TCS, Infy, Wipro to use NAC-Tech test for hiring

In a move to filter the 'quality' of engineering graduates hired,  software majorsTCS , Infosys, Wipro, Accenture, Cognizant andHCL have agreed to use the NAC-Tech test or the Nasscom assessment for competence in technology test.
According to ET Now, this test will serve as a pre-requisite for entry level hiring in the technology sector. Industry body Nasscom has been pushing for the adoption of this initiative. This has been done in light of the fact that huge retraining costs are incurred by the IT companies.
The scores of this test will be calibrated with the internal test that these companies will conduct for all the engineering students. The additional filtering mechanism will improve the quality of intake, Nasscom hopes.
The placement season for engineering students will start in the month of September. With this important development, it needs to be seen whether IT companies will hire in large numbers that they usually do.
Notwithstanding the economic uncertainty, fresher recruitment and salary levels saw an upward trend in the IT and ITeS sector during the January-March quarter of 2012 compared to other sectors in the same period, a survey showed.
The survey findings reveal that IT and ITeS Sector had recruited 24 per cent freshers in the last quarter of FY'12 of their total hiring, a surge of 9 per cent from the year-ago period.
Besides, salary level in campus placements was up by 8 per cent in IT and ITeS.
Overall, recruitment index has risen by 11 per cent in January-March quarter to 24 per cent.
Among the nine industries surveyed, infrastructure sector recruited 21 per cent freshers, followed by engineering and manufacturing and automobile sector (18 per cent), retail (16 per cent) and FMCG (14 per cent).
"The fresher's hiring trend this year looks upbeat with IT majors recruiting more compared to last year. The fresher's recruitment market had seen growth in terms of number of hiring and salary," said Rajesh Kumar, CEO, MyHiringClub, which conducted the survey.
In terms of geography, Bangalore, hub of IT and ITeS companies witnessed a maximum fresher recruitment of 24 per cent followed by Delhi-NCR (21 per cent), Chennai (18 per cent), Mumbai (15 per cent), Hyderabad (13 per cent) and Kolkata (10 per cent).

CUT THE ROPE: IE GAME

Microsoft reveals three editions of its next-generation operating system

Microsoft reveals three editions of its next-generation operating system

Microsoft on Monday announced that there will be three editions of its next-generation Windows 8 operating system: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT. The Redmond-based company detailed each edition on its blog and promised “all editions of Windows 8 offer a no-compromise experience.” Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro will support PCs and tablets powered by x86 processors, while Windows RT will be reserved for ARM-powered devices. The basic edition of Windows 8 is aimed at the average consumer, while the Windows 8 Pro edition is designed for tech enthusiasts and business and technical professionals and the RT edition is aimed at lighter-duty devices.
The Pro edition comes with all the features in Windows 8 plus encryption, virtualization, PC management and domain connectivity. “If you are an enthusiast or you want to use your PC in a business environment, you will want Windows 8 Pro,” the company said.
Windows RT, previously known as Windows on ARM, will only be available pre-installed on PCs and tablets powered by ARM processors, and it will include touch-optimized desktop versions of the new Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Microsoft will reportedly complete work on Windows 8 this summer, and the first wave of PCs and tablets powered by the new platform will then launch in October.

Infosys going through tough times, says V Balakrishnan, CFO

Infosys going through tough times, says V Balakrishnan, CFO

Times of India |1 day agoIn an interview with ET NOW, V Balakrishnan - Member of the Board and Chief Financial Officer of Infosys, talks about why the company misses Q4 guidance and it's cautious outlook. Excerpts:

Why has Infosys given such a poor guidance?
You should understand, the economic volatility is too high and most of our revenue comes from US and Europe. In the March quarter, we have seen confluence of three or four things. One, the decisions got delayed for some of the large contracts which are to be assigned. We have seen ramp downs in some of the financial services clients. Wherever we anticipated that the project will start and the ramp ups will happen, those decisions got delayed and we have seen some changes at the CSO level in some of our customers that has impacted the decision making process.

When you have a confluence of all those four which impacted our revenue growth in March, financially we want to be cautious for next year. Today, the challenge is not about budgets because most of the clients have finalised the budgets and budgets are either flat of slightly down but the ability to focus on the spending has come down.

At a time when US economy has recovered, how come that is not translating into some kind of a visibility for Infosys and are you of the view that if US economy indeed improves in coming quarters, that could change spending, commitment and then outlook from some of your clients?
It is going to be volatile because if you look at all the recent macroeconomic data emerging from US, there are concerns about growth. The employment creation has not been up to the expectation and Europe crisis is still lingering around. In this kind of environment, customer ability to come and spend on IT with a volatile environment also comes down. If you look at all the S&P 500 companies, earlier one-fifth of the companies did not give guidance for the full year, now it has increased to one-third.

