Hiring sentiment at 18-month high

Bangalore, whose job market is characterised by high attrition and also a positive hiring sentiment, has seen its employment outlook rise considerably to become double that of the other cities.

According to the latest Employment Outlook Report for the period July - September 2010 released by TeamLease Services, the hiring sentiment is at an 18-month high for the present quarter beginning July and ending September 2010.

Meanwhile, tier-II cities experienced a significant increase (3 per cent) in hiring intent to 19 per cent — an all time high, indicative of the talent supply potential of these geographies. Hiring at the junior and entry levels of organisational hierarchy are set to make a strong comeback with 17 per cent and 11% increases in hiring intent — the biggest rise after more than 24 months of stagnant or negative growth in index value.

‘Best salary package’ remains the top-most reason for an employee to look for better opportunities in the IT sector in Bangalore.

The Employment Outlook for the quarter has moved up by 6 per cent and stands at 64 per cent. The Business Outlook Index has also risen by 5 per cent to 61 index points, but doubles itself over the course of four quarters.

TeamLease releases the Employment Outlook Report every quarter after a survey administered to the HR heads, CEOs and Senior Management of leading companies in India.

The study, which covered 568 companies in the latest round, focuses on the employment growth potential, the business outlook and hiring forecasts with relation to the location and the company profile.

Website link for school updates

City schools are going learn online to keep guardians up to date with their wards’ progress and help students learn online lessons they have missed in class.

The stress is on regular interaction between parents and teachers and even the principal. Lakshmipat Singhania Academy (LSA), for instance, is would facilitate the process through their website.

“Each parent will soon have a log-in id for the school’s website. Information on a child’s progress in academics and his extra-curricular feats will be provided on the website. The lessons taught in class on each day will be mentioned,” says Meena Kak, the principal of LSA.

“Teachers will also write about special achievements of a child, such as a painting or a creative writing assignment done well,” she adds.

Amishi Vora, parent of a LSA student, feels that access to such information will be very helpful. “If a parent or a child cannot go to school daily or if the child has not understood the teacher’s instructions clearly, an interactive website can be of immense help.”

Newer schools like Sri Sri Academy and South City International have websites that are updated at least once a week. Among the older ones, Modern High School is redesigning its website with the help of former students.

In some schools, the website has become the gateway to virtual learning. The Heritage School’s e-pathshala is one such project.

Principal Seema Sapru says: “Whatever we teach on the interactive board in the class, including the voice of the teacher, is recorded and uploaded on our website. This helps students who were absent from school to catch up with lessons they have missed and for others to revise their lessons, especially during exams.”

Regular, direct communication between teachers and parents promises benefits.

Clinical psychologist Rajyasree Bandopadhyay cites cases where children were affected because their teachers wrote complaints in their diary so that their parents would see.

“Children these days are very sensitive and we have seen quite a few student suicides in the recent past after parent calls. Interactive websites will allow a teacher to discuss a child’s shortcomings with the parent without the child knowing,” she says.

“We usually make appointments or communicate over email with the principal, but if there is a separate id for each class teacher and each parent, the discussions will be more focussed and useful,” says Tapasi Sarkar, whose son is in Calcutta Boys’ School.

Some are wary about the misuse of the online communication channel.

“I am a bit apprehensive that once virtual communication starts, some parents might cross the limit and start abusing or finding fault with every aspect of a class,” says Malini Bhagat, the principal of Mahadevi Birla Girls’ Higher Secondary School.

She feels parents should only have partial information about what goes on in a classroom and should only be allowed to comment on certain issues.

Joseph Mathew, the principal of Indus Valley World School, also feels that “emailing is enough for the moment”.

A second trailer for "The Social Network" has been brought forward to further tease audience.

Still not featuring any scene from the movie, the sneak peek video manages to explain more about the storyline as it sees a page of chatting room where the main characters join the conference. Not only the conversation between the characters can be seen, but also a glimpse of their faces are also featured.

Based on Ben Mezrich's novel "The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal", the film focuses on the drama behind the Harvard dorm room creation of popular social networking site Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates. However, co-founder Eduardo Saverin fell out with Zuckerberg over money, leading him to file lawsuit against Zuckerberg.

Jesse Eisenberg plays Zuckerberg, while Andrew Garfield is tapped to portray Saverin. Justin Timberlake is additionally cast as Sean Parker, the Napster co-founder who became Facebook's founding president. Other cast members include Rashida Jones, Rooney Mara, and Brenda Song.

Directed by David Fincher and Thomas Schlamme, this drama movie is slated for October 1 release in the U.S. A second trailer for "The Social Network" has been brought forward to further tease audience.

Still not featuring any scene from the movie, the sneak peek video manages to explain more about the storyline as it sees a page of chatting room where the main characters join the conference. Not only the conversation between the characters can be seen, but also a glimpse of their faces are also featured.

Based on Ben Mezrich's novel "The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal", the film focuses on the drama behind the Harvard dorm room creation of popular social networking site Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates. However, co-founder Eduardo Saverin fell out with Zuckerberg over money, leading him to file lawsuit against Zuckerberg.

