4 trillion
China - $8.9 trillion
Japan - $4.0 trillion
India – About $2.9 trillion (Down from forecasted 4.0 Trillion)

Stocks Markets

India stock market index (BES-Sensex) has seen phenomenal growth this year with the index starting the year at around 12,000 and touching 20,000 mark for the first time ever, recording a growth of over 65 %

- China’s Shangai composite Index gew by about 200 % with the index at about 6000
- US stocks – Dow jones recorded about 17 % growth with the index at about 13500
- UK stocks – FTSE 100 rose by about 16% at 6450

Foreign direct investment (FDI)

USA, UK, China are the top 3 countries this year for the FDI.

Major World Currencies

US Dollar lost against major currencies this year as follows (As of Dec 20th 2007)

1 USD = 0.6964 Euro
1 USD = 1.0014 Canadian Dollar
1 USD = 7.3783 Chinese yuan
1 USD = 39.575 India Rupess

Impact of sliding dollar on US and World Economy : In view of the fact that global prices and trends are measured in USD and considering the fact that dollar has been sliding – The Forbes riches 100 list has a number of individuals from India, South America etc.. India exports are now cheaper and the outsourcing business are seeing the impact with less margins compared to couple of years..

US Market has been shaken by the sub-prime issue and many US financial institutions have been significantly affected in the 3 qtr this year and along with the Housing bust is having a negative impact on the US economy..

That is it for 2007. Have a safe and Happy Holidays, Season's greetings and Happy New Year !

Note: The facts and stats are from the study and analysis done and published by reliable sources such as Business Week and Economist etc..

India stock’s gain over 500 % in the past 4 years.

2007-10-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

India stock’s gain over 500 % in the past 4 years.

Oct 18th 2007,

India’s stocks are performing extremely well and the BSE (Bombay Stock Index) has touched 19,000 for the frist time ever this month in Oct 2007 before settling down around 18000 mark. The stocks gained more than 500 % since 2003 as compared to the US stocks which gained about 60 % during this same 4 year period.

The primary reason behind this growth and the rise in the stocks is significant influx of Foreign Investment in the Indian Stock Market by US & European Financial institutions. The booming Indian Economy with the consistent GDP growth of over 8% and manufacturing sector growth of over 10 per cent year after year during this period has also contributed to the rise in the stocks.

The credit crisis and the sub-prime loan issues along with the US rate cut also contributed to the rise of the Indian Stock market which has seen an increase of over 20% due to the increased foreign investment in the period.

However, the rise of the stocks is happening at an alarming pace and the Indian Government and SEBI, the India stock watch are concerned with the steep increase markets due to the heavy dollar inflow through Participatory Notes in derivatives market and compounded by the weakening of dollar against the Rupee. The Indian Rupee has appreciated by over 10% in the last one year and current hovering around 39 rupees which is the highest levels in the past 9 years.

So SEBI recently decided to calm the investors and put in regulator controls in place in market place that the Participatory Notes in derivatives market cannot exceed the 18 month limit. This announcement on Oct 16th resulted in the market crash by over 1,700 points and it soon recovered back after an assurance was made by the Finance Minister Mr. Chidambaram that there is no proposal to ban Participatory Notes.

High performing stock quotes in Rupees as of Oct 16th 2007 are as follows:

Reliance Industries - 2,710

Reliance Energy 1,810
Infosys - 1915
ICICI Bank 1135
Tata Power 1200

The US Investors can also invest in the Blue chip Indian Stocks on the NY / Nasdaq Stock exchange and these are traded as ADRs (American Depository Receipts)

Following are some of the Indian Stocks traded in the NY Stock exchange:

ADR Prices are as of Oct 17th 2007

Company Exchange USD Value
WIT - Wipro NYSE 15.10
RDY - Reddy’s lab NYSE 15.50
VSL - Videsh Sanchar NYSE 24.90
SAY - Satyam NYSE 26.80
INFY - Computers Nasdaq 49.30
HDB -HDFC Bank NYSE 108.00
IBN - ICICI Bank NYSE 54.70
REDF - Rediff Nasdaq 17.25

Investments in these blue chip Indian stocks has paid off handsomely to a number of Individual and Financial investors… We will have to wait where the Indian Stocks go from here…

D&A Consulting

http://www.daaspace.com/

Great IT revolution is here to stay!

