Over 5 lakh have stake in Satyam's survival: CII

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Agencies Posted: Jan 10, 2009 at 1752 hrs IST

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Related Stories: YSR updates Prime Minister on Satyam caseSatyam fraud probe picks up pace, Raju grilledSFIO team will need magisterial consent to quiz RajuNo delay in taking action against Raju: Gupta‘Andhra Govt has nothing to do with Satyam scam’

New Delhi: The big question on survival of Satyam Computer is giving anxious moments not only to its over 50,000 employees but also to over half-a-million people, who would get impacted indirectly if the IT firm does not come out of the trouble, CII President K V Kamath said on Saturday.

Kamath said each of over 50,000 Satyam employees supports a family of four. "Every white collar job creates four another jobs. (So) you are talking about anything between half-a- million to a million people, who could directly or indirectly have been impacted by this single event," Kamath said.

He said the crisis had such a social magnitude that made the Government act swiftly and save the company. Besides CII, Assocham and Ficci have also welcomed disbanding of the Satyam board of directors by the government.

They expressed hope that the move would help restore investor confidence not only in Satyam but in corporate India in general.

 

Raju sent to central prison; CFO Vadlamani arrested

Raju sent to central prison; CFO Vadlamani arrested Hyderabad/New Delhi, Jan 10 (PTI) One more top official of Satyam was today arrested and disgraced founder Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju were sent to judicial custody as the government and regulator SEBI huddled in Delhi to put a new management together to run the IT company. Raju, who three days ago disclosed a financial fraud in the company running into thousands of crores over several years, and his brother were produced before the 6th Chief Metropolitan Magistrate who remanded them to judicial custody till January 23, their lawyer Bharat Kumar said. The siblings will be treated as "C" class prisoners vastly different from the luxury of their home in the posh Jubilee Hills and will be treated like other prisoners, jail officials said. Vadlamani Srinivas, Satyam Computer's Chief Financial Officer, who resigned a day after the fraud came to light and which is yet to be accepted, was first picked up in the evening for questioning and was later formally placed under arrest, IG (CID) V S K Kaumudi said. Srinivas has been arrested on the same charges that have been slapped on the Raju brothers--criminal conspiracy, cheating, use of forged documents, forgery and criminal breach of trust--under the Indian Penal Code, he said. In Delhi, SEBI Chairman C B Bhave called on Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta to discuss coordinated action against Satyam - whose profits Raju admitted to inflating over the years - besides nominating new directors to the company's Board. Gupta apprised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the developments. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy too called Singh to update him on the Satyam front, which the government has said dented corporate India's image globally.PTI

 

Court order clouds appointment of IIT directors

Court order clouds appointment of IIT directors

CHARU SUDAN KASTURI

New Delhi, Dec. 24: All current IIT directors were appointed by a process violating at least some of the laws cited by Madras High Court yesterday in setting aside the re-appointment of IIT Madras chief M.S. Ananth. Human resource development ministry documents accessed by The Telegraph reveal that the government never issued public notices inviting applications for the posts of directors, barring in IIT Bombay, to the institutes when they last fell vacant. Article 16 of the Constitution states that “there shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the state”. Article 14 refers to equal opportunities to all citizens. The high court cited these articles yesterday while declaring illegal the appointment of Ananth for a second term in 2007. “It is rather shocking that no public notice was given, no advertisement was given in newspapers for the post of director, thus violating Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution,” the court had said. HRD ministry officials today confirmed that the government planned to challenge the high court order against Ananth’s re-appointment. “We are still going through the judgment, but we have no option but to challenge this order as it affects all other directors as well,” an official said. The court, officials complained, failed to give the government adequate opportunity to contest the allegations based on which the IIT director’s appointment was set aside. The ministry may appeal either in Madras High Court, or — more likely — approach the Supreme Court, the sources said. If the high court verdict is upheld in any appeal, it will cast a cloud of uncertainty over the appointment of other directors, too. Section 17 of the IIT Act, 1961, states that “the director of each institute shall be appointed by the council with the prior approval of the Visitor (the President of India).” The council referred to is the IIT council, the highest decision-making body of the IITs, chaired by HRD minister Arjun Singh. But ministry documents establish that for at least three director appointments apart from Ananth’s re-appointment, no meeting of the council was called. The IIT council never met to deliberate on the appointment of the current IIT Kharagpur director. It also did not meet to decide the re-appointment of the current directors of IIT Guwahati and Kanpur, documents show. As reported by The Telegraph yesterday, the IIT council has not met for over two years. It is not clear whether the judge, Justice K. Chandru, expressly ruled against re-appointment of IIT directors in general, as the appellant E. Muralidharan had sought. “In any event, when once the term of office is specified under statute, the same cannot be extended beyond that period,” the judge had said. All directors are members of the IIT council, which under law is required to make fresh appointments to the post of director. Allowing reappointments will imply institutionalising conflict of interest, the appellant argued, as a candidate will be sitting on the panel deciding on his candidature.

