B-school ISB graduates get record salaries Hyderabad : The Class of 2007 of the premier Indian School of Business (ISB) has attracted record salaries, with the top international offer being $269,000 (Rs.11.8 million) against the highest domestic offer of Rs.4.39 million, it was announced here Tuesday. The average international salary was $135,000 and the average domestic salary 1.50 million. Interestingly, a large number of students opted for domestic jobs. "The placement results for 2007 have been outstanding," ISB dean M. Rammohan Rao said. "There has been a sharp increase in the CTC (cost-to-company) levels and our students have shown immense confidence in making choices that suit long term career prospects over immediate salaries," he added. The Class of 2007 completed the one-year intensive Post Graduate Programme in Management April 7. Of the 416 students in the class, 414 participated in the placement process that concluded Tuesday and, among them, received 584 offers from over 200 companies that visited the campus during the last few months. The Class of 2008 will commence April 15. "The high CTC levels demonstrate the confidence that companies have in the high quality of the ISB's management talent," said Rao, even as he added a word of caution. "We need to take a balanced view of international offers given by multinational companies. I urge everyone to use these figures in the proper context so that potential students may get the correct picture of what they can achieve in a management institution." The Class of 2007 received offers from a variety of companies and industries. The number of offers from the financial services sector more than doubled to 97, while a large number of offers continued to come from consulting companies. Companies from several new sectors like real estate, oil and energy, media, manufacturing, micro- finance, education, and healthcare, as also NGOs, made offers to ISB graduates. This year, for the first time in ISB's six-year history, a company recruited two groups of four-to-five students as core management teams to run stand-alone businesses. These groups will have full responsibility of setting up the projects from ground zero and leading them to become a success. "The company has offered students both CTC and equity stakes in the project, making it an exciting and attractive option for students with an entrepreneurial bent of mind," ISB deputy dean Ajit Rangnekar said. The work experience of the students in the two groups ranges from two years to 11 years. An interesting trend witnessed at the ISB was that a large number of students preferred domestic placements. "Many ISB students come with international work experience. After a year of learning and exposure to global faculty and management practices, they are keen to develop careers in India," Rangnekar pointed out. Often, those opting for international offers were observed to be discussing with the recruiters the possibilities of returning to India. "Increasingly, job content and location are becoming top priorities for selecting an offer," Rangnekar said. Meera Sridharan, for instance, has opted for a domestic offer after working in a multinational company in the US. "Many of us look for challenging roles that give us the freedom for entrepreneurial expression. I was keen to be located in Chennai, near my family and I am happy that I got an offer from a company that had the flexibility to help me do so," she explained. One of the unique platforms ISB provides is an opportunity for students to make career shifts. Thus, from the automobile industry to banking, from transportation to telecom, from being a doctor in the armed forces to a fund financing NGOs, the Class of 2007 has made several interesting career shifts. "I had learnt and grown a lot during my career in the shipping industry but I needed to find new challenges," said Vijay Nehra, who has now moved to an FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) company. "ISB changed my life. I got an excellent opportunity to refresh myself and find a new career that fulfils my ambitions and gives me a completely new perspective," Nehra added. ISB is a research-oriented independent management institution that grooms future leaders for India and the world. Its association with the Kellogg School of Management, The Wharton School, and London Business School makes it a one-of-its-kind in Asia. The school offers a one-year postgraduate programme; short-duration, high-powered executive education programmes for CEOs and senior executives; and a two-year research fellowship programme. "The origins and distinctive research of our faculty members ensure that our programme content is contemporary and global in its perspective, and develops our students' understanding of modern management opportunities and challenges," dean Rao explained. Kwality Wall launches 'MOO' Hyderabad : Kwality Wall today introduced 'MOO', a calcium- enriched product with goodness of milk, on the occasion of World Health Day here. Actress Ramya Krishnan launched the product in the presence of a large number of kids. The product, a fun combination of vanilla and chocolate, has the goodness of milk and