2007-04-27T12:27:00.000-07:00

Great Information Technology (IT) revolution is here to stay!

Information Technology has now become an integral part of personal life and a change agent to the business and people across the world. It is transforming and changing the way we live, communicate and do business not only in personal life but also in work life.

More and more business across the world are using these technology to stay competitive and productive and to compete not only in their domestic markets but also in the Global market.

In the last 10 years, IT has been improved tremendously and made the communication easier and allowed people across the world to stay connected 24 X 7. Especially Internet technology has transformed the way we do communication and opened up many ways to collaborate and network.

In the initial phase of Internet evolution and adoption period (1995 to 2000), people started to use internet as a way to make their presence in the virtual world and most of the web pages were static and it was not possible to collaborate and network easily.

In past 5 years, there has been significant improvement in the Communication Networks and technologies such as fiber optics cables between USA & Asia, advent of Voice over Internet protocol (VOIP), advancements in Computer & Cell phone technologies and this has suddenly opened up new avenues and modes of communication.

Business across the world including Third world countries are now able to communicate and trade virtually and provide service over the internet with the Developed nations such as USA, UK, Germany, Italy, Sweden etc.. New business opportunities started to arise online and Internet shopping and online Trade have surged exponentially.

Highly populated and English speaking countries like India, China, Philippines, Ireland, etc..with large number of technical and English speaking population have taken advantage of these Information technologies and tools and now able to develop and provide high quality services and products cost effectively to the developed countries in North America and Europe. New generation information technologies such as Video conferencing, VOIP, Instant Messaging etc, have made this possible and allowed new high quality services and products to be made available remotely online and in a cost effective and timely manner.

Large Corporate and business in USA and Europe see these opportunities as a mean to save costs and improve productivity and hence are able to get the services and products from the above mentioned countries in a cost effective and productive way.

The personal lives are getting transformed with these technologies and Instant messaging, text messaging on Computers, Cell Phones, Black berries is extremely common among the young generation in Asia and Europe and is now catching up in USA.

These technologies have revolutionized the way we do live and do business and is here to stay and there are many more advancements in the pipeline in the near future.

The world has now become flat and now there are no boundaries in the virtual world. Countries and Business in these countries that are able to make use of these technologies and take advantage of these online services will be able to be more productive and competitive in the Global markets and will be able to provide customers with good quality products and services in a cost effective way.

India with its large highly skilled, educated and english speaking population has been able to take advantage of these opportunites and has now become the prime driver of these technologies and is able to provide quality services and products to the world in a cost effective way.

These technologies improved the GDP of India and also helped maintain a growth rate year over year at about 8 % and is now among the top five largest economies in the world based on the Purchase Price Parity (PPP) !

India on the rise!

2007-02-03T16:19:00.000-08:00

Tata Steel has acquired Corus in the UK and Netherlands, a European steel company, and elevates Tata Steel to the fifth largest steel company in the world and brings the capacity of nearly 19 million tonne per year.

TCS & Infosys have had some great revenues and are hitting the Billion dollar each quarter now and these companies have been adding jobs at a rapid pace.

The GDP is around 9 % and with the Purchase price party, India now stands next to USA & China and is ahead of Japan and other European countries.

However the inflation continues to rise and so does the real estate price. More needs to be done on improving the infrastructure and reducing poverty as well as improving the education levels of the rural people

IT Business & Tech updates - Jan 2007 !

2007-01-26T11:52:00.000-08:00

Wish you all a very Happy New Year 2007 !

IT Business updates

IT & Business Out sourcing continues to boom and the Leading Indian IT companies have been making record sales based on the research info reliable sources.

TCS became the first Indian service provider to book $1 billion in revenue in a single quarter company and its third-quarter revenue for the period ended Dec. 31 and it increased by over 40% year-over-year, to $1.1 billion.

Infosys continues to ride the outsourcing boom and posted a 47% increase in third quarter revenue and a 50% increase for the period ending Dec. 31, revenue was $821 million and also adding new customers and more than 6,000 employees during the period.

Satyam's third quarter revenues increased by over 30% year-over-year and its sales grew to $375 million and added over 2000 years.

Wipro posted revenue of close to $900 million for the period ended Dec. 31 a sales increase of over 40% from the previous year.