 

Several engineers are UNEMPLOYABLE

Several engineers are UNEMPLOYABLE

 

Many engineering graduates just don’t have the right skills

 

Rajagopal Sreenivasan

 

   Bangalore may have many engineering students, but it looks as though many of them may be clueless about what they studied. In Bangalore alone, 25,000 engineering graduates are produced every year. But a recent survey shows that more than 30% of them are not skilled enough to be employed. In other words, they don’t know what they’ve studied or why they took it up in the first place.
   There may be several reasons for this such as parental pressure, and so on. But the the Indian education system is one of the prime culprits.
   A bit of investigation reveals the following facts: The teacher invests about two hours per subject to cram in the facts, figures, and derivations concerning it. But very little is being done to introduce the subject in a holistic sense. The relevance of the subject in the real world is hardly being emphasized.
   2. You can’t just blame the teachers. Assuming that the student does take pains to understand the subject on her own, more often than not, she meets a dead-end called exams, which reinforce the adage: curiosity killed the cat. Does more curiosity fetch more marks in a university exam? The answer is obvious.
   The approaches to a possible solution are: 1.Reduce the number of hours. Perhaps about one and half hours must be devoted to dwell on details concerning subject, and spend half an hour explaining its larger purpose and motivate them to study it.
   2. Exams must be made as unpredictable as possible. Standard question patterns in exams is a deterrent to learning. In reality, it’s ignorance that kills the cat but curiosity gets framed. Grades must bank on project work, interviews, interaction with peers and professors and, most importantly, on classroom discussions.
   Prof. S Sadagopan, director, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT_B) says: “Today’s students are well informed and fairly independent. They want engaging education. They prefer learning by doing. They want to solve challenging problems. All these make teaching them very different from what it used to be.”
   (The writer is a first year
   MTech student of IIIT-B)

 

Cabbie ends life

Cabbie ends life

 

Harassment By Firm Alleged

 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

 

Bangalore:
Drivers employed by Easy Cab and other cab operators protested in front of the Bengaluru International Airport, alleging that one of its drivers committed suicide because of harassment by the company.
   Prakash of Madhugiri, Tumkur district, consumed poison on November 30 and was admitted to KIMS Hospital by his neighbours. He died on Friday.
   Drivers’ Association representative Allah Baksh alleged that harassment by owners of the company pushed Prakash to suicide. It collected Rs 25,000 as advance, before handing over the car, but failed to fulfil the promise made to the driver on maintenance and repairs.
   The company also allegedly harassed Prakash to pay daily rentals, he said, demanding Rs 10 lakh as compensation for the driver’s family.
   Easy Cab manager Unnikrishnan denied that the company harassed Prakash and made promises on repairs and maintenance. The company cannot pay any compensation, he said.