This means ability of companies to predict for next 12 months has come down drastically and that also impacts the spending patterns of the clients. If you are looking at an uncertain environment, their ability to come and spend also comes down. That is what we have seen but hopefully if the macroeconomic data improves and clients get more confidence, probably they will come and spend more and we will look good.

Are you factoring in the possibility of a growth deterioration in your guidance?
No, we have been saying this, our guidance is the statement of fact. For example last year in the beginning, we gave a guidance of 18% to 20% growth. We revised it to 17% to 19% in the second quarter because the currency moved. Then we brought it down to 16.3% based on the change in environment.

Finally we delivered 15.8%. So you are living in a very volatile world. Our guidance is a statement of fact. It can be positive and negative depending on how the world environment is going to move. We have given a guidance based on what we know at this point of time.

No salary hike was given this year. You had an additional tailwind from the currency equation because rupee depreciated by about 5.8% for FY12. So both the tailwinds have been played out. Why are you factoring in a margin decline of about 50 basis points to about 100 basis point for FY13?
We exceeded the year with a 70% utilisation excluding trainees. That is one of the lowest utilisation we have seen for many quarters in the past. You have a lower utilisation that is going to impact margins and also we are hiring 35,000 people more. Our comfort zone on utilisation is somewhere between 76 to 80. That means for a 6% growth, we already have people.

We are hiring 35,000 more to make sure that we train our employees and keep them ready if there is incremental growth and on our employees side, we have always taken care of them. Even in 2008 the worst crisis, we honoured all the offers in the campus. We were the only company which honoured all the offers we gave in the campus.

Even two years back, we distributed the shares at trust to all the employees free of cost. So we always take care of employee interest and this is an unusual year. We are starting with a very volatile environment. Our visibility on growth is very limited. To that extent, we have to balance the interest of stakeholders.

That is why we said we are not looking at a wage hike at this point of time. Over the year when we have better a better hold on the growth, probably we will re-look at the wage hike.

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Tech News - How to recover deleted files: Tutorial | Techgig

Accidentally deleting files - it's something we've all done, but erasing a file isn't the only thing that can go wrong when you're working in a hurry.
It's also very easy to edit a document, save it and then later change your mind about the editing you've done.
The good news is the Previous Versions feature of Windows 7 can help you eliminate these problems by saving snapshots of your hard drive automatically, so you have the option of reverting individual files to an earlier version if necessary - or even restoring files that have been accidentally deleted.
Protect your workUse Previous Versions to rescue files after accidental edits or deletion
1. Enable System Protection

Click the 'Start' orb and then the 'Control Panel' shortcut to the right. Now click the 'System' icon followed by the 'System Protection' link to the left of the window.
In the Protection Settings section towards the centre of the dialog that appears, click the entry for your C: drive and then the 'Configure' button.
2. Configure restoration options

Select the option labelled 'Restore system settings and previous versions of files'. Use the slider that appears in the bottom portion of the dialog box to choose how much disk space should be set aside for previous versions of files and system backups. Click the 'OK' button once you've finished.
3. Create restore point

Windows will automatically start to create restore points and save multiple versions of files for you. Get things started by clicking the 'Create' button on the System Properties tab. Enter a name for your first restore point before clicking 'Create' - note that the date and time will be added for you automatically.
4. Complete system restore

You may have to wait for a little while as the system restore point is created, depending on the amount of data stored on your hard drive. Once it's complete, click the 'Close' button that appears to complete the backup process. You can then close the System Properties window and the Control Panel.
5. Accessing previous versions

If you discover that you've made and saved unwanted changes to a document, right-click it and select the 'Restore previous versions' option. Alternatively, you can right-click a file and select the 'Properties' option from the context menu before moving to the Previous Versions tab.
6. Check file contents

A list of previous versions of the selected file will be displayed, and you can then choose which one you would like to work with - click the 'Open' button to check the contents of a particular document. Work through the list until you identify the version that you would like to restore.
7. Restore previous version

Once you've decided which file you're interested in, click the 'Restore' button. Take note of the warning message that appears explaining that continuing will overwrite any existing file, and then only click the 'Restore' button if you're happy to continue. Once the process is complete, click 'OK'.
8. Create a copy

To avoid overwriting an existing file with one you're restoring - which could cause a problem if you accidentally restore the wrong file - it's a good idea to create a copy of the older version. To do this, click the 'Copy' button, navigate to the folder you would like to use and then click 'Copy' again.
9. Restore deleted files

If you've deleted a file by accident, right-click the folder it was stored in and select the 'Restore previous version' option from the menu that appears. You can then double-click one of the previous versions of the folder and create a copy of the file you're trying to retrieve.
10. Work with your documents

Having breathed a sigh of relief, you can now continue to work with your files as if nothing untoward ever happened. Whether you made an unwanted change to your CV or accidentally deleted some photos, Windows Previous Versions can help to save you a great deal of work and frustration.


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Tech News - How to recover deleted files: Tutorial | Techgig