Kimberly-Clark, HQ in Atlanta and with Manf & IT in WI, has decided to outsource its SAP business software applications, including supply chain and planning, to Cognizant Technology Solutions who operates primarily from India.

Technology updates

Salesforce.com is working on a new on-demand platform based on Apex language for constructing on-demand applications inside of its AppExchange system for the On demand apps using data models, workflow engine, user interface, Apex Web services, Mashups and integration.

Sun Microsystems is releasing Fortress,a secure programming language and will be available as an open-source programming language to runs on the JVM.

Web 2.0 Tech & IT Business

2006-12-15T14:27:00.000-08:00

Web 2.0 technologies allow Start-up companies to build great Search tools.

Open source search projects are now allowing startups such as Hadoop, Nutch along with Amazon Web Service to build scalable search solutions.

IT Outsourcing is not just to India now:

India which used to get bulk of the IT outsourcing share (about 80%) earlier from US now get less than 60 % and this off shore work is now getting spread across other courtiers like Mexico, Canada, Malaysia, Brazil and China. Some of the reasons being increase in costs, attrition rates, lack of proper infrastructure, etc...

Major Indian IT companies like Satyam, TCS and others are now looking at augmenting their presence in Malaysia, China and other countries to address this.

IT Technology & Business updates !

2006-11-22T12:09:00.000-08:00

Updates from reliable sources:

Perot Systems out sources To Mexico

Perot Systems announced that it is opening a new service center in Mexico said the center will be based in Guadalajara, and will provide a broad services to companies in the U.S., including desktop support, infrastructure management and engineering services.
Perot systems sign a 10-year IT services deal with Tenet Healthcare Corp., one of the nation's largest operators of hospitals and outpatient facilities. Perot will manage IT at all of Tenet's 66 hospitals throughout US.

Computer Sciences Corporation

Computer Sciences Corporation announced to have signed a seven-year, $180 million IT outsourcing deal with Newmont Mining Corp., one of the world's largest gold mining companies and have opened a new service center in the Czech Republic

IBM

IBM is planning on working with China's Ministry of Education to introduce a curriculum that will focus on scientific programs, computer science, operations research, industrial engineering, management sciences, and other disciplines.
India’s Satyam & TCS has recently announced a seven-year deal with a combined worth of US$144.4 and will maintain IT services and application software for more than 150 applications for Australia's Qantas Airways.

Health care Outsourcing

As healthcare costs are continuing to rise in the USA, more Americans are choosing to undergo operations in other countries to lower their medical expenses. Recently ABC's "Nightline" program was about California based Planet Hospital, an online medical-tourism firm, that connects U.S. patients who are unable to afford surgeries at home with doctors and hospitals in other countries.

Infosys ADR

India’s Infosys Technologies on Tuesday issued its largest float to date of American Depository Receipts (ADR) for trading on the U.S.'s Nasdaq stock exchange. It floated 30 million of the receipts, worth a total of about $1.5 billion.

Immigrants - Successful Entrepreneurs

In a study released this week by the National Venture Capital Association indicates that thousands of foreign engineers and high-tech specialists are hoping to enter and already in the U.S. are looking at being successful entrepreneurs. The study developed a long list of foreign immigrants who founded successful companies including Intel's Andy Grove, from Hungary; Sun Microsystem's Andreas Bechtolsheim, Germany, and Vinod Khosla, India; eBay's Pierre Omidyar, France; Yahoo's Jerry Yang, Taiwan; Google's Sergey Brin, Russia; Nvidia's Jen-Hsun Huang, Taiwan, and Cascade Communications' Gururaj Despande, India and many more successful Entrepreneurs

India Online Today !

Techology updates this week ! Week of Nov 6th 2006

2006-11-10T11:34:00.000-08:00

Technology updates this week!

Cap Gemini to acquire Kanbay Intl

Leading IT service provider, Capgemini, has entered into an agreement to acquire Kanbay International Inc., an IT services firm based in Rosemont, IL USA.. This acquisition will enable Capgemini to boost its services from India as Kanbay has a strong developer base in that India for its offshore delivery.

Red Herring by Intel - Web 2.0
Intel has announced partnership with a group of Web 2.0 companies to form a suite of Web software that will help small and medium businesses share information in an announcement this week and this web 2.0 is the second wave in the Internet phenomenon as it allows consumers to create their own dynamic web pages, collaboration and sharing with others including share photos and videos.