 

Divorce rate up 30% in 3 yrs

Divorce rate up 30% in 3 yrs

 

Half The Cases In City Are From IT/BPO Industries

 

Dipannita Das | TNN

 

Bangalore: Digest this. The divorce rate in Bangalore has risen by an astonishing 30% in a short, three-year span. From 2,493 in 2005 to 3,243 this year, divorce filings before the family court are registering growth rates that would be the envy of any IT/BPO company. Incidentally, most of the cases do pertain to couples employed in Bangalore’s tech industry.
   While economic independence at the top end of the social strata is seen as motivator for women to opt out of bad marriages, at the lower end, it is the increased awareness of their rights, especially when confronted by abusive husbands. Increased societal acceptance of divorce, better access to courts and redressal mechanism are equally strong influencers.
   Advocates who deal in divorces say that more than 50% of cases filed are from the IT/BPO sector. While financial security is one factor, erratic working hours, work pressures, stress, all contribute to marital discord. Many professionals in IT/BPO sector find it difficult to strike work-life balance which impacts marriages negatively.
   Lawyers say that as the couple has the financial ability to cope with a split, there’s little effort made to make a difficult marriage work. This is borne out by the fact that in 30-40% of the cases, couples opt for divorce with mutual consent. Advocate B Srikumara of a legal firm says a majority of the tech couples heading towards splitsville are in their 20s and early 30s. Many married for a mere year or two. Women married to men a couple of years younger also seem to prefer divorce in noticeable numbers.

Sparring couples seek counsellors’ help


Bangalore: Divorce rates in Bangalore are on the rise. It isn’t as if only professional women are choosing to part from their spouses. Aarti Mundkur, an advocate, says women from all strata of society are coming forward to file for divorce. A large number of women seek divorce due to domestic violence and also because they are not valued or respected, she says.
   Couples do seek help from counsellors/psychiatrists to mend their relationship. Consultant psychiatrist Thomas MJ says the problem arises with long hours of work, night shifts, spending more time with colleagues, etc.

2 different scenarios, 1 result

Sudha and Amit,IT professionals, married for love. A year down the line it turned bitter. Her in-laws wanted her to do household chores when she returned from work. Finding it difficult to adjust, she filed for divorce.
   In another case, for Manjunath, an IT professional, the two years of married life did not work out. He could not spend quality time with his family. Working late at office he failed to pay attention to his wife or be a part in family decisions. Marital discord led to the couple separating by mutual consent.
   toiblr.reporter@timesgroup.com

 

 

Might is right for most US teens: survey

   More than a quarter of all US teenagers think violent behaviour is at least sometimes acceptable, and one in five say they behaved violently toward another person in the past year, according to a new poll.
   Most said self-defence (87%) or helping a friend (73%) were acceptable justifications for violence. But 34% said revenge was a sufficient motivation.
   The poll was conducted by Opinion Research for the school-support organization Junior Achievement and the tax and consulting firm Deloitte, LLC.
   More than three-fourths of the respondents who said violence is acceptable also consider themselves ethically prepared to
enter the work force, according to a report on LiveScience.com. That sticks in the craw of David W Miller, who is the director of the Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative and a professor of business ethics at the Princeton University.
   In an analysis released with the poll, Miller suggests the survey results bode ill for the future workforce. It’s not clear that’s the case, however. In fact, teens are known to think differently than adults because their brains have not matured. Scans reveal that teens’ ethics change dramatically as they grow into adulthood. Or do they?
   The survey of 750 young people (half boys, half girls) age 12 to 17 was conducted between October 9 and October 12. The results were released this week.
   “It is highly troubling that so many teenagers have a self-image of ethical readiness and the confidence in their ability to make good decisions later in life, yet at the same time freely admit to current behaviour that is highly unethical,” Miller said in a statement accompanying the poll results. “Employers will have their hands full if a quarter of teens grow up still willing to resort to violence and other unethical behavior when it comes to making decisions about how to settle differences, protect their interests or get ahead,” said Miller in a statement. AGENCIES

 

YOUNG ’N’ RESTLESS: More than a quarter of all US teenagers think violent behaviour is sometimes acceptable