Lodha invests Rs.2000 cr for world’s tallest homes
Real estate firm Lodha Developers will invest Rs 2,000 crore to develop the world’s tallest residential tower in Mumbai to cash in on the continued surge in home prices in India’s commercial capital.
Lodha Developers will start bookings by the end of this month and expects to complete the project by 2014 and roll out 300 residential apartments and notch sales of about Rs 5,000 crore from the project.Once complete, the 117-storey tower will be close to half-a-km tall, dwarfing the present tallest residential tower, Queensland Number One, in Australia that has a height of 323 meter. Christened as World One, the tower will be higher than some of the iconic global landmarks including Sears Tower in Chicago, Jin Mao Building in Shanghai and The Empire State Building in New Work.
“It is not about the tallest tower, but we are looking at providing our customers a great experience to live in,” noted Mr Lodha.
The tower will come up on the 17-acre plot of the defunct Shrinivas Mill in Lower Parel, central Mumbai, which the Lodhas bought nearly five-years ago. It will house three and four BHKs, lavish villas with private pools and some super-luxurious duplex flats.
It will have over 5 acres of landscape area, including an 80,000 square feet sports club at a height of 175 feet above ground. It will also have an observatory at a height of 1,000 ft. Flats will carry a minimum price tag of Rs 7.5 crore.
The State propecia sterility Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC), an environment body comprising independent experts and former bureaucrats, has objected to the plan and asked the developer to revise the proposal. An advisory body set up by the Centre to Scrutinize construction and infrastructure projects in the state, the SEAC criticized the Lodha Group and two other developers IndiaBulls and DB Group in its meeting on May24-26, saying their projects sought “unacceptably high”construction area.
The company has hired the services of New York-based architects Pei Cobb Freed and Partners, which has completed nearly 200 architectural marvels across the globe, including Louvre Pyramid in Paris, Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong and John Hancock Tower in Boston. The company, which deferred its initial share sale last year, will launch an IPO once the market is stable, said Mr Lodha. Lodha can now ask for higher valuations due to its ownership on two iconic buildings.
Last month, the company bagged a 22.5-acre property in Mumbai after bidding Rs 4,050 crore in the country’s biggest land deal.
It has asked the groups to revise their plans, saying they needed to reduce the proposed construction area, and raised concerns overstrain on infra- structure water supply, waste generation, population density in overcrowded areas in the island city.
Indiabulls has been asked to amend proposals for two projects in Lower Parel, at Indiabulls Centre and Elphinstone Mills, which are both residential and commercial in nature. The total construction area for these two projects is 12.2 times and 12.6 times the net plot area respectively. In the minutes of its meeting held recently, the SEAChas said the buy cheap acomplia India bulls plot share already used Floor Space Index(FSI) meant for IT projects and have nows ought FSI for public parking.
This would lead to an unacceptably adverse impact on the environment in terms of increased traffic, demand on water, waste generation, and reduction in open spaces.
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Source: [Economic Times India Times]
Will job prospect for U.S. IT professionals fare better or worse for the rest of 2010?
It’s hard to tell from the latest economic and employment data being released by IT career experts. Reports issued in the first week of June provide conflicting information about IT hiring, compensation, and outsourcing trends. On the plus side, these reports say IT cheapest generic propecia hiring will increase during the second half of 2010, and CIOs are more optimistic about their budgets and staffing levels than they were a year ago
As evidence of the volatility, Foote points to the May 2010 U.S. Department of Labor National Employment Report, which showed a net loss of 100 IT-related jobs in May, following a gain of 8,800 jobs in April. He says the unpredictability is the result of companies making wholesale changes to their IT staffs, with more work being outsourced to contractors rather than full-time employees.
Some of the more interesting trends that we’ve culled from the latest IT salary and hiring surveys:
1. Expect more churn in IT staff as CIOs accelerate their move to more flexibile staffing models, says Foote Partners. CIOs are outsourcing more technical work, including managed IP services such as VoIP and VPNs. They’re hiring more contractors for desktop and security services, and they’re putting more applications such as remote backup in the cloud. At the same time, they’re looking to hire IT people with business and analytical skills, such as risk management and project management. All of this means more turn over in IT departments.
2. IT hiring will grow in the second half of 2010, according to Dice.com. The Dice.com Web site, which lists tech job openings, conducted a survey of IT hiring managers and recruiters, and nearly half of them said they plan to add 10 percent more employees in the next six months than they did in the first half of the year. Another 28 percent of respondents plan to increase hiring by 11 percent to 20 percent
3. Banks are starting to hire IT staff, but they are in no hurry to fill open jobs, says Dice.com. Dice says banks are looking for IT professionals who can manage new technology or integration projects, but that they are taking from six to eight months to fill open jobs. This compares to three or four months to fill jobs prior to the recession. Dice said banks are being “really selective” and are looking for “exact matches” for their detailed job descriptions.