Jesse Eisenberg plays Zuckerberg, while Andrew Garfield is tapped to portray Saverin. Justin Timberlake is additionally cast as Sean Parker, the Napster co-founder who became Facebook's founding president. Other cast members include Rashida Jones, Rooney Mara, and Brenda Song.

Directed by David Fincher and Thomas Schlamme, this drama movie is slated for October 1 release in the U.S.

TechHub startup centre gets Google backing

London's newest startup workspace and networking center for TechHub has just scored sponsorship from Google, it announced today, ahead of the the launch party on Friday and official opening on Monday 12 July. TechHub has scored funding from Google

TechHub is based at Silicon Roundabout on Old Street and is already sponsored by Pearson. Membership, with various access to events, cheap hot desking and room hire, is £300 per year and desk space is £275 per month. For startups who are ready to move out of the spare bedroom but don't want the expense and commitment of a commercial lease, these kind of shared workspaces work well.

TechHub is designed to be a central meeting place for visiting entrepreneurs and investors, a venue for tech events and networking and shared workspace. A mobile testing lab is also planned, and Google has said it has more planned for the project. Given Google's particular focus on mobile in London, that's likely to be a focus and TechHub would be a likely location for more hack events. That's a pretty simple way to put yourself in the thick of it.

China Money Rate Climbs as AgriBank Sells Shares to Investors

China’s money-market rate climbed for the first time in three days on speculation Agricultural Bank of China Ltd.’s sale of shares will drain liquidity in the financial system.

Agricultural Bank, the country’s largest lender by customers, plans to raise as much as $20.1 billion by selling stock in Shanghai and Hong Kong. It started offering shares online to both individual and institutional investors today. Industrial Securities Co. estimated in a report today as much as 500 billion yuan ($73.8 billion) will be locked up during the online money subscription period.

“The increasing demand for cash is caused by the online money subscription of AgriBank’s shares,” said Chen Liang, a bond analyst at Guohai Securities Co. in Shenzhen. “After investors who fail to secure full allocations of stock receive their funds back on July 9, the seven-day repo rate will drop to about 2.3 percent.”

The seven-day repurchase rate, which measures interbank funding availability, rose 19 basis points to 2.69 percent as of the 4:30 p.m. close in Shanghai, according to the National Interbank Funding Center. Yesterday’s close of 2.50 percent was the lowest since June 10.

The People’s Bank of China kept the yield on one-year bills at 2.0929 percent at a sale today, unchanged for a fourth week, according to a statement on the central bank’s website. China should focus on stable foreign trade growth to strengthen the economy, Xinhua news agency cited Vice Premier Wang Qishan as saying in a meeting yesterday.

“The stable bill yield shows the authorities are taking a wait and see approach,” said Guohai’s Chen. “The rate may stay stable till August.”

Weaker Yuan

The yuan weakened 0.06 percent to 6.7801 per dollar, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. It’s appreciated 0.7 percent since a two-year currency peg was relaxed on June 19. The central bank set the reference rate at 6.7790, 0.08 percent weaker than yesterday’s.

“The yuan’s spot rate is simply following the fixing today,” said Guan Jiaying, an analyst in Beijing at China Citic Bank Co., a unit of China’s biggest state investment company.

Government bonds rose on optimism the central bank will refrain from pulling money from the interbank market to sustain expansion in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

Risks to Growth

Premier Wen Jiabao said over the weekend the government faces increasing “dilemmas” as the impact of the global financial crisis is more severe than expected. He pledged to maintain continuity in setting policy amid “very complicated” situations at home and abroad.

“The market believes the central bank will ensure ample liquidity as economic growth faces risks of a slowdown,” said Tang Guohui, a bond analyst at Industrial Securities Co. in Shanghai.

The yield on the 3.25% note due May 2020 declined three basis points to 3.22%, and the price of the security gained 0.25 per 100 yuan face amount to 100.29, according to the China Interbank Bond Market. A basis point is 0.01% point.

Google acts to fix YouTube flaw exploited by hackers.

YouTube has been forced to fix a flaw allowing hackers to bombard users with fake pop-up messages and redirect them to adult sites. Hackers placed code in the comments section, under targeted videos, that would run when people watched the clip.

In some cases, a pop-up screen appeared reporting that the Canadian singer, Justin Bieber, had died in a car crash. Google, which owns YouTube, said that it had fixed the problem "about two hours" after it was discovered.

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities are relatively simple attacks that allow hackers to place code into web pages. In the YouTube incident, hackers used JavaScript code and HTML, both commonly used on web pages.

Security experts said that although in most cases the code was relatively benign, it has been used for more malicious purposes. Phishing is a common tactic used by cyber criminals and involves using fake websites to lure people into revealing details such as bank accounts or login names.

Google said it was "continuing to study the vulnerability to help prevent similar issues in the future". When the vulnerability was first reported, rumors suggested that YouTube was infected with a virus.