contains calcium equivalent to one glass of milk, Hindustan Lever Limited, Category Head, (ice creams), Sailesh Venkatesan said in a release. He said Kwality Wall's products were manufactured in factories with highly controlled quality and safety systems of global standards. ECIL profit zooms 131% Hyderabad : The Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL), has posted a record profit of Rs 120 crore on a gross turnover of Rs 1,017 crore in 2006-2007 representing 45 per cent increase in sales and 131 per cent increase in Profit Before Tax (PBT) over the previous year. ''The performance has been possible due to support from the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), especially Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, Department of Space, and Ministry of Defence,'' Company Chairman and Managing Director K S Rajasekhara Rao said. The company which comes under the DAE, had recorded Rs 700 crore business and Rs 22 crore profit the previous year. Mr Rao said the contributing factors to the excellent performance were the in-house R&D capabilities which facilitated ECIL in developing critical sub-systems indigenously relating to Defence and Nuclear Programmes that have in turn helped overcome technology denials in strategic areas to the nation. ''The company is evolving itself as a national asset in the field of strategic electronics. ''Currently it has an order book of Rs 500 crore with another Rs 800 crore in the pipeline. It is looking for at least 45 to 50 per cent growth in business in coming years. ''The added significance is its contribution in the supply of EVMs to the Election Commission of India,'' he added. Hutchison submits documents to FIPB New Delhi : Hutchison Telecom Tuesday submitted documents related to the acquisition of its stake in Hutch-Esaar by British telecom giant Vodafone Plc. to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). The FIPB, an inter-ministerial panel headed by Finance Secretary A.K. Jha, is of the view that Vodafone, along with minority stakeholders Asim Ghosh of Hutch-Essar and Max India chairman Analjit Singh, has breached the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit of 74 percent in the telecom sector. According to industry sources, Hutchison Telecom has apprised the FIPB of Ghosh's stake in Hutch- Essar. Both Ghosh and Singh have been questioned by authorities in Mumbai about the source of their investment in the firm to assess if the FDI in Hutch-Essar has breached the limit or not, they said. The FIPB is likely to meet Thursday to review the cases of Ghosh and Singh. Hong Kong-based tycoon Li-Kashing's Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd last month sold its majority stake of 52 percent in Hutch-Essar, India's fourth largest mobile phone operator, for $11.1 billion to Vodafone. After court rebuff MCD resumes sealing New Delhi : Snubbed by the court for not resuming sealing of illegal commercial units after civic polls, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Tuesday resumed the drive once again. Armed with adequate police forces, civic officials sealed nine commercial units running illegally in residential areas of Kailash Colony and Lajpat Nagar (both in south Delhi). "There were some security issues and now these have been sorted out. We would carry out the drive Wednesday as well," MCD chief spokesman Deep Mathur told IANS. Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court came down heavily on civic officials and Delhi Police chief K.K. Paul for not carrying out the drive from April 8. After a court order, MCD had restarted the drive in the last week of March but had accepted the court request to halt the drive between April 3 and 7. MCD went to polls April 5 and the results were declared April 7. However, authorities did not resume the drive from April 8 citing non-availability of adequate police force. "It has become too much, everyone feels the Supreme Court is the most unimportant organisation," the apex court said. The apex Tuesday also sentenced Delhi BJP legislator H.S. Bali to three months' imprisonment for breaking the seals of some illegal commercial units. Bihar not implementing social sector schemes: minister New Delhi : Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has singled out Bihar for not properly implementing the central government's social sector programmes. Singh, a member of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), was talking to newsmen here Tuesday after holding a two-day workshop of district-level officers at Vigyan Bhawan here. The workshop was organised to study the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) that has been enforced in 313 districts in India. Asked about the performance of district-level officers from Bihar, Singh said: "They do not pass. Their results show only 27 percent success. How can I pass them when they have not even achieved 30 percent? They are doing a fraud that is why they cannot go ahead. No good can come of tricks." "We had identified 23 districts in Bihar last year. The officers had announced that they are extending the scheme all over the state. But they have no employment officers." The minister, who