4. IT pros are getting paid slightly more than last year, says Janco Associates’ mid-year IT salary survey. Total mean compensation for IT pros has increased to $78,210 from $77,690 a year ago – a rise of less than 1 percent. However, most of the additional money is going to CIOs, and not their staffs. Lower-level IT pros, on the other hand, are experiencing reduced bonuses, frozen salaries and in some cases they are being asked to pay a greater portion of their healthcare costs. One positive sign: companies are more willing to consider flexible hours and work schedules as a low-cost benefit for IT workers.
5. CIO confidence is up, according to a survey released in June by Robert Half Technology. The survey found that 10 percent of CIOs plan to expand their IT departments in the third quarter of 2010, while 4 percent plan to reduce staffing.
6. Job hopping is on the rise, prompting CIOs to worry more about IT staff retention. A recent report found that more Americans quit their jobs in the last three months than were fired. The rise in voluntary departures is prompting CIOs to worry about retaining their best IT staff.
7. CIOs say networking and security top their list of hot IT skills. CIOs surveyed by Robert Half Technology said they had the hardest time filling jobs in networking, applications development and security. Other hot skills include software development, database management and help desk/technical support. Similarly, a recent survey of 400 U.K. recruitment consultants found that IT security skills were most in demand for permanent hires.
8. Government, usually the safest sector of the economy in a downturn, has announced more job cuts this year than any other employer. Challenger, Gray & Christmas said government agencies and nonprofits announced more job cuts than any other industry segment in May. The sector shed 16,697 jobs in May, 12 percent more than the job cuts announced in April. All total, the sector has shed 93,470 jobs in 2010.
What’s driving the cuts are state and municipality budget problems, which are likely to continue due to lower tax revenues and stagnant housing values.
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Source: acomplia bestellen [Info World]
IT employee referrals gather steam
Information technology companies in India are intensifying their employee referral programmes, besides doubling the referral money and other perks for niche, ‘hard-to-find’ positions, even as the IT industry is steadily treading the growth path post the economic downturn for almost 18 months.
For instance, IT, consulting online pharmacy propecia and BPO services provider Cognizant’s employee referral programme Bring Another You (BAY) which has been in place since the 1990s launches a new programme every month involving novel referral incentive such as fly out on a vacation, win a brand new car and double the referral money. At present, referrals account for more than 40 per cent of its annual hires.
Employee referral programme sets in a multiplier effect, with each of the referred candidates becoming potential referral points to recruit other peers from the industry. Once on board, these candidates also exhibit greater bonding and display enhanced team spirit. The incentive ranges from Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000 per candidate, depending on the level at which the candidate is referred and inducted. While cost effectiveness is the crux benefit, the methodology of referral payments brings in retention factor for both the associate and the person he/she refers. Besides, we were able to address nascent attrition through the employee referral process as the new hire is well inducted much before joining the company
Are there any flip sides to the employee referral programmes? There is always the likelihood of a small number of employees misusing the facility. However, stringent processes like regular and exhaustive audits and having a mandatory panel interview before the candidate is evaluated by the hiring manager will help curb any malpractices
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Source: [Business acomplia diet Standard]
Liquidity state of Indian Government’s finances
The Indian government has acomplia blogs a cash balance of around Rs 480 billion with the central bank currently and will spend it gradually rather than at one go, three sources with direct knowledge of the issue said. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is ready to expand liquidity support to the system if the need arises, a source said late on Tuesday, adding that the bank has its own estimate of the expected outflow as a result of advance taxes as well as payment towards the broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum.
Concerns of cash tightening sharply during this period has surfaced despite the RBI allowing banks to borrow an additional 0.5 per cent of their deposits from the central bank through the daily liquidity support window till July 2 due to the slow pace of government spending.
Traders in the bond market are expecting about Rs 300 billion to flow out of the system as advance tax payment on June 15 and another 350 billion rupees through BWA spectrum sale at the same time. About 300 billion rupees of this money may be used to repay does propecia really work the government’s loans from the RBI under Ways and Means Advances, a central bank official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Spending of cash surpluses by the government will bring the money back to the banking system, easing the current liquidity tightness which pushed the overnight money rates to over 5 per cent from 3.75 per cent two weeks ago.