Microsoft & Linux
Microsoft and Novell Corp, making Linux software, this week have entered into an agreement to allow Novell's open-source Linux software to work with Microsoft’s Windows platform.

Phising on the rise

Leading industry analysts believe that Phising scams are on the rise and innocent users are getting conned and giving away their personal data to these scam e-mails or websites. Phishing is a scam to steal valuable information such as credit card and social security numbers, user IDs and passwords, is normally done through e-mails sent to users and pretending to be from their Financial bank or retail stores.

Internet users are recommended to not take click the links to the Banks or Online Stores in the e-mails they do not recognize to avoid these scams.

It is also advisable to upgrade to the latest versions of web browsers such as Inter Explorer 7 or Firefox 2.0 as they have some built-in anti-phising features.

India Online Today !

Trends in Outsourcing Business in India - 2006

2006-11-03T21:48:00.000-08:00

Trends in Outsourcing

In 3^rd qtr 2006, India continues to be the preferred destination for Outsourcing IT projects.

Major companies such as IBM, Infosys, TCS, Wipro are continuing to expand their employee base in India to augment the growing business.

IBM's global operations recently announced the opening of new software development centers in Pune, India, and at Beijing, China. The centers will each be staffed by 500 developers focused on creating so-called service-oriented architectures for customers around the world, including those located in the United States.

SOA based applications have a large market share in the coming years and IBM as well as Oracle are investing heavily in this area and adopting the use of standard open source technology.

IBM is looking at having about 55,000 employees in India by next year which will be about 20% of its worldwide workforce of 3 Lakhs or 300,000.

Infosys, the second largest Indian software exporter, had great year so far and the business deals with U.S. firms that helped drive the bottom lines with the revenues for the quarter ending Sept is at $746 million, up by over 40 percent and it expects revenues for the fiscal year ending March 2007 to be over $3 billion.

TCS and Wipro also had a very good year so far. However the number of big deals between $500 million and $1 billion is appear to be declining, smaller contracts of less than $250 million are on the rise.

The attrition rate is also high at around 15% and these large companies giving salary increases to keep the attrition rate in check.

The operating margins for these outsourcing companies are stagnant or increasing at a moderate pace due to the increase in salaries.

India Online Today !

Future Technologies & IT Skills

2006-10-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

Business are now looking forward to have IT solutions that are built on standard platforms using reusable components such as web services, SOA.

Skills in the area of developing & use of SOA, web services, and understanding the concepts of BPM (Business process mapping), BAM (Business Analytics monitoring), BPEL (Business process execution languages), AJAX are critical to the development of such IT solutions.

Major vendors including Oracle, TIBCO, IBM, Microsoft etc are using these technologies to build solutions for the future.

Let us know if you have any comments or contact us for more updates on this technology.

India Online Today !
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AJAX - Interactive Web Applications

2006-10-28T20:28:00.001-07:00

AJAX application make web pages have a better responsive, interactivity and speed as only small amounts of data are retrieved from the web server and the entire web page does not get loaded and refreshed when user clicks on the web page for any changes.

AJAX is not something that is absolutely new and is really a combination of several technologies as it uses XML, XHTML, XSLT, CSS and Asynchronous request using XML HTTP Requests with JavaScript binding these objects together amongst others.

Google Maps and other Google applications have successfully implemented this technology and several other software vendors are now using this technology to provide more interactive web applications.

Recently Salesforce.com has announced the Apex development technology, which the company plans on using internally, as a "Java-like" or web application programming language. Applications will be built using the language and these will be available as a Web service and accessed using XML and SOAP standards.

Now the Businesses will also be able to use the Apex language to customize core features and functions of Salesforce.com on-demand applications to build their own add-on components. The Apex software is likely to made available to the developers to build custom applications and build interfaces.

The applications developed with Apex can also be shared with others through the App Exchange directory.

Salesforce.com is currently building elements of the Apex platform for running Apex-built applications. They also include APIs to access and manage complex data relationships including real-time messaging and integration for notifying other applications or middleware of business events in the applications.

Like all newer technologies, when building applications using AJAX technologies, due consideration has to be given to the security to prevent intrusions and security holes.

Let us know if you have any comments or contact us for more updates on this technology.

India Online Today !
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