hails from Bihar, gave an instance of his village, saying, "When I went to my village, people complained they were not being given job cards. When I asked the village head he said the state government had given him only 50 job cards whereas the demand is for 200. This is a demand-driven scheme and not supply-driven." So far NREGS has been put into effect in 313 districts across the country. Seventeen more districts from Uttar Pradesh will be added to the list after the state's assembly elections are over. Singh said Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are some of the states that have done very well in terms of physical social audit. In terms of utilising the funds allocated for the scheme, Nagaland topped the list by using 89 percent funds, followed by Tripura with 88 percent whereas Maharashtra reported the lowest utilisation with only 39 percent, said a source. SPICE venturing into mobile movies production Bangalore : Spice Communications Private Limited, the flagship company of MCorpGlobal, is venturing into production of Mobile movies, for which talks with leading film Directors have begun, company Chairman Dr B K Modi said today. Talking to newspersons here, he said ''the process has begun and the first movie with SPICE colour will be released shortly.'' Dr Modi said that to strengthen the company's global position, it had redefined the scope of operations and drafted a strategic growth path with the focus on seizing new opportunities globally, harnessing cutting-edge digital and wireless technologies in Information, Communication and Entertainment and pooling resources and sharing knowledge to accelerate growth. ''We have set our sights on the global landscape equipped with an arsenal of strong intellectual capital, joint venture expertise, global connectivity, rich experience and a solid set of values,'' he added. He said his group would be entering the retail sector and more than 2,000 shops would be opened shortly. The Stracon Back Office Solution Limited, a joint venture of MCorpGlobal and Stracon India Limited, proposed to expand its facility from the present 300 seats to 3,000 within a year in Delhi Mumbai and Bangalore, he said. Dr Modi said ''the company wants to expand the domestic BPO space and emerge as a dominant operator through organic and inorganic routes. Stracon has strategised its growth phase to achieve a seat capacity of 5,000 in a year, 10,000 in two years and 17,000 in three years.'' The future plans included alliance with a large US-based BPO operator to strengthen its place in the international offshore BPO space and setting up onsite BPO operations in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia, he said. ICICI Bank, Megamart launch co-branded credit card Bangalore :  Private sector ICICI Bank and Megamart, the country's premier apparel discount chain, today jointly launched a co-branded credit card here. Speaking on the occasion, Arvind Brands Chief Operating Officer J Suresh said Megamart, offering lifestyle solutions to its customers at competitive prices, had joined hands with the ICICI Bank to together attract a large network of consumers and serve them in a better manner. He said Megamart had plans to expand its network to tier-II cities and increase its stores from the present 54 to 150 in the next five years. The company would invest Rs 30 to 40 crore for the purpose, he added. Bank General Manager and Head of Cards Product Group Sachin Khandelwal said the venture would provide the bank with ample opportunities to expand and grow in the retail segment. He said that with the cards, widely accepted both in India and abroad, customers could convert purchases above Rs 1,500 at Megamart into EMI for three months at zero per cent interest. Other special privileges to the customers include exclusive cash counters, free alteration of garments and special promotions from time to time. Oracle Fusion Middleware deployment crosses 200 Bangalore : Oracle today announced that leading Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) across India and the Asia Pacific have deployed over 200 solutions on Oracle Fusion Middleware. With Oracle Fusion Middleware, ISVs no longer need a variety of proprietary middleware technologies to integrate with different components of Oracle's Enterprise Applications family. Instead, ISVs use Oracle Fusion Middleware as a common integration and business process management technology to integrate with Oracle Applications, including Oracle E-Business Suite, Mr J D Edwards, PeopleSoft and Siebel products, said in a release here. Customers could now leverage open, complete, standards-based service-oriented architecture (SOA) solutions spanning Oracle and its partner solutions. Both customers and ISVs would benefit from lower costs of implementation, accelerated delivery times and a lower cost in the event of future changes. India and other Asia Pacific ISVs representing a variety of industries, including Financial Services, Telecommunications, Manufacturing, Retail, Pharmaceuticals, Health Care and Public Sector, have turned to Oracle Fusion Middleware to deliver more comprehensive offerings for their targeted markets, the release said.