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Source: [Economic Times India Times]
A company as beautiful as a work of art
Is it possible to create a company as beautiful as a work of art? This was the question Bill Witherspoon asked himself. An artist who struggled hard in the early 70’s painting day after day, he went on later to sell his paintings for tidy sums. Once Witherspoon offered to tear out the ceiling in an orthodontist’s office and replace it with a skyscape made from painted tiles in exchange for braces for his children. That act of creative barter provided the idea for The Sky Factory, a $3.9 million, 34-employee company in Fairfield, Iowa. The business makes backlit images of sea and sky that are installed on ceilings and walls. Its products are popular in hotels, spas, restaurants, and hospitals.
Founded in 2002, The Sky Factory was Witherspoon’s answer to his question. This ‘beautiful company’ was formed by removing rules that restricted people’s expression of natural curiosity and creativity, and thus had a flat organizational structure that had no employees, just owners, where everyone does what is best for the company. The company like a painting started with a blank canvas with each talented individual creating comprar rimonabant beauty with each thoughtful act of his or her, like each brush stroke of a painting in progress, making propecia and shedding working an enjoyable and creative process.
Witherspoon lays out from his experience five essential contributing principles required in running a beautiful company.
- Everyone in the company knows everything in the company.
- Everyone is a leader by virtue of innately doing the job they see that the company needs them to do.
- Decisions are made with everyone’s contribution and resolve.
- A culture of spontaneous selfless service to each other.
- Sharing profits regularly in a fair and simple manner.
Witherspoon admits that the Sky Factory is not a perfectly successful experiment. The system can sometimes seem inefficient, slow in decision making and uncomfortable to some. Not everyone’s needs are met every time. But this is a novel way of working which gives everyone a deeper understanding of the company product and most importantly the vision to see the company as a whole and not just a sum of its parts. Witherspoon believes that this appreciation of what the company is doing is what keeps great people here, and great people will ensure that The Sky Factory endures. After all, that’s what great art does, Endures.
Source: [Inc]
Luxury brands feel talent pinch
Entering the Indian market may have seemed an attractive proposition for luxury brands, but there’s one thing they didn’t bargain for: manpower challenge. Luxury brands are being forced to recruit from industries like hospitality and telecom, run extensive training programmes and even poach manpower from mature luxury markets like the Middle East. The Indian luxury industry is still in its sunrise days.
Since most brands are new in India, there are very few trained persons who can be hired. The scene will only change gradually, he adds. With the world’s fastest-growing population of millionaires, India is a lucrative market for luxury brand makers. The country currently accounts for around 2-3% of the global luxury industry, but is projected to grow annually at 25% till 2015.
There are nearly 8 million consumers in India with an annual income of Rs 40 lakh or above, who are the prime targets of these brands. LVMH, which manages brands like TAG Heuer, Christian Dior and Zenith, order rimonabant online sees India amongst the top five markets for TAG Heuer globally, and carries out extensive career planning for individuals here.
Japan’s luxury watch maker Seiko, which entered India in 2007 with a wholly-owned subsidiary, hired people from varied sectors like IT, consumer electronics and telecom. It undertakes month-long training programmes to groom new recruits on how to sell products and connect with consumers.
While the core skills may remain the same, they need to be tailored for the luxury industry. Some recruits are even sent to our global headquarters in Tokyo and other production hubs to over the counter propecia understand what the brand stands for!
Headhunters estimate the Indian luxury industry will create nearly one lakh jobs over the next five years. Since the country’s organised retail industry has matured a bit, some seasoned professionals will move up the ladder in the luxury business. As the luxury market operates with high margins, the compensation levels will also rise
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Source: [Economic Times India Times]
Mother Dairy aims to become retail giant
Mother Dairy, one of the country’s largest milk processors, plans to roll out a chain of exclusive retail outlets, named ‘Gaurav Stores’, to market the entire range of its products across India. According to company sources, it has planned to launch 350 exclusive stores in New Delhi and 200 retail outlets in Mumbai in the first phase, to be expanded later in all major cities. The company owns a network of booths in Delhi to market the dairy products. The new concept has been introduced to create a better brand and street visibility, to consolidate its position in the wake of growing competition.
According to Sanjay Sinha, Head (Milk and Dairy Products Business) of Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetable Ltd, the entire retail operation would be conducted through the franchise route. The products would be available at the multi-brand retail chains and standalone kirana stores, too, but the ‘Gaurav Stores’ would be a one-stop shop for all Mother Dairy products. Mother Dairy registered year-on-year growth of 30 per cent on product business and 10 per cent growth of milk business last year. The new branding initiatives are a must to face the stiff competition..
He said it processed 3.2 million litres of milk every day and had sufficient capacities to meet the demand for the next few years. Mother Dairy also has seven ice-cream plants and nine milk processing plants in Delhi and two milk processing units in Andhra Pradesh. They are associated with over 100,000 farmers in Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, whom they provide extension services to get the required quality of milk, he said. Since Ice-cream sales contribute substantially to business, only followed by milk, so there is a major focus to experiment regularly to retain and increase the market share.
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Source: propecia 1mg 5mg acomplia order [Business Standard]
Why over 1500 B-schools could shut down in the next two years
Imagine this: there are over 2,400 b-schools in India of which 1,999 are approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and 400 functions as unapproved private b-schools. Together, they have nearly 190,000 seats for a total pool of 3.5-4 lakh MBA aspirants who sit for the national and state-level MBA entrance exams.
If we hypothetically consider that the average fees charged by these b-schools is about Rs 200,000, then the total potential revenue for b-schools in India equals Rs 3,800 crores. As the number of seats is fewer than the total pool of available students, getting students to enroll should not be a problem for these 2,400 b-schools, on the face of it.
Every year, since the last 2-3 years, an increasing number of b-schools are finding it tougher to fill the complete intake capacity of their MBA or PGDM batches by the time they begin their sessions in the month of June. That’s excluding 50 of the best known (‘top 50?, if you will) b-schools, which have enough pull effect to attract excellent numbers and thereby have the privilege of even providing a waiting-list for prospective students.
The worry is with the second and third tier of b-schools. Almost all of them are privately owned and funded and many were set up with the noble intention to provide management education to those Indians who could not get through to the best b-schools. Some were also set up to provide education to a special section of the society. However as of today, death looms large on these b-schools.
Consider some numbers for example: in the year 2003, out of the 95,000 odd students who appeared for the Common Admission Test (CAT), the ratio of fresher to those with substantial work experience was about 60:40. Moving forward to 2008 and 2009, the number of CAT takers increased to over 250,000 of which more than 60% had work experience.
In 2003, propecia pregnant women freshers chose higher education due to the fact that the economy then promised them something really big if they spent two years arming themselves with more skills before venturing out into the job market. On the other hand, those who were employed for 4 or more years were already happy, or had families and never bothered so much with a 2-year fulltime MBA in India. There were fewer b-schools in the country, and filling up their intake capacity wasn’t that much of a challenge. In the last couple of years, since 2008, things have been really bad for most of these private b-schools. The student market response to their advertising and branding messages has been appallingly cold. Overall, things look very bad for them.
The fresher’s on the other hand, are always the confused lot. If they get into a ‘top 50? b-school, most will join it in all likelihood. If not, then they start looking at the next best options (driven largely by the kind of placements the remaining b-schools offer). This translates to a very slow decision process, as students try to make sense of the offerings of these schools, which don’t differ too much from each other.
This leads to almost a mini recession-like situation, wherein a couple of thousand b-schools have over 1.5 lakh empty MBA or PGDM seats on offer but no takers. Spending on advertisements in the print media and other publicity avenues (seminars, education fairs) has little or no effect in generating applicant interest.
In order to break this standoff, several b-schools get hold of ‘leads’ (a ‘lead’ in industry-speak is the contact information of an MBA aspirant) from websites, coaching institutes or other sources. They then start calling up these fresher’s at least 30 times to get them to apply. That produces frustration order acomplia on both ends. For aspirants it doesn’t mean anything that the b-school is looking for genuine candidates to apply to them. The route down the regression road is thus laid out.
Add to that the growing trend of multinational companies recruiting undergraduates for the same jobs (analysts, sales and marketing executives, jobs in KPOs, auditor firms, equity research, etc) that one gets after a second-tier MBA. This is further pushing more fresher applicants towards the experienced category, further reducing their availability to second and third tier schools.
Pertinent questions remain:
1. What is lacking in them that they do not have a ‘pull effect’ like the top-50 do?
2. What have b-schools such as ISB Hyderabad or Great Lakes, Chennai done that has allowed them to gain a reputation in less than a decade?
3. Do the marketing and admissions teams in these schools have more members than the total number of fulltime faculty members?
4. How do these schools do when put to the scrutiny of the best academic standards and fora?
The trouble is that with the kind of ’sweatshop way’ of working that these b-schools internally have, it is difficult that they will see the light. Extinction is a big threat and sooner or later they will have to think of questions that matter, or perish.
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Source: [Pagal Guy]